Padre Bob

MATU’S DRAGON

Bob Blackman

Copyright © 2005

          MaTu walked swiftly but quietly across the beach towards place where the village boats had been stored for the night.  The first rays of sunlight pushed above the horizon and the sky was washed in pastel pink and gold.  The air was silent. Even the seagulls had not yet awakened.  MaTu was about to comment on the quietness when TaNan said,” You should not be doing this."

          TaNan was a two-foot-long, green and gray stripped, monitor lizard.  The lizard had adopted MaTu five days previous, four days after MaTu’s father had disappeared.  Three days after the disappearance TaNan strolled alongside MaTu as he walked on the beach, “I'm sorry about your father, MaTu. We should talk about it."  He did not say it audibly but MaTu could hear him speaking in his head.  That day, and every day there-after, the boy and the lizard talked.  MaTu shared his concerns and TaNan listened and challenged statements that seemed uncertain or unwise. Often when TaNan spoke MaTu would verbalize the words himself -- at least he did until the other children began to call him Crazy MaTu and teased him saying that only babies had talking pets. After that MaTu never verbalized for TaNan when there are other people around -- but when they were alone, they had long conversations in which MaTu served as TaNan's voice.

MaTu stepped past his own canoe; a five-foot dugout with a safety outrigger on each side. He went directly to his cousin Mak’s boat which was unharmed by the storms. He dropped the basket he was carrying into the boat then bent down and began to push the sixteen-foot skiff with a single outrigger, off the sand and into the water.

“Mak is not going to be happy when he discovers that you have stolen his boat,” said TaNan.

“I'm not stealing it," said MaTu.  “Stealing would be if I took one that did not belong to a relative."

“It’s too big for you to handle," said TaNan.

“It is not.  I am eight years old.  I am old enough to handle a big boat."

MaTu stepped into the outrigger, sat down and began to paddle. “Are you coming?”

TaNan swan alongside, hopped onto the outrigger, and leaped from it to the boat. “You know this is a mistake,” he said.

“Stop talking,” said MaTu.

MaTu pointed the boat in the direction of the tiny dot of land that everyone called, Pit which means “the rock.”  Most days Pit could not even be seen but in this morning’s clearness it peaked mysteriously above the water three miles in the distant.  MaTu headed toward the reef that surrounded his home island. Ten minutes later, after gliding effortlessly across the flat, wave less sea; he reached a spot where the reef opened into the ocean.  Even beyond the reef the water resembled the flat, smooth, silvery tins the traders used for packaging canned foods and MaTu wondered if the ocean had been this calm on the morning his father had rowed east and not returned.

On that day an angry typhoon blew in from the west. Half of the village’s fleet was destroyed and many homes needed rebuilding. Three days later the wind and rain finally stopped and the island dwellers began to assess the damage. They made ready to rebuild but another sudden storm struck two days later. By the time the critical repairs were finished MaTu’s father, EliHu had been missing seven days and his father’s boat had been found floating upside down just beyond the reef. Everyone concurred that EliHu was certainly dead and no time was wasted searching for him. At least everyone except MaTu concurred. For three days MaTu had argued with TaNan as he planned this rescue.  Every morning and twice every afternoon, he had paddled his tiny boat from the shore to the reef and back again, testing his strength until he felt confident he could row all the way to Pit.

“He won't be there," said TaNan.

“Yes, he will, he would have made to Pit."

“You can't know that."

For what seemed like the hundredth time MaTu explained to TaNan how he knew that his father had not drowned. "I know he did not drown because it happened once before when I was five years old.  Father was fishing to the north and a great storm came upon him."

"Your father was foolish to be going out that far, and now you are being foolish. You are just like him."

"My father is not foolish. You only say that because you've heard Mak say it. My father is a great fisherman. He always went out further, and brought back more fish than any other man on the island. When he disappeared before, everyone said that he had drowned, but he did not drown.  He had been picked up by some traders in a large motorboat and taken to Guam, an island fifty miles north of here."

"He was lucky," said TaNan as he stretched out and sunned himself on the bench across from MaTu.

