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From: tcarvett@earthlink.net
Subject: {TMC}The Hour of Compassion (MF rough)
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Author's Note: This is a sequel to The Hour of Beginnings,
though it should stand by itself.
Special thanks to Kris, Shelley, Belinda, Jaime, Coyote Azure,
and others for critiquing this piece.
The Hour of Compassion
When he was a child, Kana's mother told him that the stones
on the beach of Kelonai multiplied by touching each other.
On dark, moonless nights, when nobody could see, two stones
would touch and click and a little pebble would be born.
After his mother died, Kana went to Kelonai beach on moonless
nights. With only his memory to guide him in the darkness,
he groped and stumbled until he found two stones. He clicked
them together -- just once -- and then he put the stones down
carefully and found his way back to his hut.
Years later, Kana thought about Kelonai beach as he sailed in
his small outrigger to Moloko island, the island of his birth.
He lay wrapped in a tapa cloth blanket under the watchful
eyes of the constellations. The scent of the sea flavored the
smell of the fresh coconut and pineapple he brought with him.
He pulled out a gourd filled with fermented awa root juice
and poured half into the water as a gift to the fish, then he
savored the rest in peaceful sips.
Kana sang a song to the waves:
My mistress tosses, her body boils
To calm her waves I spread the oils
I taste her salt as I kiss her lips
She swells and sighs, and her passion tips
And tumbles me playfully
We play at night and travel by day
My belly laughs for her hips do sway
We travel light and our lives are free
My mistress is dear, as you can see
We are content, the sea and me
The image of the decrescent moon shimmered on the surface of
the water, and the wind was silent. Kana tossed the empty
gourd over the side. It floated away into the darkness.
The drink made him sleepy, and he dreamed of a girl he
once knew on Moloko island. Her name was Anea, and she had
delicate hands.
* * *
Anea's father died when she was a child, and with her delicate
hands she wove a lei of fragrant maile leaves and placed it
around his neck before they buried him under the stones of
Kelonai beach.
Once, when she was visiting her father's grave, she overheard
Kana's mother telling him the story of the stones and how
they multiplied by touching. She was the only person who
understood why Kana went to Kelonai beach on those moonless
nights after his mother died, and sometimes she followed him
into the darkness.
Once, as he left his hut in the middle of the night, Anea
walked up to him quietly and touched him on the shoulder.
He shouted with horror and surprise. He said he had been
sleepwalking and she'd woken him. She said she was sorry,
and she never tried it again. But without his knowing, she
kept on watching him on those dark nights. and she still
followed him sometimes, but always without his knowing.
* * *
A seasoned sailor like Kana stored up human companionship
as diligently as he stored up food and drink, knowing that
the loneliness of a long voyage could weaken and kill him as
surely as thirst and hunger. Whenever he stopped at an island,
he looked for and usually found a girl willing to spend the
night with him, for his eyes were young as the springtime; his
manner was bold, but he also liked to listen. He saved every
salacious morsel of gossip for the long nights and days at sea.
The voyage to Moloko island took a week and to pass the time,
he watched the clouds. One tiny puff reminded him of Peia.
Peia had small breasts, almost all nipples. She laughed
sadly as she told him about the cautious boy with big ears who
sniffed her nipples carefully before touching them with only
the very tip of his tongue. It was her fifteenth birthday;
she wanted to get rid of her virginity, and he just happened to
be around at the time. He obliged, sucked her clit to orgasm
before sundering her maidenhood, and he left discreetly the
next morning. He tried hard not to smile or look happy as
he passed the big-eared boy on the way to his boat. The boy
sniffed the air and frowned as he walked past.
A plump cloud reminded him of Maoli. She and six other young
women had a competition to see who could seduce him. At first,
the women flirted and whispered coyly of their charms, but
as time passed they grew bolder and talked more openly about
their exploits and desires. Maoli was last among them in
prettiness and charm, but she was the first to realize that
he would gladly sleep with any of them. She won simply by
taking him by the hand and leading him off to her bed without
even asking him. Maoli and Kana both made certain that their
multiple simultaneous orgasms could be heard from far away.
Afterwards, Maoli looked smug as she and Kana walked hand in
hand out of her hut past the other six women. Kana glanced
back. They all had pleading looks.
A dark cloud reminded him of Nihu. When she heard she was a
sailor, she asked him to go with her to her hut and show her
how to tie knots. Sit down on this chair and do not move, he
commanded her. For the next hour, without touching her even
once, he demonstrated on a table leg all the knots he knew how
to tie. He showed her bowline knots, double bowline knots,
trumpet knots, cowslips, ... until finally her discipline broke
and she leapt out of the chair and threw him into her bed.
He laughed as she forced him to tie her down properly before
making love to her.
Finally, he remembered Lelani, who told him she loved him.
And for the first time in his life, he told someone else
about Anea. He told her that Anea touched him gently on the
back once, many years ago, and without understanding why,
that touch wounded him so deeply he thought he could never
love anyone but Anea.
He paused for a moment, surprised that he told Lelani this.
He never told anyone, not even Anea.
He also told Lelani that Anea was married to a man named Liloa,
who treated her badly.
"A few months after she married Liloa," he said, "Anea gave
birth to a golden-skinned infant. Her husband knew he was
not the father."
"Who fathered Anea's golden-skinned infant?" he continued,
"That was a mystery to everyone. Anea claimed it was the sun
himself, who came to her as a man. Nobody else on the island
had skin the color of sunlight, and because of that, most of
the villagers believed her, or at least they pretended to."
