‘Ulu-ki-lupe-tea
(Ulu –gi-loo-pe-de-ah)
Preparing in the glass room to walk the hundred meter isle in our well planned out wedding, I hear my sister call for me to hurry. Nerves rise as I stand and glance at myself for the last time as a single maiden. I turn towards the door and Mother opens it for me, she quickly adjusts my train as I step out onto cream coloured carpet. My heart begins to pound harder and louder against my chest as I strain a smile, Father takes my arm and links it to his and pats my hand softly giving me a nod with a proud smile. Tears begin to fill my eyes and my smile begins to fade. The music starts playing softly, knowing really well that it was my cue to make a move towards my husband to be. Witnesses on either side of the pew all raise as I make my entrance.
The Priest smiles softly and looks at Father; the music gradually dies down as Father takes my hand and the Priests speaks in a natural voice,
-- “who is to give this bride away”
Father still holding on to my hand kisses it and with a shaky voice says,
-- “I do”.
He takes the King’s gloved hand and places my hand in the upright faced palm of the and walks away to take his seat in the front row next to mother who had rushed to her seat after adjusting my train.
- “We are gathered here today, to witness the Holy matrimony of His Honourable Majesty the King of England and the Princess of Tonga Tō- mei- Langi. If there is anyone here who objects of the couple may speak now, or forever hold your peace.” Silence breaks loose and after a moment, the Priest proceeds. “Do you Tō-mei-Langi take your Honourable Majesty King of
- “Halt! I come in Peace!”
Every head turns in astonishment towards the chapel doors. My head whips round to look at the King, his eyes wide open also with shock as his head whips back to look at me, his eyes begins to fill with frustration and hate towards the intruder. The King ordered his guards to approach him.
--“SEIZE HIM!”
was the first two words that came from him.
-- “No! wait!” and the guards froze in their spot
-- “He is my brother…” I continued. “Please, let him speak. He wouldn’t have intruded unless he had no good enough reason.” The King looked at me and then at the guards.
-- “Fine. At ease soldiers, let him through.”
Everyone is in shock and the chapel begins to chatter amongst themselves as my brother approaches the alter.
-- “Forgive me Your Majesty…” he said.
-- “My name is Foaki-mei-Langi, I am your fiance’s brother. The reason to as
why I have not mistakenly, but purposely intruded your wedding, is that I would like to speak to my sister.”
He stormed back at my brother.
- “Do you not know what is about to happen here? Do you not see that that I am about to wed your sister, whom I love the most?”
- “And how many more will you love yet leave when you have fallen out of love with them?”
Tears begin to swell up in my eyes as my brother questions my fiancé, the one and only who I have loved for the many years that we have known each other and from what I am hearing, he has not only deceived me but also other women. How many more are there? I’m thinking.
-- “What load of rubbish are you running on?”
I slowly but forcefully draw my hand out of his and took two steps back. Father raises to his feet and with an anger in his eyes looked at my fiancé. Silence. Nothing is said for a second and Father turns to brother.
- “Son, answer his question!” Father stormed at him.
- “Father, you know very well how much I love my sister. And she knows very
well, how much I would love her to be the happiest person alive. But, what I am about to reveal will shock you and this chapel today. The vows that you are about to take Sister, will have the words till death do us part. Does it not say that Reverend?”
-- That is true. What is your point that you’re making child”. Priest responded.”
-- My point here see Priest, your Majesties, Sister and church, the law
states in Section forty nine, line twenty eight that thou shall not wed another, unless partner/spouse is proven deceased or divorced with the signed company of the High Court and the Court of Law…”
-- “And is that all that you have come to tell us?”
Not being able to handle what the discussion is about, I sit on the alter stairs as the King’s voice begins to increase in volume and Brother tries to continue.
--“My point here Your Majesty, is that you still have a wife whom you have not
yet, divorced by law and has not deceased but is still living in your attic today”.
Shocked as we all should be, mouths drop from the crowd and Father who has been standing the whole time approaches the King in anger. Mother rushes to my side and Brother who is now in front of the King holds Father back from attacking him. I look up at Mother and her sad eyes looks at me. Taking my head she gently pushes it towards her chest and holds me for a bit and rubbing my back whispering into my ear telling that everything will be alright.
Gently, I pushed her away as I stood up, everyone falls silent. Looking at Father and then back at the King, Brother takes one step back as I slowly move towards them. Not knowing what to say next I opened my mouth and nothing came out but a small stutter. And then finally I had something to say.
-- “Let him speak. I’m sure there is a logic explanation to as why we have not known this from the beginning.”
Silence again. Then the King begins to speak.
