Wisdom

To-Ken had intimations of mysteries. He had seen trees change sides of the road then change back to their original position next time he passed. Round the village fire at night he had seen the old people come back to stand silently on the edge of the surrounding darkness. And when To-Norman died in Port Moresby, at the hands of a gang of raskols, he knew in his intestines that this had happened and informed the rest of the village. A white man came from the town centre with the news received by email and found the village already in mourning.

When To-Ken went to Port Moresby himself for several days, to buy European medicines for his little village pharmacy, he told his wife that he would know if she had any kind of intercourse with other men while he was away. She had no choice but to remain faithful, which she would have done anyway. Her name was Ia-Dorit and she loved To-Ken. They were friends. Both had difficulty making the usual friendships in the village with members of their own sex, and were close for this reason. To-Ken found other men unimaginative. Their attitude to white people was one of pointless blaming while he had always found the white people endlessly fascinating. Other women found Ia-Dorit awkward to talk to, because of To-Ken. She never complained about him, ever, for example.

Meanwhile, everyone in the village, male and female, had reason to be grateful to To-Ken. He wrote letters for them on the rare occasions when they need such a thing. He dispensed cures on the rare occasions when they were unwell. He spoke to the terminally ill without fear. He had good advice for parents in dispute with their adolescent sons and daughters. In his youth he had trained as a nurse and had later gone part way towards becoming a doctor, until homesickness had forced him to return to the simple life. Later he worked for a Toyota spare parts company and now ran a general supplies store in one of the new settlements and a pharmacy in his own place of origin.

He loved the discovery of scuba diving that white people had invented, and had his own tank which he refilled at a dive shop for tourists. Other men continued to fish from their canoes, but To-Ken scuba-dived on his own. They told him at the dive shop that this was unwise, that he should always go with a ‘buddy’, but he ignored the warnings. Other men bought too much junk food from the stores and grew fat, but To-Ken remained lean and fit.  He sometimes scuba-dived underneath the reef in pursuit of fish, or swam into dark underwater caves all alone. He did not consider himself brave. He understood the technology, and that made him safe.

The big test of his standing with Ia-Dorit, and the village, came when he decided to pursue greater knowledge of the ancient magic arts. He established a pupil-teacher relationship with the much-feared, ancient To-Nebuka in much-feared Matupit village, and was soon tempted to engage in dark deeds. He paid To-Nebuka a large sum of money to cast a spell over a beautiful young woman from New Ireland who worked as a hair dresser in town. This caused her to fall in love with To-Ken and to follow him about whenever he went to town. Others were scandalized, but To-Ken persuaded himself that this was a useful experiment and part of his training. At other times he told himself that, as a man, loyalty to his sexual desires surpassed all other loyalties. Ia-Dorit was betrayed but still she did not complain. Other people felt confirmed in their suspicions that To-Ken was too clever for his own good. No-one was on his side in this, not even his teacher To-Nebuka.

Inevitably the girl became pregnant and returned to New Ireland from whence she had come. Inevitably To-Ken asked his wife if they could be friends again, but it was too late. She removed herself to live with her brother and his family. Inevitable To-Nebuka stopped training him, feeling betrayed himself, despite his complicity.

Now To-Ken is old and ponders these matters dispassionately. He has intimations of mysteries, but avoids thinking about them. He reads white-people’s books incessantly but finds no satisfaction there. He talks to himself but gives no answers to himself. Even so, he has regained his status in the village and is considered a wise man.