24 ORI (Dance)

Five big toeres, (drums) had been set up and the men were beating a rhythm, fast and intense that made the blood boil and the body twitch to the rhythm. Some men and women moved among the people and they seemed to be organizing the dancers. Men and women with ‘moré’, (hula skirt) and elaborate ornaments on their chest, legs and arms and fine headgear made from flowers and plants found on the island moved into a line up with the women on one side and the men opposite them. The variety of the costumes astonished the two men and their eyes flickered from men to women, taking in the sight.

Then there was a break in the drumming and the movement of the dancers stopped for a few seconds. In that break, Vai and Leilani joined the line-up of the girls, the men hooted and clapped their hands, obviously happy to see these two women joining the group, and it appeared they were the pivots of the troupe.

The drumming started again. The women began to sing and move to the rhythm of the drums in a gentle, wave-like motion, their hands and arms moving with flowing grace while their hips swayed and undulated in a fashion one could interpret as plants moving in the water or grass moving in a breeze.

The harmony of their singing was exceptionally beautiful and at the same time, their dancing was sensual and sexually provocative. The men felt aroused just listening and watching the females dance. It was a magical performance illuminated by the lights of several fires and lanterns. Men danced opposite the women, also with swaying upper bodies, their bare chests decorated with flower garlands and necklaces with shells and seeds of some plants and stones of fruits.

Gábor felt Vai's eyes on him as much as Leilani's, but Vai seemed to be smiling especially for him, and he returned her smile. She was very beautiful in her traditional costume and so was her mother. Wearing lei around their necks that barely concealed their breasts, and swaying to the singing, the lei brushing over their skin, caused their nipples to protrude. Some of the women wore bikini tops under them, but not all. Their grass skirts left their bellies bare and were very low on their hips, barely covering their pelvis and it looked as if most of them wore nothing underneath.

Occasionally their moves revealed their legs all the way to the top, and occasionally their genitals flashed them, one could see the very same thing the skirts tried to cover. Gábor lowered his eyes and Ivan thought Leilani and Vai to be the most beautiful women on this island. In fact, Leilani had been Miss Polynesia and was the best-looking women in all of Polynesia when she was eighteen, but the two men didn't find that out until much later.

"You would fit in perfectly with the dancers," thought Gábor.

Catching his thoughts Helena was amused. Vai and her mother had eyes on him and he wanted to have her, Helena. Certainly, she loved his adoration as any woman would, but he didn't have to look away.  He had an opportunity to enjoy Vai's affection for sure, but for him only Helena mattered, it seemed.

As a woman, Helena felt the turmoil going on in her husband's core. He was a man and as a man, he did have feelings when he saw women, especially ones as attractive and sexy, as Vai and Leilani and Helena felt okay with that. It showed her that he was a man who did appreciate beauty.

"Honey, these women are beautiful and they have their eyes on you."

"Maybe so, but for me, there is only you. Besides, Ivan has his eyes on them already."

Through Leo, she saw Vai looking at Gábor and through the link, it was as if she was looking at her directly; and with the instinct of a woman she knew Vai had fallen in love with Gábor. Even her mother seemed to teeter between Ivan and her husband.

"Ivan has eyes on Leilani and she has her eyes on both of you. Vai has eyes on you since the dolphin encounter."

Helena felt his tight hold on himself, restraining his emotions. She felt how much he was attracted to these women, but he didn't want to admit it, even to himself. He had committed himself to her, Helena; he chained his love to her. She was the only one for him and that disturbed her. She loved him being free like the wind, being with her, but still, he could enjoy his freedom to blow, not like the stagnant air that turned rank and musty.

"They may look all they want; I'm not going to lose you over them, no matter how beautiful they may be."

"What makes you think you'd lose me? Don't you trust my love?"

A fresh breeze, a little more wind would disperse the clouds that still lingered from the dark times and Helena was sure that there was a mutual attraction between her husband and the two women. Helena also felt Ivan attraction to Leilani and was curious how that would end. Ivan's definitely could use a bit more love in his life.

"We're married Lena. I made my choice when I met you. You're the only woman for me."

"You are in love with me and that's why you think that about me. You don’t have to ignore other women because of me. I don’t look the other way when I see a handsome man either,"

"No Lena. Not only do I see you objectively as one of the most beautiful women in the world; many others think the same. Consider me to be the luckiest man alive."

