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Materena, she tells herself.

Who Is Going to Walk Materena down the Aisle?
    B ut she can’t.
    Materena knows that there will be a crowd at her wedding, because she’s got hundreds of cousins—and her cousins, they like
     to go to baptisms, Communions, confirmations, weddings, birthdays, even if they’re not invited.
    And when an uninvited guest comes to your party, you can’t say, “And what are you doing here? I didn’t invite you. Go back
     to your house.” That is not the proper thing to do. One day, you might need that particular cousin. Uninvited cousins always
     come with food and drinks, though, and that is a good thing, so it is fine with Materena if they come to her wedding.
    But the guests, they will get an invitation—like pregnant Cousin Giselle, Cousin Mori, Cousin Tepua, Auntie Stella—and Rita
     will be matron of honor, because she’s Materena’s favorite cousin.
    Then Mama Teta will drive Materena to the church and around Papeete, Cousin Moeata will make the wedding cake, which will
     be chocolate, of course, and Cousin Georgette, professional DJ, will ensure that there will be dancing songs for everyone
     from the young to the old.
    Materena thinks how it’s a shame a mother can’t walk her daughter down the aisle. For the hundredth time in her life, she
     wonders what would have happened if her father hadn’t gone back to his country.
    His name was Tom Delors. He came to Tahiti to do military service. He was eighteen years old when he met Loana, who was also
     eighteen. Tom and Loana met at the Zizou Bar, in Papeete, the bar where the French military men and the local women make contact.
    Loana was chatting away with her girlfriend at the bar when Tom invited her for a dance. She accepted the invitation because
     she was in the mood for a dance and Tom had a good-looking face. She certainly wasn’t going to spend the whole night chatting
     away with her girlfriend!
    Loana and Tom danced all night long, with brief moments of rest in between when they would have a little chat and a whisky
     Coca. At the end of the night, they arranged a rendezvous for the following Saturday because they really liked each other.
     Loana thought Tom was a great dancer as well as being funny. Tom was captivated by Loana’s exotic beauty—the long black hair
     and the short thin-strapped local pareu dress.
    Within three months of their first meeting, Loana and Tom were living together in a bungalow at Arue with three other couples—military
     men and Tahitian women.
    Loana’s elder sister was ashamed that Loana was messing around with a
popa’a
—worse, a
militaire.
In those days, local women who messed around with
militaire popa’a
had a bad reputation. They were called easy women, sluts—desperate for a ticket to France. But Loana wasn’t desperate for
     a ticket to France—she just loved her Tom.
    When Tom was away on a mission at an outer island, Loana would go out dancing with her woman friends for something to do,
     but it was rare. Tom didn’t appreciate it. He was the jealous type, Materena’s father.
    “Tom, eh,” Loana would say to him, “it’s you I love.”
    Eh yes, she loved him real bad. And he was good to her.
    They were together for six months before they separated.
    It was quite silly, their separation.
    That day, they were having guests to dinner and Loana had made a special effort to cook chicken—chicken split peas.
    When the chicken was served, Tom said, “You don’t cook chicken like this.” A few of the guests went on about how Loana’s chicken
     split peas were delicious. But Tom insisted that the chicken was really awful. Humiliated by Tom’s rudeness, Loana threw a
     plate at him. He ducked and laughed. But before he could make it up to her, Loana packed her bags and one of the guests drove
     her to her sister’s house on his Vespa.
    Now, there was a possibility the chicken
was
awful, as Loana wasn’t the good cook she is today. But, still, as far as Materena is