Chapter 7: Arranging a Homestay

     The next day was Sunday.  After lunch, Tony told the O’Malley’s Inn concierge, “I’ll be in my room for the next few hours.  I’m expecting a call.”   The concierge told Tony that she would put the call through to him.

     Cindy was true to her word.  When she called to make sure he was still free for the afternoon, she promised to meet him in front of the inn at one thirty.  Tony made it a point to be standing outside a few minutes before that time.

     At one thirty sharp, Cindy arrived wearing a handmade wraparound skirt, tee shirt, and flip-flop sandals.  As she usually did, Cindy carried a handmade handbag with a handmade strap.  The skirt looked different from the skirt Cindy had worn at the Living History Museum; but, of course, people almost everywhere have several changes of clothing.

     “Are you ready?” she asked.

     “I’ve been ready.”  Tony said.

     “My neighbor won’t be ready until close to two thirty.  If you like, we’ll go to my house for a while.  Would you like to see my fruit bat?”  

     “You mean, you knock fruit from trees instead of shaking the tree?”

     She musically laughed and said, “No, silly, not that kind of bat.  A fruit bat is a kind of animal that flies.”

     “Oh, that kind of bat.  Yeah, I’d love to see it.  Um, do people on this island usually keep bats as pets?”

     “No, we usually keep dogs, cats, and birds—sometimes local animals.  My father found it as a baby, and we raised it.  If you’re ready, let’s go.”  About a half hour later, Tony and Cindy arrived at a traditional village—a real, living village—and Cindy’s house. 

     Cindy’s home had a small television on which the family were able to watch WAAB channel 7.  In another room, Cindy showed Tony a loom for weaving traditional handmade skirts.  Although many Kanifay Island girls and women had store-bought clothing, most homes had traditional looms; and almost every girl over the age of twelve knew how to use them.

     As promised, Cindy showed Tony the family’s fruit bat, holding it by the feet as she showed it to him.  The bat had a face that only a horror movie fan could love.  It wasn’t time for the bat’s feeding.  That would have to wait for another time.

     Just before two thirty, Cindy and Tony followed a stone path to a wooden home with a roof made of palm leaves.  “Does the roof leak?” Tony asked.

     “Only during heavy rains and storms,” she said.  “If we don’t have a storm, you’ll be safe and dry.”  Cindy had used the word we.  That’s when Tony remembered something he had seen earlier without noticing it: Cindy’s house also had a palm leaf roof, and everything in her house looked “safe and dry.”

     The neighbor was a serious but friendly man in his late forties.  After the usual questions people ask upon meeting someone new, the man asked him the usual questions a homeowner asked before renting a room to a stranger.  They discussed the rules of the house, and Tony agreed to follow them.  Then the man showed Tony the room where he would stay.

     Tony said he would stay at O’Malley’s Inn a few more days before moving in.  Just the same, he paid the homeowner for the room so that no one else could move in.

     Just as Tony and Cindy were leaving, the homeowner said, “Oh, Tony, there’s one more thing.”

     “Oh?” Tony said.  “What’s that?”

     “At night, if you see any foxes, please let me know right away.  Even if I’m asleep, I want you to wake me up immediately.”

     Tony, surprised, answered him, “I saw a fox not long after I arrived on this island.  Are you having a problem with foxes?”

     “One fox.  Sometimes it gets into my fruits and berries and eats them.  I’ve been trying for years to catch it or kill it.  Someday, I will.”  He looked at Cindy and said, “You’re looking kind of uneasy.  It’s not your fox, is it?”

     “Oh, no, sir,” Cindy said.  “I don’t have any foxes.”

     “And you haven’t seen any?”

     “Not lately.”

     “Cindy, everybody likes you.  I like you, and I’d never want to do anything to upset you.  But, if you’re keeping a fox, please keep it under control.  I don’t want to lose any more of my food than I have to.”

     The homeowner turned to Tony and forced a smile.  “Don’t let our local problems make you feel bad,” he said, “but if you see a fox, will you let me know right away?”

     “Yes, sir, I will,” Tony promised.

     After they had left the homeowner’s house, Tony said to Cindy, “He seems to think that you’ve been keeping a fox.”

     “He once followed a fox’s footprints across a taro patch until the trail ended at a stone path,” she said.  “The trail ended not far from my house.  He knows I keep a bat.  He probably figures that a person who would keep a bat would be the kind of person who would keep other animals as well.  Tony, I promise you.  I don’t keep a fox.”

     “I believe you, Cindy.”  Changing the subject, he said, “Hey, if you have some time, maybe we can do something this afternoon—kayaking, maybe.”

     With the musical laugh I had mentioned earlier, Cindy said, “You’ve never been kayaking before, have you?”

     “Not yet, but I’d like to.  Why is it funny?”

     “The shortest tour we could arrange is a half a day.  To get the most from it, we’d have to take a day-long tour.”

     “Could I convince you to give me a day-long kayaking tour of the island?”

     Cindy laughed again.  “No, Tony,” she said, “but we can arrange it with the Chamorro Bay Resort.  The manager’s wife is a Kanifay native, and she gives regular tours.  She knows all about the island’s plants and animals.  She has also studied traditional medicine, so she can teach us quite a bit.”

     “You mean, you’ll go with me?”  

     “I’d love to.  You’ll need to make arrangements for rental.  I’ll be free any time during the day except Sunday morning, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.”

     Tony went straight to the Chamorro Bay Resort to reserve a kayak.  The resort had nine one-person kayaks and four two-person kayaks.  Tony reserved a two-person kayak for Wednesday.

     Kanifay Island was actually four islands.  The first three of these islands were so close together that they were connected by small bridges.  (The fourth island could be reached by ferry or by sea kayak.)  The tour would be along the waterways running between the three islands, but they also would be on waterways running through the islands themselves. 

     The kayak tour took Tony, Cindy, and other tourists through areas that no one can go except by kayak.  They traveled along quiet waters and among some of the world’s few natural areas that were completely untouched by man.  The only sounds they heard were the sounds of birds, the splash of kayak paddles, and the voice of their guide telling them about the place.

     As expected, the guide showed them birds that could be found only on Kanifay Island and a few other islands in the Carolines.  She told them about the plants and how they were (and still are) traditionally used.

     In a few areas along the tour, they passed along man-made waterways.  They saw stone walls and small bridges that had been built hundreds of years earlier.  They guide told the tour of their history of being controlled by other countries: First it was Spain, Germany from 1899 until 1914, Japan until 1945, America until 1979, and finally independence.

     As they ate lunch during the tour, Tony asked Cindy what kind of evening entertainment activities Kanifay Island had for young people.  Cindy said that there were evening activities, but she never joined in them.  Tony thought she was just giving an excuse for not wanting to see him again.

     “Oh, Tony,” she said.  “It’s not you.  It’s just that—”

     “It’s all right,” Tony said.

     “Tony, what I mean to say is, it’s not you; it’s I.  I can’t go out at night.  I was born with—a problem.  I can’t tell you about it, but please take my word for it.  I can’t go out after dark.”