OH LAWD chapter 4

Helping clean the Pool

 

Marly and I didn't have chores today, so we went down to the swimming pool to see what it was like.

When we got there the pool was dry, and there were a lot of people standing, ready to go to work or so it seemed.

As the people started to clean the pool the head man said to us, “Do you live around here?” We answered, “Yes.” He said, “Are you planning to use the pool?” We said, “Yes!”

He then told us to start scrubbing the sides as he handed us big brushes. We began to do as he said.  He then said, “If you stay with it until the job was finished I will promise you a free swim pass during the summer.”

That sounded good so we worked that much harder. After two hours the job was finished and after hosing it down they started to fill it. It felt good to help get the pool ready for summer, and by the weekend it would be jam-packed with people trying to cool off.

One thing that was good about living on the Gulf was most days there was a breeze.  While the air wasn't always cool; as it blew over sweaty bodies it sure felt good.

Since moving, Pa bought me a dollar watch, and I kept looking at it so we could be at the restaurant when Noonan cleaned up after breakfast. We wanted to hear another episode about his time on the South Seas Island.

We timed it about right for Noonan was just taking the pots outside. We told him, “Okay start telling us about your first night with your wife.”

He saw that we were going to keep asking so he said, “Well it was like this. I didn't know what I was supposed to do, so I stayed next to the door opening. Le-Lu slept on a kind of a pallet. Every so often one of the women at the door would poke me and push me toward Le-Lu, but I would crawl back to the door.

Since I was up early in the morning and made a run for it when the women were dozing off.

I wanted a swim in the lagoon, for I had been sweating a lot during the night.

 

It wasn't long before the guard gals found me, and shortly Le-Lu showed up and came into the water with me.

The only difference was I had my loin cloth on and she was a skinny dipping.  Now some might think I was too stand offish but I was unsure what I was allowed to do.

The men were well muscled and all of them had a club or spear they carried. The last thing I wanted to do was to make one of them mad.

When you are out of familiar surroundings I have found it pays to be a little cautious.

I soon realized that I was an embarrassment to Le-Lu because I wasn't acting like a husband so I made an effort to change that.  I knew I had to do something to gain acceptance among the men for they didn't care for me.

After all I was a new comer there and the prettiest girl on the island had picked me for a husband, and that made the native single men real jealous.

 

Shark courtesy
photobucket.com

A large shark began to come into the lagoon making it dangerous to fish and swim. A couple of men had been injured trying to capture it. One day it was spotted in the lagoon and me and another of the men who didn't hate me got the dinghy I had arrived in and went out after this big shark.

We had spears and a rope with us. We finally spotted it and took a chicken and cut off its head and let it bleed next to the boat.

This attracted the shark and it came close to the dinghy, for it wasn't afraid of anything.

 

I speared the shark and in the midst of a lot of wailing and thrashing the man with me also speared him. When the shark settled down we slipped a rope around him and towed him to shore.

It took ten men to pull it upon the shore, but we feasted on it for several days.  After that I was accepted as one of them.

Oh Lawd!            

 

To be Continued