His father had been lucky.  MaTu knew that, but he would not admit it to TaNan. The traders had brought his father back to the island one month later and MaTu, only five years old at the time, would never forget the wondrous stories his father had told of the giant island that was over 20 miles long, over 10 times the size of MaTu's island home. It was an island where thousands of people lived in houses stacked one upon another, four and five stories high -- an island without any birds, without any lizard's, without reptiles or rodents. It sounded like a fascinating island but not one MaTu ever wanted to visit; too many people, and how could one live without the sound of birds or the friendship of lizards and other reptiles.

"If Father could make it fifty miles to the big island,” he told TaNan, “he could surely have made it safely to Pit."

“If there were any chance the other fishermen would surely have gone to Pit to look for him," said TaNan.

“They didn't want to,” said MaTu. “They’re all jealous because he’s a better fisherman than they.”  MaTu didn’t really believe that, but he was angry with them for not trying.

He had been rowing for over an hour and Matu was beginning to tire.  The stillness of the waves had given way to small swells that lifted the boat from the water and tried to throw him out to sea, away from Pit.  His arms ached as he tugged at the oar but he knew that he could not turn back.  He had planned this for too long.  He must rescue his father.  He bowed his head and prayed the wind would come up behind him, he prayed for a wind that would push him towards Pit.

"I told to this was a mistake," said TaNan as he lazily flapped tale from side to side.

“I can do this," said MaTu as he rowed with all his strength and continued to pray for wind. He looked back and saw that he had passed the halfway mark.  "I can do this," he said again.  Eventually he felt some wind against his back and it filled him with new vigor.  He rowed onward and the wind increased.  He stopped rowing and used the oar as a rudder, aiming his boat directly at Pit. He circled to the far side looking for a place to land.

He was surprised to find that there was no sandy beach around Pit, just a rocky shoreline.  MaTu stepped from the boat and struggled to pull the canoe far enough from the water so that it would not wash back out to sea. After much effort he managed to hook the outrigger over a large rock and there he sat trembling from exhaustion.  It really was just a rock in the middle of the ocean. On the side facing his home Pit was less than fifty yards across and it rose no more than fifty feet into the air.  On the opposite side it stretched out nearly 200 yards and the incline from sea level to the top was gradual, not like the nearly vertical wall that faced his home. The rock was pocked with numerous caves but only one, near the top was of any substantial size.

TaNan lumbered slowly toward a large flat rock 20 feet above the boat and stretched out to soak up the full effect of the sun that saturated and heated Pit.  MaTu open the basket and took out a papaya, hungrily lapping up its warm juice. He rested a few minutes beside his lizard and scanned the landscape, trying to find the best place to begin his search.  Eventually his eye fell upon the large cave near the top of the rock.

 That's where I would stay," he told TaNan.

”But how will you in get to the cave," TaNan asked.

“ I will follow that path,” he answered, pointing ahead of them. He stood up and began to follow a wide rocky path that zigzagged back and forth climbing upward toward the mouth of the cave.

TaNan followed him complaining about how rough and steep the path was. When it circled toward the left they approached a cliff and he warned, “Be careful, or you will fall into the sea and drown.”

"I can do this," MaTu repeated over and over again to himself.

"Be careful you don't slip and fall," TaNan said again.

"I will not slip," said MaTu.

Eventually, after only a few falls and scrapes the boy and his lizard stood beside the opening of the cave.  It was a tall cave nearly twice MaTu's height. They looked inside but could see nothing.

MaTu called out to his father but received only echoes of his own voice in return. "Father! Are you in the cave?" There was no response and MaTu called again, "Father!  Are you in this cave?”

A loud roar, a gust of hot wind, and the foul odor of rotten eggs or sulfur answered his call. "What was that!" gasped MaTu, turning towards the ocean trying to fan the stink away.

"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed TaNan. “I know what that that is -- could it really be?" He stepped into the cave and moved slowly toward the source of the stink. MaTu held his hand over his nose and crept cautiously into the cave behind his lizard. After moving forward about ten feet they stood together and let their eyes adjust to the darkness. Suddenly there was another roar, another gust of wind, and another burst of the foul odor.  MaTu froze when he saw movement in the shadows. Standing before him, not three steps away, was the largest monitor lizard that MaTu had ever seen -- larger than any lizard he had ever imagined.  It had to be sixty feet long, and from the pads of its feet to the top of its head the creature was easily two feet taller than MaTu.

