Family

Neteyam

Joey and I go to get dinner. Our supplies have run out. In the heart of the village, we still get stares. We stand out like a sore thumb.

After picking up our dinner, we run into Aonung and Roxto.

Joey and I glance at each other warily. We know what we have to do, but don't want to do it.

"Aonung." Joey speaks first. She bows her head a little bit. "We apologize for fighting with you earlier. We just wanted to defend our family."

"We take care of our own. We couldn't let Lo'ak fight alone. We hope you understand." I add, bowing my head as well. This is humiliating.

"Oh, no worries guys." He sounds worried.

Joey shoots her head up quickly. "Really?" She picked up on the tone of his voice too.

"Yeah. All good." He tries to leave, but I catch his arm.

"Have you seen Lo'ak? He was going to apologize to you too." When I ask, his ears flatten down a bit. Roxto won't even look at us.

"Aonung." Joey's voice is kind and gentle, which surprises me. She knows there's something he's not telling us.

He sighs and rips his arm from my grasp. "Yeah, he apologized."

"Have you seen him since then?" I ask.

He won't look us in the eye. "Aonung, where is Lo'ak?" She touches his arm gently. Joey is being so calm and gentle that it makes me kind of mad. He deserves no kindness of ours.

He sighs. "We took him fishing, beyond the reef-"

"Aonung!" Roxto tries to stop him, but I hold my hand up, telling him to shut up.

"We left him there." Aonung does sound guilty, but the words infuriate me.

"You left him alone, beyond the reef?" Joey yells now.

"Come on." I grab his braid and start pulling him. Roxto disappears in fear.

I drag him to my father's tent furiously. Joey is hot on our tail.

My father is surprised when he sees us. He stands quickly.

"Tell him what you told us." I command.

"We took Lo'ak beyond the reef and left him there." Aonung is very quiet.

"You what?" Jake is yelling now too. We're all in a panic.

Joey calls Naila as if on instinct. She wants to go look for him, but Jake stops her. We are trying to be Metkayina. We have to ride ilu, even if it's slower.

We run back to the center of the village, where chief Tenowari sees our anxiety immediately. "What is it?"

We briefly explain the situation, and he immediately calls a search party. People are blowing conches and lighting torches. It looks like chaos around us. We're about to hop on some ilu when we hear someone call out. "We found him! The boy is okay!"

After rushing over to where he is climbing onto the walkway, Jake, immediately has to stop Lo'ak from going after Aonung. My father examines him, and after declaring he's fine, we all gather round.

"Lo'ak!" My mother pushes through the crowd. She grabs his shoulders tightly, "I pray for the strength that I will not pluck the eyeballs out of my youngest son." She snarls and imitates the gesture. 

"No." Tonowari interjects. "My son knows better than to take him outside the reef." He pushes Aonung down to his knees. "The blame is his." 

After a brief silence, dad speaks again. "Okay, let's go." I know he's angry, and probably embarrassed too. I would be. 

"No." Lo'ak stops. "This is not Aonung's fault."

We all look confused, including Aonung. I know what Aonung told me. Why is Lo'ak lying?

"This was my idea." Lo'ak continues. "Aonung tried to talk me out of it. Really." He is speaking to the chief. 

"Come on." Dad insists. 

"Lo'ak" Mom sounds angrily shocked. 

"I'm sorry." Lo'ak adds, bowing his head down. 

Joey and I exchange glances. Lo'ak taking the blame for Aonung is a big step for him. He's never done that for anyone before. I know Aonung didn't lie to us. I wonder what happened to Lo'ak out there. 

Once we're outside of the crowd, Lo'ak stops again. "Dad, you told me to make friends with these kids. That's all I was trying to-"

"I don't want to hear it." Our father interrupts. "You brought shame to this family."

The look on Lo'ak's face says it all. I feel so incredibly bad for him. I wish I could step in and take some of the blame. My brother may be an enormous pain but I hate seeing him disappoint our father. I know he only wants to make him proud. He is just like me in that regard. Those words weren't even directed at me, and they still stung. 

I know Joey feel similar to me. She sucked in her breath when he said that. They were incredibly harsh words. 

"Can I go now?" Lo'ak sighs, trying to hide his feelings for sure. 

"Any more trouble and I jerk a knot in your tail. You read me?"

"Yes sir. Lima Charlie." Lo'ak sighs, walkiing off. 

There's another long silence between me, Joey, my mom, and my dad. 

"Where were you?" My mother is looking at me.

"Yeah." My father turns to me too. "WHat happened to keep an eye on your brother?" I feel incredibly guilty. It was my responsibility to watch him. 

"Sorry sir." I sigh. I feel it is a little bit unfair, but I'm not one to fight with my parents. 

"No." Joey interrupts. "It's not his fault. Lo'ak went to apologize. We went and got patched up from the fight. Then we went for dinner. That's when we ran into Aonung and he told us what happened. Lo'ak is not a baby. We can't watch him every moment of the day. It is not Neteyam's fault."

My mother immediately speaks. "We were not speaking to you." 

"Neytiri." Jake holds his hand up calmly, trying to stop her. 

"Neteyam is the eldest brother, and we asked him to watch his younger brother. His family. And he didn't. He was too busy wrestling around with you. He has responsibilities to his family."

Her words sting. I can tell. The way she said his very strongly insinuated that they were not, in fact, her family. Only mine. 

Joey blinks back tears, nods, and walks off. Leaving us three. 

"Neytiri." Jake is clearly upset with what she said. "Joey is partially right." 

"No." She snaps. 

"No." I stop this time. They both turn and look at me. "I do my best to watch Lo'ak, but Joey is right. I can't keep my eye on him every moment of the day. And mother." I look at her, hoping the pain her words inflicted onto me and Joey shows through. "That is my mate. That is my family. She left her father to come with us. If you don't consider her family, then you must not consider me family either. I won't leave her alone in this strange new place. So if II have to choose sides, I choose her." 

I whip around and leave them, hoping to catch Joey.  feel guilty for what i said to my mother. I love my mother. But I also love Joey. She is family. And if my mother can't see that then I want nothing to do with her.