The Split (Speculative Short Story)

This is the tale of how one became two. This is the tale of how the power of one twig, overflowing with the dew of its whole, separated the entire trunk. This is how it happened.

If anything has been added or taken away from this account (full and true) may the Spirit God of Melga do unto the stained one what he deserves.

We were small in number compared to them but we were powerful. We had History and customs that allowed us to live and flourish over the years. We lived the only way we knew how- we taught our young how to fish, hunt and plant. We taught them how to take care of their homes and provide for their families. We healed our sick until we could no longer heal our sick. We showed our young ones that we are one people. Kosawway-wah! We are the people of Hunca.

O

n one blessed and cursed day, I awoke with the tide- before the sun and went across to the tent of my boys. My two oldest were already out gathering wood while Melga, my youngest, was fast asleep. I remember looking at him and wondering if he was ready for the planned task. “This one is always sickly. He is the only one who has proven to be a rebel to our medicine,” I thought. However, barring all that, he will soon be a man and need to provide for his family-sickly or not. He must learn to fish and hunt today. I walked nearer to his sleeping place and bent to give him the customary morning greeting. Forehead to forehead- I pressed my forehead firm onto his until his little brown eyes opened. “Kosawway-wah! Up,” I instructed.   
    We were soon walking towards the wide, rough sea passing the huts of our brothers and friends. We kept on walking until we arrived at the edge of the ocean where the waves were stretching out on their last and leaving white froth before being swiftly dragged back out into the roaring mass. I took my spear in my right hand and began walking into the sea. I instructed Melga to do the same. He awkwardly followed- almost tripping on his own leg. When the water got up to my knees, I stopped and looked down. There were fishes swimming around my feet. I looked across at Melga and motioned for him to pay close attention. "Like this ooni" I said. I focused my eyes on the biggest fish, lifted my spear above my head and struck the ocean on the offbeat of my heart. The fish didn’t stand a chance. I heard a gasp from Melga. To my surprise when I looked across, Melga was not focusing on me but staring petrified at the horizon. "Oooni look!" I shouted. He looked at me, still in shock and weakly pointed at something far off. Fright filled my heart and ran my blood as cold as the early morning wind.              

I saw a huge monster, split into three advancing toward us with the sign of a woman (female goddess) blowing in the breeze. On each of its eyes, it bore an intersection of vertical and horizontal red lines. Its body looked weathered and violent. It looked as though it had endured violence and was ready to continue being violent. It resembled one of our small ocean riders but this one looked like if it was grafted with a ferocious beast.
Glunk! I dropped my spear into the watery mass. Melga grabbed my hand and tried to wrap his tiny body into my forearm, trembling. The monster kept advancing toward us, blocking all sight of Father Sun (Our Protector).

I lifted Melga (who was now trembling and almost stifling on his own tears) onto my shoulders and contemplated running back to the village to warn the others. I didn’t have time. The monster would overtake me before me feet left the seashore. I needed to stay here and defend my people. “Kosawway-wah! “Kosawway-wah! “Kosawway-wah! You hurt one, we overcome you like the black ants!” I began chanting.

The three headed monster came to a halt and noise could be heard coming from its stomach. The noise was coming from its outer shell and inner inhabitants. A window was opened at the side and the palest natives I have ever seen came out from it. They had these strange pieces of animal skin around them. I couldn’t tell what animal had skin like that. Five of them came toward me, all holding different weapons in their hand. They surrounded me all the while peering and prodding. They had the strangest smell! Their skin so pale and eyes so wild! I no longer felt afraid of them. “These must be people of another tribe aching for some of our medicine,” I thought. Then, they came and stood directly in front of me. Melga’s little body started trembling wildly.

One of them shouted something that I could not understand. Then they all started shouting. I could not understand anything. What were they saying? Melga continued to cry uncontrollably. “Welcome Men. Would you like to visit our Medicine Women?” I asked, gesturing with my right to the village. They looked at each other confused. I noticed that one of them had the sick green colour of death. He wasn’t going to live for very long. I reached out to touch his forehead to feel how much longer he had and how quickly I would need to get him to the Medicine Women. As fast as my hand touched his forehead, one of the other men struck my hand with their weapon. Immediately, they pounced on me. They did not care that I had my sickly child. They all spoke and shouted in one voice and in a cacophony of indistinguishable sounds at once. Their eyes grew more and more wild and evil. I scrambled back, escaped their clenches and ran as fast as I could with the evil, sick men following me. Pelting me with weapons and shouting sounds that I could not understand.

I managed to reach to the land before they overtook me and pinned me onto the ground. “What is the matter brother? Why are you doing this? Let me help you. You people are sick. Let our Medicine Women help you. Please don’t take my Ooni” I pleaded with them. They didn’t listen. They tore my last born from my arms. The crashed their weapons on my feet to prevent me from defending myself and helping my young one. They took my little one and started to recede into their ocean rider.

I screamed, cursed and prayed as they hastened back with my young one. I tried dragging myself towards them but my feet would not move. I watched as my young one, arms outstretched and face red, screamed and vomited out of fright. Suddenly, the one who was dragging Melga dropped him. Thud!

The seashore shook violently as Melga made contact with it. “Thank the Gods! We are being helped!” . I thought. The Sun God must be seeing our plight. The men were staring at Melga. Melga was no longer trembling. He was stamping on the sand. He was jumping on the sand in the middle of them. He punched and slammed his head onto the sand, hurting himself. He was hurting himself. I screamed for him to stop but he never heard me. He kept on screaming, jumping, shouting and bloodying himself. Where did my sick child get this strength? The men huddled together, almost holding hands on the other side, scared of my sick child. “Kosawway-wah! “Kosawway-wah! “Kosawway-wah! You hurt one, we overcome you like the black ants!” He screamed over and over. He then grew deathly silent.

Melga raised his arms, palms up to the heavens then brought his palms down onto the sand. As soon as his fingers made contact with Earth, the ground split. The line started from the shore and cut through the legs of one of the men. The Earth widened and the scared men pulled each other together so that they were on one side of the divide and Melga, myself and our tribe were on the other side. Melg kept on shouting, “Kosawway-wah! “Kosawway-wah! “Kosawway-wah! You hurt one, we overcome you like the black ants!” The louder his chants grew, the wider the distance grew between the two masses of land. The men screamed and cried. Melga continued chanting. I looked on speechless. Melga’s outstretched arms were controlling the large, disconnected mass of land which the men were on. Melga shook his arms to and fro and this movement caused all the men to fall down. They scampered to get up. The one who I noticed was sick before remained down. He was dead. They cried and begged. Melga’s outstretched his arms wider, palms facing downward and pressed down as though he was doing a ritual dance. The mass of land started to sink.  He was going to kill the men.

“Oooni no. Life is precious. Ooni!” I shouted. Melga turned and looked at me as if he was surprised to be there. He looked at me strangely before I saw the look of recognition in his eyes. He immediately stopped the mass from sinking. The men dragged each other toward their three headed monster. Before they could even pull away from the shoreline, Melga pushed the mass of land behind their ocean rider. “Kosawway-wah! “Kosawway-wah! “Kosawway-wah! You hurt one, we overcome you like the black ants!” he still shouted behind them until they could no longer be seen. The large mass of land stopped moving as Melga put down his arms and collapsed into a ball onto the ground.

And this is how Tobago was split from Trinidad.