"Brother," MaTu heard TaNan say, "do not be afraid, we will not hurt you."  MaTu could hear TaNan talking to the beast but could not hear or understand what the beast was saying. “Are you really a dragon?" He heard TaNan ask. "All my life I have heard stories about our brothers of old, the dragons, but I did not know that you were real.  No one has seen a dragon for hundreds of years."

MaTu listened to the one-sided conversation for several minutes before whispering, "What is he saying, TaNan?" The dragon shuddered from head to tail when he heard MaTu speak.

"He is afraid of you," said TaNan. "He says he made a big mistake and now he is afraid. He thinks you and others like you have come to kill him. He is old and he fears he does not have the strength to fight you."

"How old is he?"

"He says he is 1200 years old, and can no longer breathe fire.  He has been hiding in this cave for nearly many decades, afraid that one of your kind will see him and kill him."

"I would not kill him," said MaTu.

"I told him that," said TaNan, "but he is still afraid.  He is afraid you came because of what he did. He keeps apologizing and saying he did not intend to hurt anyone.”

MaTu sat on the ground and stayed very quiet, wondering what the dragon had done and listening while TaNan talked. As he listened, he perceived another sound, barely a whisper.

“MaTu, is that you, my son?”

“Father! Is it you Father?” He shouted, but his shout was answered by another roar, and another burst of hot, foul wind.

“Be quiet!” Hissed TaNan. “You are frightening FayLor.”

“Who is FayLor?” MaTu asked, nearly in tears.

“FayLor is the dragon’s name, and yes, that is your father in the corner.”

MaTu squinted, trying to see into the corner but it was too dark. TaNan continued, “FayLor found your father struggling in the ocean nine days ago and brought him here. He keeps repeating that he meant no harm, he was trying to save your father from drowning.”

Eventually the dragon relaxed.  TaNan had convinced him that MaTu was not a threat and would never tell anyone of the dragon’s existence. “If you are very slow and do not raise your voice, you can move over to where your father is lying.”

MaTu crawled quietly to his father. “Are you alright, Father?” He whispered.

“I’m okay,” EliHu said in a barely audible raspy voice. “The dragon saved my life, but my leg is broken and I am very thirsty.  I’ve had nothing to drink but the dew that settles on the cave wall.”

With the dragon’s permission, MaTu dragged his father to the mouth of the cave then reached into his basket, pulled out a papaya and began to squeeze the juice onto his father’s chapped lips.  As his father began to regain his strength, MaTu left the cave and hurried back to the boat, took the oar, and hurried back up to the cave.  He tore his shirt into strips and used the strips and the oar to make a splint.  

No sooner had he finished the splint than he heard an angry cry, “MaTu, if you are not already dead, I shall kill you myself!”  MaTu looked back down the rocky hill and saw Mak and four other men standing over the outrigger. They saw the oar was missing and they were arguing about whether MaTu was on the rock, or if he had been fallen overboard and only the boat had washed ashore.

TaNan heard Mak’s shout also and said, “MaTu, you cannot let those men come up to the cave! You must take your father down to them.  They must not discover FayLor.”

MaTu helped his father to stand and the two of them edged slowly away from the cave. They had gone barely twenty yards when the men by the boat saw them and headed their way. “MaTu,” EliHu said softly, “you must not tell them about the dragon, they may not understand that it tried to save me and they will try to kill it.”

MaTu noticed TaNan was not with them and called for him. He didn’t see the lizard but heard him say, “I’m going to stay with FayLor. You don’t need me anymore but he does.”

In minutes the other men were at their side, but they were now fifty yards from the cave. “After the storm, I washed up on the shore below us.” EliHu told them, “I was trying to get to the top in hopes of seeing a fishing boat, but I fell and broke my leg. MaTu found me just in time; otherwise I would have died on this rock.

Four men picked up EliHu and carried him down to the boats. They placed him in the largest boat and told MaTu to sit beside him. Mak paddled his own boat back to the island, never saying anything about MaTu taking it. MaTu was a hero and the digressions that accompany heroic acts are easily overlooked.

Two months later, after his father’s leg had healed, the two of them returned to Pit, but neither FayLor nor TaNan were there. “They probably swam to a safer island.” Said EliHu.