Alepati, where the King's celebration was held.
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"DANCES WITH FIRE!"
Chapter 6
Hassie Gaugau
The next Monday, at school, the children could hardly wait for prayers to be finished before they began to fire questions at Tavita.
"Mr. Vaoifi, you were great!" "Mr. Vaoifi, can you teach us to do that dance?" "Mr. Vaoifi, why don't you give shows at the Tivoli Theater?"
The last question caught him off guard. "Son, would you repeat that?"
"Why don't you give shows at the Tivoli theater?" the boy obliged. "There were lots of people who didn't get to see your act and my father says that everyone is dying to see it."
"Thank you, Iaopo. Thank you very much."
Thoughts raced through Tavita's head as he stared at the room.
"Class," he walked to the back. "We're going to have a picnic on Friday."
"Malo! (great)" the students yelled, then looked at each other as if to see if anyone knew why the subject had changed so suddenly.
"I want each of you to bring twenty sene (cents) to school tomorrow, so I can buy supplies."
Plans came into his mind faster than he could catalog them. But he sorted as he strategized. He would use ten cents of each child's money to get tickets printed.
"Nu'u" he approached one of his fellow teachers on their noon break, "I need to borrow your bike."
"Sure, what for?"
"I'll explain later," he rode off leaving the teacher guessing."
He contacted a printer and ordered one hundred tickets. If the kids come through with the money, there would be three dollars, but the tickets cost five.
The next morning his students didn't fail him. At noon, he again borrowed the bike, leaving the other teacher still confused, but aware that something important must be about to happen. Tavita paid the printer the three tala (dollars) and promised the rest soon and at the same time, ordered another two hundred tickets.
The Tivoli, the same theater where he had been so scared all those years before, the same theater where he had become addicted to movies, now would be the same theater where his new venture would succeed or fail. The manager had heard of Tavita's fantastic act and was more than eager to have this same exciting show in his establishment. He agreed to any adjustments that were needed.
Tickets were distributed to friends who worked int the stores around town. He taught Samita and Tennie, who had returned from school, to do simple dances to warm up the crowd. He coaxed a band, including Sa'olotoga, to rehearse with him and to furnish the music. They rehearsed every day after school. The tickets sold out almost instantly, including an additional hundred.
"Wow, Mr. Vaoifi, this is a great picnic." the students choursed that Friday.
He had spent much more than their twenty cents each, on the celebration for "his kids." After all, they had given him the idea.
Saturday night came, the show was a resounding success and after everyone was paid, he found that he had cleared over six hundred dollars. Monday morning, he resigned. Now he would have time to reclaim old lands and clear and claim new ones.
"Tama," Tuesday morning Tavita helped his father to make new thatches for the chapel that was build on part of their land that they had given to the church years before. "Do you remember telling me about the great fortress that sits atop the mountain?"
"Ioe."
"Do you think that you could take me there?"
"I guess so," Vaoifi looked up from his work. "But why would you want to go all the way up there? It's a long hard climb."
"One of my friends, in America, told me that I should try to own that land." Tavita stopped his stitches on the pandanas. "He collected rent, every month, from land that had, at one time been a fort. Even the government had offices there and they had to pay him too. I want to do the same with our ancient autuolo."
"Well, I can take you there, but I still don't understand why you want to work land so far away."
"I made enough money from this one show to supply our needs for at least a month," Tavita drew fou through the fronds, securing another section of thatch. "After you guide me to the fortress, I'll go up every day to work and put on one show a month to earn money. The manager, at the Tivoli, wanted me to do more, but I think one a month will be enough. One day, when other villagers start to follow our lead, we'll build a road, then we can even live up there."
Vaoifi just shook his head but didn't say anything.
That night, Tavita hardly slept at all as he tried to imagine the vastness of what would be his. After all, in Samoa, if you clear the land, it's yours. "I'll clear the whole damn mountain top!" he wanted to yell, but not wanting to wake the village he just jumped up off his sleeping mat and danced a wild siva.
"Son! Son!" Vaoifi shook him lightly. "I thought you wanted to get an early start."
"Yes, yes, Tama." Tavita stretched and reached for his cigarettes. "I just got to sleep a little while ago, but yes, let's go."
They each carried a machete and Vaoifi brought his rifle. "If we see any flying fox or wild pigeons we can kill them for our supper."
The trail ended before they had climbed even a mile. Then they had to clear a path, sometimes through bush so thick that the sun only penetrated in occasional slivers. They then would break out into open fern covered plateaus where the sun seemed close enough to touch.
