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time he cried and Pito would say to her, “Let that baby cry a little, eh? That’s his only
     exercise. You’re going to turn my son into a fairy.”
    On and on and on.
    Every single day.
    For months.
    Pito kept telling Materena that her mother was a bossy colonel. And Loana kept telling Materena that Pito was just a typical
     man.
    Materena finishes scrubbing the oven. Pito and Materena have been together for nearly thirteen years. She is still a professional
     cleaner and she likes her job. Pito, he still works at the timber yard and he doesn’t like his job, though he’s happy to have
     a job. They have their own house now.
    Pito and Materena, they get along well, but there are days when Pito gives Materena ideas of murder. She can hear him snoring
     now.
    She tidies up, checks that the gas is off, and goes to kiss her children good night.
    She always does this before she goes to bed.
    She kisses her daughter, Leilani, on the forehead very lightly, as Leilani wakes up easily.
    “What’s the time, Mamie?” Leilani asks.
    “Go back to sleep, girl.” Leilani lives in fear of missing the truck to school. She checks her alarm clock every night before
     going to bed. She’s ten years old.
    And now Materena is in her boys’ room. The boys sleep on mattresses because they want to. Materena bends down and kisses the
     eldest child of the family, Tamatoa. He doesn’t even stir. He’ll be twelve in three months, and some days he thinks he’s the
     boss of the house.
    Materena’s youngest child, eight-year-old Moana, is on the floor. Materena picks him up and puts him back on his mattress.
     He’s very light—or perhaps she’s just got strong arms. She thought she was having a girl when she was pregnant with him.
    She did the needle test, like with all her children. You put a thread through a needle and hold the needle above the belly
     button. If the needle swings from left to right, the baby is a boy. If the needle swings around, the baby is a girl. And the
     needle swung around, so Materena named her unborn baby girl Loana, after her mother. But then a boy was born instead and Materena
     substituted an M for the L and the name became Moana—“ocean.”
    And now Materena is going to bed.
    The lights go out in the little plywood house—behind the petrol station, close to the airport, the church, the cemetery, and
     the Chinese shop.
    Pito is still snoring and Materena gives him a gentle shove. Pito stirs and mutters. Usually she pinches him on the nose or
     smacks him on the head. Not all the time, but usually. Materena cuddles up to Pito. She can’t believe that marriage proposal.
     In all the years they’ve been together, they’ve never discussed marriage. Tonight’s marriage proposal is certainly a big surprise,
     but Materena reminds herself that Pito was drunk, which means that the proposal was only a whole lot of wind. Which is fine
     with her. The children don’t hassle them to get married. Materena is Mamie and Pito is Papi, and that’s enough. Pito’s mother,
     Mama Roti, doesn’t mind her son not being Materena’s husband. And Materena’s mother, Loana, doesn’t put pressure on Materena
     to regularize her situation with Pito.
    Everybody is quite content with the situation.
    But Materena gets thinking about being married. Thinking it would be nice.
    She feels her naked hands and pictures a gold band on her finger. She sees that framed wedding certificate displayed on the
     wall in the living room. She hears herself tell people, “It’s me, Madame Tehana.”
    Being a madame, eh yes, Materena wouldn’t mind. She’s been called madame many times, but only by the
popa’a,
and it embarrasses her a little, since she’s not a madame. It’s like falsifying her identity. The Polynesian people, they
     call her mama or
vahine.
Her cousins call her Materena or Cousin.
    Materena starts thinking about a wedding ceremony. Pito could wear his navy wedding-and-funeral suit. Materena knows