1954

I remember when I started to recognize girls as being pretty. One of the girls that I thought was so beautiful was Maile. She was the daughter of Kulu and the stepdaughter of one of ‘Inoke’s family’s friend, Sefo Kavakiholeva. I thought that Maile was one of the prettiest girls in our two villages.

When ‘Inoke’s divorce was final he started looking for a new girl. He had his eye on Maile but so did every eligible bachelor in the islands. Our family thought she was too young for my brother. ‘Inoke was drawn to her anyway. He then started courting Maile. Her mother Kulu thought ‘Inoke was all right but her stepfather did not approve of him. Because of this ‘Inoke could not afford to be seen with Maile in public much less try to go to their house for a one on one courtship. In a regular courtship the man would come to the girl’s house and sit inside with the girl in the light of a kerosene lantern. The parents supposedly would be sleeping. I’ll bet they didn’t sleep a wink and were all eyes and ears. This is called ‘a’a. ‘Inoke did not like going with a whole bunch of guys to have a faikava (kava party) at the girl’s house. This could last into the wee hours of the next morning.

Since ‘Inoke couldn’t go to Maile’s house for ‘a’a he used me as a runner. My job was to run as fast as I could with ‘Inoke’s food gift and a love letter from our house to Maile’s house, and drop it off with someone in the home other than her stepfather. ‘Inoke and I would watch him like a hawk and when he would leave the plan kicked into motion. Her stepfather wouldn’t know where the food came from and no one would tell him either.

Maile and ‘Inoke finally eloped in 1954 and went to live in a house belonging to ‘Inoke’s family in Pangai together with his cousins and their wives. Our family still loved Vaikele and her two kids so the transition was hard for us. We thought we didn’t like Maile. There was lots of friction for a while. However Maile took the sting out of my brother’s divorce and his heartache. Their children started coming and our family began to heal the wounds of contention. We became the loving family that we once were. ‘Inoke and Maile added seven more kids. Maile stuck with ‘Inoke and our family thought thick and thin.