Island of the Sequined Love Nun

wiggly energy that had caused more than one of the distracted village boys to fall out of a breadfruit tree during harvest. (She broke ankles as well as hearts.) Sepie was all titter and tease, a lazy girl who excelled at leisure, a natural at invoking and denying desire, a wet dream deferred. At fifteen she took up residence in the bachelors' house and had lived there for four years.
    When Malink and the men brought the flyer and the man in the dress to her, she knew she was in for some trouble.
    "Take care of them," Malink said. "Feed them. Help to make them strong."
    Sepie kept her head bowed while Malink spoke, but when he finished she took his hand and led him into the bachelors' house, gesturing to the other men to lay the flyer and his friend on the ground outside. The men smiled among themselves, thinking that old Malink was going inside to receive a special favor from the mispel. What, in fact, he was receiving was an ass chewing.
    "Why don't you take them to your house, Malink? I don't want them here."
    "It's a secret. If my wife and daughters find out they are here, then everyone will know."
    "I'm the only one who can keep a secret in the bachelors' house. Take them to old Sarapul's house. No one goes there."
    "He wants to eat them." Malink couldn't remember ever having to argue with a woman and he wasn't at all prepared for it.
    "You're chief. Tell him not to. I will not cook for them. If I feed them, they will shit. I'm not going to clean it up."
    "Sepie, what will you do when you marry and have children? You will have to do these things then. I am asking you as your chief to do these things."
    "No," Sepie said.
    Malink sighed. "I am asking you to do these things because these men have been sent to us by Vincent."
    Sepie didn't know what to say. She had heard the Sky Priestess chastise Malink in front of the people, but she had been more concerned with losing coffee and sugar for a month than with the actual offense. "You will tell the men to cook for them?"
    "Yes."
    "And they will carry them to the beach and wash them if they shit?"
    "I will tell them. Please, Sepie."
    No man had ever said "please" to her before, let alone the chief. It was not a courtesy that women deserved. For the first time she realized how desperate Malink really was. "And you will tell Abo to wash his dick when it is his turn."
    "What does that have to do with this?"
    "He is stinky."
    "I will tell him."
    "And you will tell Favo to quit making me put beads in his ass.
    "Favo does that?"
    "He said he learned it from the Japanese."
    "Really? Favo?"
    "Yes."
    "But he's old, and he has a wife and many grandchildren."
    "He says it makes his spear stronger."
    "He does? I mean, does it work?" Malink had momentarily forgotten why he was here.
    "I don't like it. It is evil and unclean."
    "You're talking about my old friend Favo, right? He's the one you're talking about?"
    "I told him only bachelors were supposed to stay here, but he says his wife doesn't understand him. His hands are like the skin of a shark."
    "What kind of beads?"
    "Tell him," Sepie said.
    "Okay," Malink said in English. Then to himself he said: "Old Favo." He shook his head as he walked out of the bachelors' house. "Beads."
    Sepie watched him go, wishing that she had asked for more favors.
    Outside the men were grinning when Malink stepped into the moonlight. He hitched up his loincloth and averted his eyes from theirs.
    "Take them inside. You must cook and clean for them. Don't let the woman do it. It is too important for her."
    As the men carried Tuck and Kimi into the bachelors' house, Favo ambled up to Malink. "How was it?"
    Malink looked at his old friend and noticed for the first time that Favo wore a long string of ivory beads around his neck. "I have to go home now," Malink said.

    Sepie was, once again, swabbing up the wooden floor where the pilot had urinated on himself, when she heard the other one speak for the first time. The men had propped the Filipino up in the corner, where he had sat drinking the coconut milk and fish broth that she had been pouring into the pilot, but except for a few grunts when he made his way outside to urinate, the man in the dress had been quiet for two days. Sepie had learned to ignore him. He didn't smell as bad as the pilot, and she sort of liked his flowered dress. She'd said a prayer to Vincent for a dress just like it.
    "Where is Roberto?" the Filipino said.
    Sepie jumped. It didn't surprise her so much that he had spoken,