Blood brothers

If you follow Omura’s whale to the place where palmheads dance on the sea’s bravest mountain, that is where you will find it.

I never wanted to leave my island, for it was a paradise.

Her name is Nagui, which means ‘the fearless one’, and my brother Nop and I had grown up happy in the arms of her lagoon.

Nop and I often walked together to the far side of the island where he would spearfish and I would search for the nests of sea turtles beneath the dunes. 

It was on one of these walks that he asked me how our island got her name, for although I was only a year older than him, I knew far more about the stories of our island.

‘Because Nagui fights with all her heart,’ I said. ‘She was the only one of nine sisters who was brave enough to face the thunder demons and rise up above the sea during the storm that made the world.’ 

Nop chuckled. ‘An island with a heart? What a primitive superstition.’

I ignored his scorn and continued my search for nests laden with eggs.

Sea turtle eggs are small and white, but I have heard that sometimes, in their nests, a different, larger kind of egg can be found. It is blue and flecked with gold and is put there by a rare bird that sometimes visits Nagui. 

These eggs are considered very lucky, and it is said that anybody who finds one is destined to carry that luck wherever they go. 

The finder will be successful in his work, marry well and win at every game he plays. The finder could even become the leader of Nagui and share his luck with everyone on the island.

It had been many years since such an egg was found. Some people, like Nop, doubted their power, but it was my dearest wish to become the next finder.

‘Why don’t you give up and help me spear something to eat?’ he said. ‘I’d like a nice, fat squid for dinner.’

My brother and I had been inseparable growing up and we shared almost everything. People said we looked so much alike we could have been twins, and we were forced to admit that it was true. 

But in personality we had grown increasingly more different. Nop was far smarter than I in some ways, but he did not have the faith in the stories of our people or our island. 

Throughout our childhood I spent many hours at the knees of our grandmothers, entranced at their songs about angry spirits and friendly gods and stars that chased each other across the sky.

Nop preferred to sit alone, reading from his school books. Mathematics, English, economics, foreign politics, all of these things which had no real bearing on our life on Nagui.

‘It’s important to learn about the world,’ he said. ‘One day I shall leave this island so I can study and earn money, and see skyscrapers and trains and all the wonderful things that are out there. All you’ll have are your island stories and the same people and places we’ve always know.’

I despaired. ‘But why would you ever want to go? Surely everything we both need is here?’

Nop had always wanted to leave. Sometimes he would wake up early just to walk to our island’s little port and watch the dawn ferry depart. There was only one such boat coming in and out each day to take people to Katui, the nearest island to ours.

‘Katui has a large town, much larger than anything on Nagui,’ Nop said, eyes shining. ‘They even have an airport. You can fly to the big city of Manila, and from there you can go anywhere in the world!’

But to me the big cities sounded like a nightmare. Filthy homes, starving children and places where the air was so heavy with dust you could suffocate. 

Nop's wish came true a couple of weeks after his seventeenth birthday. He burst into our living room panting for breath and clutching a letter he had run with all the way back from the port and showed it to our whole family with the widest smile. 

He read it out for us: ‘Dear Nop Agaio. We are pleased to inform you that your application for a business scholarship to the Australian National University in Canberra has been accepted. Your tuition and lodgings will be paid for by the federal government. Congratulations, we look forward to welcoming you to Australia.’

Everyone hugged and clapped for Nop and he was so happy he actually cried.

That evening we threw him a huge party and invited everyone from the village. Nop was so proud, dressed in his smartest clothes, boasting to the pretty girls of all the things he would do and see when he left the island. 

‘When I return I’ll be able to tell you about all the amazing things in the world,’ he told them. ‘Unlike my brother here, who can only tell you fantasies about walking whales and singing snakes.’ The girls laughed and I turned away. 

The following day our whole family started saving as much as we could to put into a joint savings account.

Although Nop’s education and accommodation would be paid for, he would still need money for his food, clothes and for the journey to Australia. He also had to send off some forms so he could get a passport - neither of us had ever left Nagui before. 

Nop was impatient and unsettled in his final weeks on the island. Few things seemed to amuse him and he grew ever more bored, always dreaming about the life he would have once he got to university. 

But time slipped away, and soon his leaving date loomed just two days away. I suggested to Nop that we go for one last walk to the far side of the island as we had so often done, and he fetched his spear to do some fishing. 

‘You should be coming with me to Australia, brother, and we could take on the world together,’ he said. 

I shook my head. ‘We have never lived apart, so it will be hard for both of us. But going overseas is your dream. I’ve never wanted anything more than this.’ I gestured to beach and forest behind the dunes.

‘Will you keep coming here by yourself from now on to search for your lucky egg?’ he asked.

‘Of course,’ I smiled. ‘Come on. Give the fish some peace and help me in my quest.’ I patted him on the back and we both moved off to probe the dunes for sea turtle’s nests. 

