Breadfruit Read Online Free PDF

concerned, when you love somebody, you
     don’t criticize their cooking and you don’t criticize the person you love in front of a whole bunch of people.
    Loana waited for Tom to come say pardon to her and she was going to say pardon to him. And then they would get together again.
    But he never came.
    Loana was devastated. And three weeks pregnant, though she didn’t know it.
    When Loana realized that there was a seed in her belly, she cried her eyes out. Her sister said, “I warned you against those
     people. Now look at you. What name are you going to put on that child’s birth certificate, eh? It’s going to be a bastard.
     Give it up for adoption. You’ve got no money, you’ve got no job, you’ve got no papers—you’ve got nothing. I told you. But
     you had to go shame yourself with a
popa’a
like there’s not enough local men for you to choose from.”
    Every time Loana cooks chicken split peas she thinks about Tom and their silly separation.
    Materena too—every time she cooks chicken split peas, she thinks about Tom and Loana and their silly separation.
    Materena was eight years old when she first saw her birth certificate and, on it, Father Unknown. She asked her mother, “You
     don’t know who my father is?”
    Loana got cranky. “What,” she said, “do you think I would open my legs for a man I don’t know? Of course I know the man who
     planted you.”
    Materena wanted a bit more information, but all Loana was prepared to reveal then was the man’s nationality. “He’s a
popa’a
—final point.”
    Materena was fifteen years old when she got to hear the whole story, and she cried because it felt strange for her to know
     about her father.
    She doesn’t have a photograph of him. There used to be a photograph of him in a swimming costume at the beach, but one of
     Loana’s lovers tore it to pieces because he was jealous. Loana must have told him how she’d loved Tom real bad.
    According to Loana, Materena has Tom’s almond-shaped brown eyes, and the dimple on her left cheek belongs to him too.
    Materena closes her eyes, and when she opens them, it is Saturday morning.
    The first thought that springs to her mind is about her wedding and how she will keep it quiet for a while. Materena doesn’t
     want her wedding to turn into a family circus, with relatives stressing her out regarding seating arrangements, etc. A wedding
     shouldn’t be about giving the bride stress, it should be a celebration. A new beginning.

Kika
    K eeping a wedding a secret is like keeping any kind of secret. It’s not complicated. Basically, when you bump into a relative,
     you bite your tongue for a few seconds and hurry to make small conversation. So far, in the space of half a day, Materena
     has bumped into six relatives and told them nothing of her secret plan. When they asked her, “So, what’s the news?” she replied—with
     her normal voice—“There’s no news, Cousin. It’s still the same, and how’s everything with you?”
    Now, however, with her mother visiting, Materena is very tempted to exclaim, “Eh, Mamie! You’re never going to guess! Pito
     asked for my hand!” But Materena bites her tongue instead.
    Loana only meant to drop in at Materena’s house for five minutes (she was on her way home from a prayer meeting), but she
     ends up cuddling with her grandchildren on the sofa, and they watch
Inspector Gadget
on the TV. After the movie the children go to bed, and, since Pito has gone walkabout with his friend Ati, Loana decides
     to stay longer and keep her daughter company.
    “Pito and Ati, they’re like a married couple,” says Loana. Materena chuckles as she gets her mother a glass of red wine.
    They talk about plants, the funny weather, the traffic jam, menopause, and Loana drinks her glass of wine.
    And now Loana is going to talk about her mother, Kika, because she feels like talking about her mother, and Materena is going
     to listen.
    Tonight isn’t the first time that Loana has