Why do you show me
this memory?
The great gull perches on a knob of rock a dozen strides
upwind from where I sit on the lip of the cliff.
You were once like the
nestling you hid in the tree. You remember this.
As astonishing as this conversation is, I struggle to make
sense of the guardian's responses to the questions my Inner Voice has asked.
You mean the man?
There is no echo of an answer in my skull. I assume that the
silence means "yes".
The turtles have been busy in the pool by the beach – they have
given me three handfuls-worth of their fruits. I reach into my net and pluck
one out, then nip at the leathery end to make a hole for the sucking.
Luntas. I haven't thought of that man in a good while. My
memories of him are not clear: snatches of speech; an occasional image of him
knotting nets or spearing fish. He would help to shape a vessel, but I don't
remember him ever competing for a place in the team. His favourite places were
in the hills, away from his gang mates.
He had a better understanding than I of women.
The nestling names
himself 'Maak em ay are see'. I have never met a man with such a long name.
I take a moment to chew on a small morsel of yolked, shelled
meat.
He is new to Fol Huun.
All I hear in my skull is the gentle shush
of waves over pebbles.
His brother threw me
out of the long house. He had a short name, like mine: Sam. He talked of 'day'
and 'night'. My name is Kal, but you gave me a longer name when I was in the
healing pool.
'Ak! Ak! Ak-ak!'
Another guardian is approaching us, its wings arch and taut
as it glides across the bay. Only at the last moment do they break their shape,
as it pushes its legs forward to step onto the rock. The first steps aside to
give the newcomer room on its perch.
I forget my trail of thoughts as I watch the two batter
their beaks together. Their dance is a mixture of foot stamp and hiss, one
bobbing its head at the other in a regular rhythm while the other copies the
movements a half-breath later. I do not realise that I've taken another turtle
fruit in my hand until it touches my lip.
Luntas taught me how to find turtle fruits, and the
importance of leaving half of the globes in each scrape. He had told me that
the turtle fruits were the same as our healing pools: to eat them all would
deprive the creatures of their resurrection.
It was Luntas who told me about gang tattoos ...
Did he teach me everything?
Both gulls are staring at me: Your nestling is hungry.
I take the hint and leave them to their dance.
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