-- “It is true. I have not yet divorced my wife by law neither has she been deceased. She is in her own world, a world that no one but her can enter. You may call her a lunatic as she has been referred to earlier on. However, that is not the reason why I have not been able to tell you. The reason to as why this started was because I fell out of love from her. She couldn’t satisfy me any longer the way I know you can, she couldn’t do anything anymore and so I moved her to the attic as she has embarrassed me and my family in many occasions.”
Upon hearing all this, my heart began to cry, not for me or the King but for the poor girl he had disowned who is his current wife. The King begins to step forward as I move further away from him.
-- “Where is this wife of yours? I want to see her.”
The King nods and leads me out of the chapel. Father, Mother and Brother follows behind us as we jump on to the carriage and he takes the reigns of the horses and urges them to start moving.
A little while later, we arrive at the King’s palace. He jumped off first then held out his hand to help me down. The King begins to walk to his doorstep as his butler steps out of the house to greet him, the King turns to him and softly says,
- “Albert, would you please open the attic for me?”
Albert gives the King a puzzled look then answers to him in a polite manner.
-- “Certainly Your Majesty. I won’t be long.”
For a moment it falls silent and Father has rushed into the doors of the palace with Brother holding onto Mother following behind. Albert returns with a padlock in his hands and allowed us to follow him to the attic.
Albert had led us through to the end of the Palace, to a rather small wooden door. He opened the door and stood aside as The King, Father, Mother, Brother and I walked in and what seemed to be a spiralling staircase that almost reached the roof of the palace. Brother, who was helping me up the stairs with my large wedding dress, was silent for the time. Mother had started sneezing at the dust particles that was floating in the air and Father was holding her free hand as the King kept on walking, leading us to the attic. I had started to sneeze when finally we stopped. The King turned to look at us and opening the door, a dim light had escaped and an odd smell was lingering the air. We all walked in and the King approached the scruffy girl that was sitting on the floor in front of a fire place next to her bed with a grey blanket around her shoulders. The girl was staring at the fire place and the King had knelt down to be the same eye level and started to speak to her but then paused.
-- “She is in a state where no one can communicate with her. The only thing I can do is keep her up here to hide her from the world and from embarrassing me in front of everyone.”
Feeling sorry for the poor girl, I approached her so I could see her properly. She looked pale and you could tell that it was an unusual colour than she normally is. She continued to stare at the fire place as the King got back up to his feet. Lowering myself to her side, I whispered into her ear,
-- “Sorry…”
She turned her head towards me. Stunned, the King stood still to see what she was about to do next. Father and Mother were in shock and Brother staunched as always stood behind them like a guard waiting for something bad to happen. I stayed calm as she stared at me for a bit with her big beetle eyes as they began to tear up. I wanted to say something more to her but the King had ordered us to leave her be in her own world. Standing slowly, she turned back and continued to stare at the fireplace. I wanted to help her, she looks so innocent yet, the way they treated her was like she was some dog being locked behind doors to keep them from seeing the world.
We all walked back down the long staircase, as soon as we reached the foot of it, Albert bowed before the King and the King had ordered him to lock the door again and to take a guard with him for protection. As soon as we were all out of the door and in the main patio, the King began to speak.
-- “Now do you see what I mean, when I said I had to lock her away?”
-- “There is nothing wrong with her, Your Majesty”.
I replied.
- “She had turned into a lunatic just like her mother had while she was a child. It runs in her family. See, when she was a child they lived in farm house nearby with her Tongan - French mother and her English father. Her father wanted to take over more than what they had at the time, but the townspeople despised them living there so they raided their house and burnt it. Her father died in the raid while trying to save one of their slaves and their pet parrot was burnt also. Her Mother went crazy just like she did, but I reckon from the stories that I heard from, her mother was worst than she was. She did not eat, she refused to drink and she was repeatedly raped by the townspeople and eventually died from all the abuse. Anyways, the girl that you saw - at the time while she was a child, she was sent away to a boarding school, run by the French people and when she finished her and I got married.”
His story went on to continue, but all I wanted to know was her name.
--“What is her name? You keep referring to the poor girl as ‘her’”.
-- Oh yes, I apologise. Her name is Ulu-ki-lupe-tea. It is a Tongan name, I know.
Her father before the English one was Tongan. It is literally translated to head of a dove. She was born with a human body but with a dove’s head. She grew older and her head morphed slowly into a normal human head.”
-- “So why do you treat her the same way her mother was treated earlier?”
I replied in a curious manner.
- “She was an embarrassment to me and the Kingdom. She refused to obey me and she went her own way. Every time I needed or wanted her to do something for me, she would refuse when she disagreed with me and have me start a row with her when the guests left.”
Mother started to cry as the King answered my questions. I was too curious to pay any attention. I wanted to help Ulu-ki-lupe-tea, but the King’s story for treating her the way he did sounded like it was just an excuse.
-- “What are her chances now. What are you going to do with her, just leave her to die and treat her like her mother was being treated?”
He looked at me for a moment without a reply and turned away and sighed loudly.