Helena gave up persuading her husband to allow him the freedom to have an adventure. If he was comfortable in the relationship with her alone, she wouldn't push him out of it, but she wanted him to know that he didn't have to limit himself out of fear of losing her.

"You have a silver tongue Gábor," she replied. "Now be in the present and enjoy what you have there. There is nothing wrong with enjoying what is at hand."

The rhythm changed and the women picked up speed, their hips moving in an excited, rapid undulating fashion, and the men flailing their arms in powerful movements as to intimidate and fight an invisible foe, stamping the ground alternatively with their feet and uttering guttural sounds and flicking their tongue out of their gaping mouth accompanied with fierce faces. They suddenly changed to the right in a right angle, dropped to one knee and struck the ground with their hand, shifted their body to face the opposite direction and perform the same move again. It was a very warrior type move and it impressed the two white men. They saw raw power displayed in dance and in a very expressive way.

"Those dances get me going Gábor. Learn well."

The women's rapid shaking of their hips was strongly suggestive and sexually charged and the men marvelled over the dexterity of the women's bodies. They moved closer, capturing their eyes and holding them with theirs while smiling seductively at Ivan and Gábor. It seemed their hosts were teasing them and sure enough, their bodies answered to the women's teasing and Helena laughed and vowed to herself to learn to move like these women. It was truly a magnificent expression of joy and pleasure in life, so much different from the ways of the western ingrained ideas of sin, shame, and guilt. These people enjoyed the pleasures of their bodies in an innocent, childlike manner that left no room for dark thoughts or emotions. It was all light, play, and celebration. Most of the women were slender and young, some were not more than twelve to fifteen years old, and in amongst them Vai and many others between thirty and fifty, and some even older. The dancing went on for a long time and Ivan and Gábor were in communication with Leo and Helena who were commenting on the dances. Ivan observed Leilani, and Helena thought she was very pretty and made an approving remark about her to him. Ivan withdrew from the link, yet still connected and the others just felt his presence. He felt he needed privacy and it was a bit too much of intimacy for him. Leilani dragged Ivan between the dancers.

"She looks like someone I could easily be friends with. I would not mind learning a move or two from her. Do you think you would enjoy learning a few moves from the men Gábor? I love the way they imitate surfboarding. It looks very sexy, don't you think?"

"When I look at the dancing women, I feel like I'm on the wrong island," thought Gábor wistfully.

"And if you can't be with the one you love, Honey, love the one you're with," recited Helena a song she heard a long time ago and Gábor wondered what she meant. In some things he was as dense as a rock, thought Helena.

His attention returned to the dancers when Kahekili, Etienne, and Vai came toward him and indicated for him to come and join the dancing. Gábor wanted to refuse, but when Vai insisted and Helena got involved too with a direct order for him to join into the dance, he relented. The men clapped their hands and gave him some instructions and as he tried to imitate their moves, he glanced over to see Ivan in the midst of some other men dancing. He used kazachok moves, a Russian dance with acrobatic moves where a squatting person kicks his leg out alternatively from under himself; Ivan tried to move to the beat of the drums. The drummers tried to adjust their beat to the moves of Ivan to the delight of the men and there was laughter as the men tried imitating Ivan.

Some fell on their butts and everybody laughed. The whole group was soon trying to join into the dance. They had Ivan surrounded by men and women, Leilani and Vai, dragged Gábor along by the hand into the circle and holding hands, tried to dance like Ivan. Kahekili and Etienne laughed so hard at other men trying to imitate Ivan that their friends challenged them to try it themselves. Neither one could copy Ivan's moves, but many rolled on the ground in amusement. The entire population of the island had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard. Single-handed, Ivan had turned the whole island’s population into friends.

The men got back to their dancing after a while, Ivan tried to dance like them, and Gábor started to get the hang of it too and sweated with the effort. Vai and Leilani seemed to be happy with Gábor, flashed him with their wide smile, and laughed when he made mistakes, which they found amusing. Gábor soon lost his inhibitions about looking like a fool, and by losing his self-critical mind, his dancing became better and he actually had fun. They had become the center of attention for a while and many women appeared to show interest in both men, but then Leilani singled out Ivan and when the other women noticed Gábor's discomfort at their advances, they let off. Not so Vai. She wasn't shy or reserved around Gábor. Leo and Helena were still in the link, but Ivan seemed to have dropped out of it a little while ago, Helena started to lose concentration and Leo was getting tired too. They were lying on the sand with nothing to do and just following the fun in their minds, and although it was fun for a while, the concentration to maintain the link tired them out. They said their ‘Good Night's and terminated the connection.

