PoraBora

Chapter Twenty-Three

The boy was bleeding, where Pe got him in the chin. It was a small cut compared to his arm, where the shark's teeth had had their way.

Three days. Three days he'd been dragged by the shark, underwater, his arm caught in its teeth. Bleeding, dying for three days.

Bora, he'd said. Not the ocean. Not the water, or salt, or waves. But the shark.

"It was yours," hissed Pe.

It was drizzling. It wouldn't last. In a half-hour they'd be passed the clouds.

All of them were breathing heavily, Iumili between them. She'd taken the peg leg too, in the side.

Pe didn't even feel bad about it. "The salting shark--"

"Mao kakapo pule'a Bora," he said.

Just hearing his voice made Pe nearly lunge across the hull again. It had been right there. Almost close enough to shoot. And now it was gone.

"Now how am I ever going to catch it?" Pe snapped. "I had it! I had it on the line, and I would have had it on the ship if you...if you hadn't...."

She stood. The boy scrambled back to his feet too.

"Stop! Pule'a!" Iumili was up. "No more fighting. Just for a minute, please!"

"I'm not waiting a minute," Pe growled.

"Mao hu'uli pule'a Bora," responded Pora.

"He's saying...he said--"

"I don't care what he said. The shark was his...his pet! The shark that killed my parents..."

"One sentence at a time," pleaded Iumili. She said something to the boy.

The boy said something back.

"I don't care," Pe said again.

"Well I do!" growled Iumili. "He said Bora is his friend."

"Mao mimiliki pule'a bo'o Bora."

"He doesn't want you to fish it."

"I can't anymore!" The salting shark would be wary now. Tentative with every bite, and probably tentative of the sound of motors, too. She'd have to trap it in shallow waters. Shallow enough the firelock could get it through the surface. "Your friend killed my parents, and now I can't...."

Iumili didn't even wait for Pe to finish before she started talking to Pora again. Pe closed her fists. She didn't understand a word of it. Sometimes the boy looked like he didn't either.

"Kakapu'u ku mako pela so ko'o lanahuni," said Iumili, stumbling a little.

The boy gave her a look.

"Bo su mako," Iumili added.

"Umunea'a pule'a Bora ahamu."

"He says Bora never hurt anybody."

"He killed them," seethed Pe. "He killed them, and he ate my leg for good measure! Go ahead; call your friend back and you'll find the bones in his stomach once I pull it out of him. If I haven't shoved you in there first!"

"I'm not going to say that," said Iumili.

"It killed my parents!"

The boy took a step back, but his shoulders were still squared to hers.

"Kakapu pule'a--"

"Did you know?" Pe demanded. "Did you know what he did? And I know it was him! I saw his fin! I saw him do it!"