A Poor Christmas Day

By Merelita Varo

TUILA lived in a small, dilapidated bure outside the village with her nine-year-old granddaughter Silivia.

They were poor and she earned their living by catching sea crabs and sell ing them at the market.

She woke up early that morning to boil their tea. There was no fire wood so she had to go and gather some. Silivia was still asleep, cuddled up in an old shabby blanket with a small mat over her to keep her warm.

After she had placed the kettle on the fire, she crouched beside it hold ing a long iron bar which she used to blow through the hole so that the fire could light properly. The girl came out yawning and stretching her self. They sat there enjoying the warmth the fire gave.

The old lady went inside the house to their bed. She lifted a part of the mat and took out a fifty-cent note, the only money she had. She sent Silivia to the shop in the village to buy a loaf of bread. When the girl came back, she told her grand mother the things she saw at the vil liage. She said that there were a lot of vakatuniloa which were decorated with colourful paper and a bunch of balloons hanging right in the middle.

Even the inside of the shop was the same.

The old lady did not say anything.

After they had finished breakfast of only bread and lemon leaves in the tea, she went to dig for worms. She placed her fishing line in a small basket plaited out of green coconut leaf and they started towards the sea.

Black clouds began to cover the

blue sky. The old lady crouched on the ground with her line in the water.

There was no movement in the line.

She cut a twig from a tree and pushed it into the soil so that she could place her line on to it. She stood up for a stretch for her back was aching.

Suddenly the line gave a violent twitch. She pulled and the other pulled from the other end. Tuila was happy for there was a big fish. As it came to the shallow water, the fish leapt up in the air, its silvery body glistening and then back into the water. It was gone.

The old lady began to curse her self for not being careful. She had missed her luck. She took a small piece of bait, fastened it onto the hook and spat on it before whirling the line into the water hoping to catch that fish again. The line did not move. She took out her tobacco tin but it was empty.

The rain began to pour. Old Tuila pulled the line and they set back for home without a catch in their basket.

There was no food in the house ex cept some breadfruit that stood in the comer of the bure. She cooked it and took out the change which was tied at the end of her sulu. Tak ing that money she went to the shop.

When she came back her grand daughter was asleep. She got a small patched green cloth and placed it on the mat. She took a knife and opened the tin of fish which she had bought.

She woke Silivia up. Beside Silivia’s plate, there were some lollies for her.

“Let us say the Grace”, she said. It was Christmas Day.