"I didn't remember it being so far," Tavita stopped to light a smoke. "How much further is it?"
"It's at least two and a half miles to the first of the mounds." Vaoife rested quietly. He wasn't well, but still had a sinewy strength that allowed him to lead Tavita ever upward.
They continued, both lost in their own thoughts.
After what seemed much further than five miles, let alone two, Vaoifi held up his hand.
"There, see those hills?"
"Yes," Tavita walked out ahead.
"Stop!" Vaoifi shouted.
"What?"
Vaoifi moved around him slowly, then halted. "See?" he pointed just past his last step.
There, where his foot would have fallen next, almost completely hidden by tangled vines, was a hole nearly ten feet across. Even though the growth obscured the cavity, from the edge, Tavita could see that it was every bit as deep as it was wide.
"What are these?" he stared down into the depths, then up to the top of the hills that lay right behind the holes.
"This was the way our ancestors built their fortress." Vaoifi walked between two of the holes on a shoulder width walkway that led directly into another pit. "You see, there's room for only one man at a time to pass between these as they try to reach the mounds of earth that came from the holes."
He traced his way carefully around the next opening and started up the steep earthen manmade hill.
"From on top here" he called down to Tavita. "They could throw stones or spears at the enemy as they tried to approach, one at a time. When the weapon hit its mark, the attacker then pummeted into the pit where he was impaled onto poison spikes."
"God! What a plan!" Tavita followed Vaoifi. "What a place! How do you know all of this?"
"Your grandfather, Lauofo, brought me here when I was young," Vaoifi smiled as he thought of his powerful father. "He knew all Samoan history. He was a great orator, you remember that?"
"Yeah," Tavita recalled the great shock of gray hair that always stood straight up on his grandfathers' proud head. "Sure, I can still see the old man with his chief's whisk as he talked on for hours, while no one dared move or interrupt."
"The fortress," Vaoifi moved down the other side of the dune, "goes all the way from one side of this plateau to the other and extends back to the cliffs that plummet two thousand feet, down into the Solosolo Valley. If you want to claim all this, you've got your work cut out for you, son."
"I can do it," Tavita turned in a slow circle. "I can do it! I'm going to have all of this and pass it down to my children. Thank you Tama, for bringing me here."
Tears stung his eyes and his throat tightened. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to have the opportunity to own such a piece of history.
He knelt and scooped up a handful of the rich black earth. "Just look at this," he held it out to his father. "This will grow anything. We'll have the biggest and best plantation in all of Samoa."
"But it's so far away, so hard to reach," Vaoifi objected.
"We'll build the road some day, just wait and see."
Vaoifi doubted and Tavita dreamed as they started back toward the village.
"There!" Tavita whispered loudly and pointed, as a wild pigeon, startled by the intruders, took flight.
Vaoifi raised the gun, fired, and the bird spiraled to the earth.
"That makes a good start on our supper," Tavita retrieved the kill.
Before they reached the marked trail, Vaoifi's unfailing marksmanship had bagged three more.
After their evening meal, Tavita made plans for the next week. He needed another machete, a file for sharpening, and axes. He had talked to an old man in Apia who had cleared lots of land on Savai'i. The secret to working the land by yourself was to fell as much timber as possible with each blow of the ax.
A trip to town for supplies, then the next day he started his ritual. Every morning, before the sun rose, he was on the trail up the mountain. The bush inside the fortress resounded with the constant blows from his blades. Then followed wrenching cracks as the colossal trees grudgingly surrendered to Tavita's persistence and began to fall to earth. After careful calculation, each giant took with it vine covered smaller and dead growth, thundering down in an avalanche of leaves, birds, inssects, and dust to lay in deafening silence. Using the old man's method, the clearing moved even faster than Tavita could have hoped.
Tired, covered in dirt and sweat, he came down the mountain past the other villagers low land plantations. Some workers even pointed and laughed at this "crazy man" who had returned from America with an education, only to go far back into the bush and clear land that would never be used.
Tavita just returned their laughter and didn't take offense. He knew what he was doing. They would laugh out of the other side of their face when he hired them all to work his land.
He went straight away, to the falls and washed the grime and fatigue from his body that grew stronger everyday.
"Tavita!" Vaoifi called to him as he walked toward his fale. "This was at the post office for you when I went into town today."
"Thank you, Tama." He took the letter.
It was from Shirley.
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The Fortress where he cleared over 1,000 acres. |