- “If she continues to misbehave, then yes I will have to keep treating her that way.”
Our discussion continued till sunset and I knew I was getting no where with his hopeless replies, so I called it a day. As Father, Mother, Brother and I were about to leave he turned and reached for my hand.
-- “I hope this situation will not have us separated.”
I frowned at him for a second then smiled.
- “That’s your choice. I will be back tomorrow to see if we could change things around.”
The King kissed my forehead and made no eye contact with him from then on. We left the palace in the carriage that Mother, Father and Brother rode on. It was a silent trip home. I was sitting opposite Mother and Father as Brother took the reigns, leading us back home to my house. Mother and Father wanted to go home to their’s as I insisted they stay with me for the night.
We got inside and I showed Mother and Father to their rooms, Brother had already known where to go as he had slept in my spare room constantly or whenever needed. I settled them into their room and Mother followed me out. We went into my room where she had helped me take my wedding gown off. Slowly and gently, she took my hand and lead me to my bed where she sat me down and looked at me with her sad eyes.
-- “I know you didn’t mean to get involved.”
-- Mother, I had no idea that he had a wife, he never mentioned it or even talked about his past.”
-- “I know, deary. You do know that I will support you fully with whatever
decision you come up with?”
-- “Thanks Mother. I think I know what I want to do. I will visit the King again tomorrow noon. I will make my way there at dawn, whilst it is still cool.”
-- “Good idea. I will be up to see you off.”
-- “Alright then Mother, you need your rest.”
After kissing my forehead followed by a hug, she walked to the door and smiled at me once more then closed the door silently like I was asleep already.
Letting my body take its weight, I fell back onto the bed and closed my eyes for a moment in relief of silence. A knock was heard from the door and lazily, I walked over to my stool and picked up the overthrow that was there and put it on. Opening the door, Brother was standing there and I invited him to take a seat.
-- “How are you doing, Sister?”
-- “Not as good, Brother.” I replied with a sigh.
-- “What’s wrong? Tell me what’s on your mind and I’ll do my best to help you.”
-- It’s not me that needs help. It’s her.” I pointed to the ceiling.
-- “There’s nothing we can do, it’s out of our hands. She cannot be saved from
what she’s going through.”
-- “We can do something about it. I want to take care of her. She can stay with me. I’ll look after her. I can take care of her, maybe then she will be herself again.”
-- What nuisance are you talking about? You cannot look after her. She is of the King’s property.”
-- “That is just it, Brother. She is treated like she is somebody’s property. Do you
not realise that she is who she is. She does not belong to anyone but God. She can choose for herself if you let her. That is it. I am going to ask for her myself tomorrow morning, I will leave at dawn.”
-- All right, Sister. It is too late at this time to argue with you so then, I will let you rest as I should also do the same. I’ll be praying for you when you leave. I’ll let Mother and Father know of your plans when they wake up. I do not want to bother them, they need their rest also. Goodnight little one.”
I nodded and my head dropped as I stared at the floor. I did not notice that he was on his feet already, he walked over to me and lifted my head up and kissed my forehead.
As he walked out of the door, I followed him and closed it when he was down the hallway. I walked over to my bed half excited at my plans and half tired, slipping into my blankets I immediately fell asleep.
Dawn came and the roosters crowed. I got up and washed myself thoroughly and dressed suitably to visit the King like I told him the day before. The horses were ready for me which was odd, unless Brother had ordered the servants to have them ready for me by dawn. Thanking the servant who was tending the horse, I rode off making my way to the King’s house.
I arrived at noon as expected and a casket was being carried by the servants. The servants made their out to a cart that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. Curious to find out who had passed, I walked to the palace doors. Before I could speak the King himself stepped out of the doorstep, staring at him for a little while you could see the sadness in his eyes as he stood boldly watching the casket being placed carefully into the carriage. I stood there with him and without a word he looked at me and turned to walk back inside and I followed. Not knowing where he was leading me next, I followed like some servant would until he made his mind to where he was going.
We got to the patio and he pulled out a seat for me at his picnic table, waited for me to be seated first, he took his.
-- “How are you at this bright morning?”
-- Not so well, my Lady.”
I would have figured that myself, but I was only trying to make conversation. How is it that I was supposedly to start one up if I don’t greet them politely?
- “I see your Majesty. Can I ask you something?”
- “Certainly.” He said motionless.
- “Is it possible if I could take Ulu-ki-lupe-tea with me, so I may look after her for you?”
- “No. That is not alright.” Still motionless.
- “And why not?” I was just about to lose my temper, when he finally answered.
- “Because that casket you saw, had her inside it.”
Translation of the names:
-- Ulu – ki – lupe – tea – Head to a dove.
-- To – mei – langi – fallen from the heavens.
-- Foaki – mei – langi – Given from the heavens.
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