Gábor danced with Vai and she danced in front of him, her bare breasts scantily covered by the flower garland, smiling and undulating, shaking her hips, her body swaying like a reed in the wind and her hands moving gracefully. Vai played, hauti, as they called it. Then her hips moved in a way that imitated a sexual act and that aroused him. She seemed to be luring him. He couldn't help getting an erection and tried every trick in the book to suppress it, hoping the young woman wouldn't notice his rather swelling bulge.

After a while, he went to his blanket and looked for Ivan. He felt he needed to get away, see something other than Vai and her alluring outfit and the effect she had on him. He knew if Vai continued in her way, he could lose control. Swept up by a group of young girls, Vai stayed with the young women and showed them hand gestures and how to isolate joints in order to be more expressive and Gábor watched with fascination how patient Vai was with the younger girls. While he observed, one of the young girls looked at him and smiled, then lifted her face to Vai and said something to her. Vai listened, then shifted her eyes to Gábor and smiled at him, lowering her mouth to the young girl's ear and the child looked again at Gábor, got up, came to him and kissed him on the mouth like a little girl that she was and said something to him he couldn't understand then hung a shell necklace around his neck.

"Keikilani. My name is Keikilani. I love you," and almost sounded like “Vai loves you" she turned and walked back into the group with a glance back at him. She couldn't be more than ten. Gábor waved and again let his eyes scan the people. Ivan was not among the dancers or nearby and Gábor checked his watch. It was 0130h in the morning and the fires started to burn down. Vai came over and sat down with him.

"You've made many friends today. Keikilani is Kahekili's wife's daughter."

"He's got a beautiful child," he said to her, still thinking about her friendliness.

"It's not his. His friend is the father of two of her children. Another man is the father of the last. Kahekili is sterile, but he wants children."

Surprised he asked Vai. "Is Kahekili okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't he? They are beautiful children."

"I mean, is he okay with his wife having children with other men?"

"Of course. They are good friends. They all share her when she is in the mood. The children are hers and the men sleep in the house."

Gábor swallowed. This was a bit out of the normal.

"She sleeps with all of them?"

"Sometimes, but most of the times she is with one or another. Only on some days, she has three men, depending on how she feels. Is that shocking you?" her eyes scanned his face.

"It is a bit unusual, I admit,” he uttered, his face reddening to the hairline.

"You have in your country something that you call orgies, we didn't have them until your culture said what we did was that. It wasn't immoral or forbidden until then. There were no hidden or immoral activities until the priests and missionaries told us in their view it was that. But some people still practice the old customs and, of course, enjoying the forbidden." Shrugging her shoulders, changing the topic she continued. "You are moving well. You could almost be a Tahitian. Do you like our dances?"

"They are sensual and exciting. Too much for an old man." Vai rolled her eyes.

"What old man?" Vai scanned the area and Gábor wasn't sure whether she mocked him or not. "Ma has eyes on you and your friend Ivan. She had not danced as vigorous as today since she came home. She may, and maybe me too, want to have some fun with you two. I don't think you're old. You're full of life and it excites me to watch you dance."

"I am married, and your Mom stuck with Ivan," he said jokingly, "and you too, are a very exciting dancer, Vai."

"It is fun dancing for you and your marriage didn't do any harm to your masculinity," she said smiling and in the light of the fires and with her exotic outfit she looked tempting as sin. His mind still tried to wrap around what she's had said about sharing one woman with three men.

Vai was sweaty from the dancing and a light in her eyes told him he'd passed some kind of an initiation. As she sat with crossed legs in front of him, the more (hula skirt's) strands sticking to her sweat drenched hips and legs showed more than they covered. She wore nothing under the skirt as far as he could see in the dark with just the torches giving enough light to see the dark patch of pubic hair between her legs and a bit of the narrow gully of her vulva and he felt himself getting excited again. Her thighs looked beautiful and smooth, well toned and long and he wondered; did she have a boyfriend? There had to be men in her life; she was just too beautiful to be single. Her mother said she wasn't looking, but he felt that now he had become an object of her interest. He caught himself looking at her crotch, trying to see what she looked like behind the curtains of her grass-skirt, his imagination running wild. Her feminine odour affected him so much that he had a hard time not to dive between her legs and taste her. To have those legs wrapped around...Stop right there, his mind ordered.

