American Samoa is a beautiful place to live, but Western Samoa is way better. I now live in my sister’s house at Utulei with my three year old daughter, Lucianna, a combination of my older sister, Anna, and mother’s name.
“Stella, go to Pam’s house and get some money for your daughters,” said Valerie. I now raise my sister, Pam’s, daughter, Fanny, a girl of one. I went to Fagatogo and knocked on my sister’s rental house main door. It was my first time here, but Pam had showed me where she lived. The house was very big and elegant looking. A guy answered he door. He was a brownness and good looking guy. He looked my age.
“Are you looking for someone,” said the man. He had a weird accent, perhaps he is not from Samoa. He looked at my daughters and back at me.
“Yes. Is Pamela here,” I asked him.
“Yes. Come in. I’ll show you to her room,” he replied. I got in and saw a lot of naked young girls. Girls my age, they were. My sister’s room was a queen sized room. I got in and my sister was the only one there. Most of the rooms housed four to eight girls.
“You meet Joe,” asked my sister.
“That’s Joe?”
“Yes, he’s the landlord’s stepson.”
“And why are there many naked girls out there,” I said.
“Oh, the landlord doesn’t know what’s going on. His son is friends with all those girls. So they live here for free and the son pays for their rent.”
Our conversation lasted an hour and then Pam gave me money. I went to the store and bought food for my children and my sisters and brother’s children.
Two weeks after that, I was astounded by the sight of men; three men, to be exact. The three men have come to ask for my hand in marriage. The first man to do so was Abraham Von Dinklage. He was the owner of the only store in Utulei and is a Naval officer. He was handsome like a movie star from the Western films my grandmother took me to watch. He was a very rich man. My brother and sisters all said no. I was angry. The next two men were David Grant and Gillian Brewster, a police officer and a CEO of a bank, respectively. My siblings said no to both men. I was angry, of course. But what was strange was how they came to know me. Then, a month after that, someone came. It was Joe. He was with some teenage and adult boys. They were holding boxes of goods. The food would fill up our fridge and our cabinets; and, there would still be boxes filled with goods. I thought it was from Pam.
On the second week of Joe’s “delivery”, I went to Fagatogo with Lucianna to buy clothes for her and her sister, Fanny. Pam stopped me. She was angry and frustrated by the way Joseph has been talking about me. I then knew Joe was doing this for me, and I was thinking it was all from my sister Pam. We fought on the street. She sparred at me and we were going at it like Ali and Frazier. The police broke up our fight and I went home with my daughter. Two months after that incident and what seemed like forever with Joe’s food and goods delivery, he came one afternoon, right at the struck of twelve. He proposed for my hand in marriage and confessed he bought all those goods for me. My brother and sisters all agreed.
“Are you kidding me,” I shouted at my siblings for such a decision. “He is so ugly and so dark! I’ll never marry him! I want to marry Abraham! Why?! Why,” I went on and on.
