JIMMY AWAGL
An entry in the Crocodile Prize
PNG Government Award for Short Stories
IT was in 1977 that highlander Siwi was recruited to work at Kulili Plantation on Karkar Island in Madang Province.
Siwi was a young and handsome 17-year old and he departed Jimi in Jiwaka Province as a labourer.
With a group of other men, he boarded the single-engine plane at Kol and flew to Kinim station on Karkar.
He settled at Kulili Plantation hausboi (labourers) quarters and became a copra drier. Other highlanders were classified as grass cutters and general labourers.
To Siwi, the job was challenging but his goal was to earn his living on this foreign Island.
As he got used to the nature of the job, he found life enjoyable. He became fit and muscular from lifting the copra bags. Even so, he was not attracted to the island girls.
Siwi served at the plantation continuously for 12 years. At the age of 29 he decided to return home, his huge patrol box containing goods such as a hurricane lamp, a guitar, a plant pot, eye glasses, a radio, a bunch of keys and clothes.
He flew on the chartered plane touching down at Simbai on the way back to Kol. Finally he reached his sweet home abandoned for 12 years. Family members were at Kol airstrip to pick him up.
As he stepped down from the plane, everyone burst into tears. His village was just a kilometer away from the airstrip and happily they strolled home.
He entered the newly-built pitpit house, placing his belongings at one end of the cane bed and lay himself down for the night.
The next day the sun rose from the direction of Mt Wilhelm and smiled over the hills and gorges of lower Jimi.
Siwi bathed in the sunlight and walked along the Kol track down to Bongo. There he met many people he knew from long ago and chatted with them for a while. The discussion became sweeter when it turned to the agenda of girls in the surrounding tribes of Upper Jimi.
It was agreed that one of the most beautiful girls of the Upper Jimi was Kulko from Tapi village. Most of the boys admired her and tried their best to seduce her. Everyone made an attempt but none could attract her irrespective of their handsomeness and fame.
One morning as the fog from the slopes of Kol gradually dispersed and the rays of the sun touched the peaks of the mountains, Siwi walked from his house with his transistor radio and the bunch of loose keys.
He trekked through the gorges of Kol all the way up to Tapi village, reaching the home of the desirable Kulko at noon. Without hesitation, he strolled into the village and enquired after her.
The village girls were obliging and introduced him to Kulko. She was caught by surprise to see a casual visitor with an unusual face. However, she nervously greeted him. “Angnam, please come into the house”.
Siwi - the bunch of keys on his belt and the transistor radio in one hand - walked slowly into the house.
He turned on the radio and played it in front of the girls and jiggled the keys attached to a single ring. The village girls were captivated and excited.
Later, he told them the purpose of the keys attached to the ring. He informed them that each key was for the house: rooms, car, fridge, patrol box and so forth. Some of them he’d left at Karkar Island where he would return shortly for them.
Kulko was seduced as a woman from the jungles of Tapi who had never spoken Pidgin or seen such items before until this time.
Siwi asked Kulko politely, “Where is your room?”
She pointed out her room and, when she was talking with the other girls, Siwi crept gently into the room and placed the bunch of keys beneath her pillow.
He hoped that the next day Kulko would follow him with the keys.
Then he took Kulko to an open area and said, “My radio will talk to the flying aeroplanes and I will talk to the pilot to pick me up tomorrow at Kol airstrip and take me to Karkar Island.”
Kulko was convinced and made up her mind that this man was her future husband.
Siwi slept at the men’s house and at dawn he left and strolled up the hill leading to Kol village. He stood at the top of the hill and yelled that his keys beneath Kulko’s pillow be returned.
But instead of taking the keys to him, Kulko packed her clothes and walked out of her room with them. They met at the top of the hill and Siwi excitedly asked, “What’s that bag for?” She replied, “The bag goes with you to your village, sweet Kol”.
Siwi gave a brilliant smile and both farewelled her village and walked to Kol. As they reached the house the relatives of Siwi reacted positively and the atmosphere was welcoming.
Everyone was shouting and chanted in Jiwaka language declaring “an Ambi (girl) is coming to start her new life with Siwi”.
The next day, Kulko curiously asked, “When will the plane arrive for us to depart for Karkar Island?”
Then to her anxiety she found out that Siwi’s words were an illusion to seduce her.
Kulko was tempted to go back to Tapi but the custom of Jimi did not allow this since she had set foot at the house of a boy and was publicly declared as a married woman.
Kulko now lives as the regretful wife of Siwi with their five children in the jungle of Kol.
The bunch of keys and transistor radio were as fake as the sweetness of their marriage was an illusion.