We found several as the afternoon wore on, but they were all either empty or held regular turtles’ eggs. The afternoon bloomed into evening and the western sky turned scarlet.

‘Shouldn’t we head back now?’ asked Nop. 

‘Let’s carry on for 10 more minutes,’ I said. ‘I feel like luck is in the air today.’

I was right about that, but not in the way I had hoped. 

‘I think I’ve found something,’ Nop yelled, and as he pulled his arm out of a nest I could see that he held a large egg. I rushed over and we both marvelled at the sight of it.

‘It’s even more beautiful than the stories make out,’ I said. ‘Look how it shimmers!’

Flecks of gold seemed to move about on the egg’s pale blue surface like a night sky washed with magic. 

‘Unbelievable,’ I said in awe.

‘I know,’ Nop said. ‘And I am the finder. How lucky I am, and how lucky I’ll become!’

‘You are lucky,’ I struggled to hold a smile. I had searched for such an egg for so long and Nop had never even believed in its power. And now he was the one to find it? My head started to burn with a sense of injustice.

‘But will you even be able to take it to Australia?’ I asked. ‘Surely it is better to leave it here. You can give it to me and we can say I found it.’

Nop cackled. ‘Could you really be so jealous, brother, that you do not want me to have the luck this egg will bring?’

I shrugged my shoulders. ‘It’s nothing to me,’ I lied, my heart pumping as I felt my dream fading to grey. ‘But please, let me at least hold it for a minute.’

The egg glowed as I reached out to take it from Nop’s hands, but he pulled away. ‘Take your hands off,’ he said. ‘It’s mine and only mine.’

He struck an elbow out into my chest to ward me off. ‘Hey!’ I cried out, and pushed him back with both hands. Nop stumbled and fell onto the dune, the only sound a slight crack. 

‘Oh no!’ he said, and as he rolled over I realised what had happened. He had landed on top of the egg and its shell had fractured into a dozen pieces.

 ‘What have you done?’ he demanded in anger, jumping to his feet and lashing out at me with his fists. We grappled and fell to the ground, blows flying at each others' faces. Nop grabbed a handful of of sand and threw it in my eyes. They stung with pain and I was forced to roll away. 

As I tried to blink off the sand Nop must have found a rock, because the next thing I felt was its heft smashing into the top of my head. My skull exploded in agony and I cast around for something, anything, to defend myself with. 

I spotted Nop’s fishing spear and lunged for it, scrambling across the sand with him on my tail. I picked up the weapon, thinking I could use it to scare him away, but Nop was closer than I thought. As I turned and thrust the spear’s point it plunged deep into his belly, and, after he fell flat on his back, pinned him to the ground.  

Blood gushed up from his guts and I was consumed with panic. I tried to cover the wound, but I knew I could not pull the spear out or Nop would suffer even more. I was left helpless, on my knees, watching as the life drained out of the person I had felt closest to my entire life. 

I sat there next to my brother’s body for what seemed like an age as the sky turned black.

I was drowning in regret. What could I do now? After such a wound I could not claim this was an accident. A court would find me guilty of murder and I would be sent away to prison on Katui for many years, maybe for the rest of my life.

And if they ever did release me my family would never accept me back. 

So I did the only thing I could think of. I dragged Nop’s body to the dip between two dunes and covered him with sand. I washed the blood off my hands in the sea and walked back to our village. It was the dead of night but I crept along in the moon shadows in case anybody was still awake. 

Our family home was dark which meant everyone must have been asleep. Had nobody wondered where we were? They probably thought we had gone off to a party with our friends to celebrate Nop’s departure.

I stole inside through the window of the bedroom I had shared with my brother, and packed a single bag with clothes. I found Nop’s passport, wallet and airline tickets and stuffed them into my pockets before I crept away as the house carried on sleeping. 

I went as quickly as I could to the port, where there was a bank with a cash machine. I used Nop’s card to withdraw all the money there was in the shared account we had set up for him. I got the dawn ferry to Katui before anyone even realised I was missing.

The airport staff didn’t bat an eyelid when I showed them the photo inside my brother’s passport - we had looked so much alike they thought it was me. They agreed to let me fly to Manila a day earlier than the date on the ticket - the flight was not full.

And now here I am, in the big, dusty Filipino city, a place I had never wanted to go to. But I will not try and use Nop’s ticket to complete the journey to Australia, nothing is waiting for me there.

Instead I must use the money I have stolen to build some sort of new life here. I will try to find a job washing dishes or shining shoes. 

I can afford somewhere to live for now, but I know it will be dirty and cramped and nothing like my former home on Nagui. 

All I see around me are tall buildings, loud vehicles and swarms of people, but my heart is somewhere over the waves. 

If you follow Omura’s whale to the place where palmheads dance on the sea’s bravest mountain, that is where you will find it.

I never wanted to leave my island, for it was a paradise. But one day they will find my brother’s body and realise that it was me who killed him. So I know that I can never return.