"Her husband never forgave her for bearing another man's child.
The color of the boy's skin proclaimed to everyone that he
was a cuckold, and he hated the child as well."
Lelani was wise as she was beautiful. She told him to go back
to Moloko island, to Kelonai beach, and see Anea once again.
"But promise me," she said, "that if you find out that you do
not love Anea, you will marry me."
"I promise," Kana said.
The next day, he set sail for Moloko island with several sacks
of pineapples and coconuts. He arrived a week later.
* * *
Anea's husband, Liloa, was a shrewd merchant and he knew
that Kana did not travel to Moloko island just to trade
his pineapples and coconuts in exchange for Anea's cloth.
The hot noontime sun burned and the other villagers stayed
inside their huts until the day cooled, but Kana and Liloa
stood outside and tested their wills against each other.
After three hours of merciless bargaining, Kana got only one
shirt for the four sacks of fruit he brought.
"Where are you staying?" Liloa asked. Liloa was suspicious
and wanted to keep an eye on Kana.
"I don't know," Kana replied, knowing that Liloa was forced
to offer him hospitality.
"You are welcome to stay with us," Liloa said.
Kana accepted.
Liloa kicked an anthracite pebble with his sandal and walked
to his hut.
* * *
That night, as he lay awake, Kana heard the soft rhythmic
rustling of the mat that Liloa slept on.
Liloa started groaning. Kana held his breath, hoping Liloa
wouldn't last.
Please, Kana prayed silently.
Minutes passed.
He heard Anea moan.
Kana was in turmoil. He imagined her eyes cold with hate as
her body writhed unwillingly. He desired her with a fierceness
that made his face and neck burn hot.
She moaned again. Her voice was hoarse and breathy with desire,
and it drove Kana to a frenzy. He wanted to grab Liloa by the
head and pull him off and save her before her body betrayed her.
Betrayed him.
She cried out in surrender and release.
Kana clenched his hair in his fists, twisting and tearing
silently. Tears burned in his eyes.
"Turn over," Liloa said.
"Oh," she whimpered.
"It hurts."
"Oh!"
Kana could hear Anea crying.
* * *
Later that same night, Anea went to Kelonai beach and cursed
her husband's name to the stones. She cursed his pride and
greed and cruelty. She cursed his jealousy and his hatred of
the child he did not father.
The stones were silent.
* * *
A few days later, the villagers began whispering rumors
about Liloa. Nobody knew who started them. It seemed that
several men overheard them while walking past the stones on
Kelonai beach.
* * *
Liloa flew into a rage when he heard from the beekeeper that
there were rumors about why he didn't have children of his own.
People were saying that he was impotent, or that he didn't
know how to make love.
He punched Anea until one side of her face was blue and her
eye was red.
He asked Anea where the golden-skinned baby was and he
threatened to kill her, but she wouldn't tell him.
At the time, her son was playing with Kana, who loved him as
only an orphan could love a child. When Kana heard Anea's
screams coming from the hut, he hid the child away in a cave.
Liloa suspected that Kana was hiding the baby, and that Kana
started the rumor because he loved Anea and was jealous.
Liloa spat at the rocks by his feet and swore revenge.
It was a moonless night.
* * *
Kana heard a woman's voice as he stumbled along the beach.
The voice said: "On a dark, moonless night, when nobody can see,
two stones touch and click and a little pebble is born."
He reached out in the darkness and touched Anea's face.
Her cheek was wet with tears.
Very, very gently, he kissed her eyes.
She placed a warm bundle in his arms. He heard the soft rustle
of her clothing falling to the sand.
Kana understood. He placed the baby gently on top of her
clothing, and then took off his own clothing and wrapped it
around the baby.
He flinched as he felt the softness of Anea's breasts touch
his back, but she wrapped his arms around him and didn't let
go of him until he turned around and like a demon he squeezed
her against him.
She pulled him down onto the sand and pushed him on his back
as she straddled him. He clung to her like a drowning man,
and she gave and gave and gave everything she had to him.
Her fingernails dug into his shoulders when she came, and Kana
howled into the night.
* * *
Afterwards, he held her against his chest.
"I will raise the baby," he whispered to her.
That night, he set sail. Looking up at the constellations
that guided him, he imagined Lelani's face.
* * *
Liloa believed that Kana kidnapped the golden-skinned infant
out of spite and jealousy, but when Anea lied and told Liloa
that she was pregnant with his child, he no longer cared.
"He is not my son," he muttered to nobody in particular,
kicking the sand beneath his feet, "Let Kana keep him --
good riddance! My wife will give me a child of my own, and
that child will inherit my fortune."
At night, sometimes Anea and her baby went to Kelonai beach.
She sat quietly on the shore with the baby still asleep in
her arms. She imagined that Kana was out there on another
island, talking to the baby in his arms and skipping stones
across the surface of the water, watching as the ripples
widened and spread.
She closed her eyes and in the darkness she listened to the
sound of the wind and waves. She thought she heard Kana's
voice singing in the wind:
Our baby tosses, his body burns
When he weeps my stomach churns
I taste his tears but my own eyes cry
I stay awake until he lies
Peacefully, restfully...
We play at night and work by day
My belly laughs for his walk does sway
Our home is warm and our lives are rich
My family has cured my traveling itch
And we're quite happy, Lelani, the baby, and me
One day, when her son was old enough, Anea would tell him the
story of the stones.
Copyright (C) 1998 by Thomas M. Carvett
sundial2.txt@4.12
tcarvett@earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~tcarvett
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