He averted his probing eyes and replied. "It is a great way to get in shape, that's for sure. We have different dances in Hungary, but I'm more of a classical dancer, like Waltz, Cha-cha, Tango, Salsa, and Swing, some modern dances too, Rock and Roll and such, but this is very different. I think Helena would love to learn to dance like you do."

Vai had noticed his eyes on her and the way he looked at her body caused a tingling in her loins. Without wearing any covering as the traditional costumes were, she felt free and uninhibited. She loved dancing for him, and when she called him to dance with her, she had admired the way he moved and thought it was sensuous. Ivan was exciting too with the way he danced, but Gábor had captured her attention. She liked his almost shy demeanour and modest style. In a way, he was like her but had more discipline.

"I would be happy to teach her, but Ma is much better than me, she taught my sister and me. I still need to learn a lot. Did you see how she moves her hips, her hands? She has an incredible range of motion and she is smooth as water. She used to compete in Tahiti when my father was still with us, but after he died, she stopped dancing. Today is the first time since father's death. Ivan is a very good dancer too. I have never seen anybody dancing like that. Everybody loved it and he made a big impression on many people. Where did he learn to dance like that, do you know?"

"Must have been in Russia, I think."

The torrent of words from Vai must be a sign of her excitement, Gábor thought. What was her excitement about? The dancing? And where was Ivan? He let his eyes meander over the people, trying to spot Ivan and he realized he could not see Leilani either.

"Have you seen Ivan? You could ask him, but I can't see him."

Again he peered at her shapely legs, barely covered by her grass-skirt and he wished to see more of them. The forbidden and the fact of no longer being connected to the link tantalized him. He'd had three beers in these five hours and felt the effects. Vai's legs were as beautiful as Helena's. She noticed his intensive gazing at her crotch and she too felt an excitement flowing through her that she had not felt for some time now.

She became more aware of her initial feeling at the moment she'd seen him for the very first time. Had he noticed that she didn't wear anything under her skirt or under the lei, as was the old custom? She knew how men reacted to that, but she never cared for anyone of them, but now she loved the attention from him. There was something about him that made her feel as if she knew him for a very long time.

The attraction to him was immense, married or not and she was a woman. Her biological response to this male was undeniable. Vai felt her sex tingling and a heat wave rushing to her face. His calm and collected mannerism excited her. This man was different from any of the men, she had seen and she wanted to get to know him better.

"No. I think they may have gone for a walk after the last break and I have not seen them since. Ma likes him and you too, I think. They had a long talk late this afternoon when you were by the lagoon. He came back without you, said you needed to be alone for a while, and then Ma and he talked about Mr. Lundy and Canada."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Lundy. Can we come with you when you talk to the dolphins? I have never seen anyone communicating with dolphins and it sounds very interesting."

"I would love it if you'd come with me to see the dolphins," and her eyes lit up. "We'd better get a bigger boat because Ma will want to come too and she needs to ask Kahekili's wife to watch Mr. Lundy. Why not go to the fare and see if Ma is there or perhaps you want to rest before we go?" her eyes watching him. "We can go. It's getting late."

Gábor took her hand to help her up and felt a current rushing through him. He let go of her hand quickly and headed toward the village, and because it was dark he couldn't see much and they talked little and focused on the path instead.

Gábor was a bit confused and his mind was numb. The current when her hand touched his, it felt very familiar, he felt that with Helena and he wanted to contact her to anchor himself with her, but Leo and Helena had gone to rest. Gábor felt strange. Being alone with Vai had upset his equilibrium.

They reached the house after the short walk and all was dark. The main fare had two bedrooms, separated by a bathroom, and there was the main living room where everybody was during the day and the kitchen. When they reached the veranda, they called out, but nobody answered. Vai turned a switch and light illuminated the living room and kitchen. Vai looked at Gábor and smiled her beautiful smile. The flower garland adorning her head made her smile special, or so it seemed.

"They must still be out somewhere, or at the beach; Ma loves it there. You want to look there? I have an idea where they may be and what they are doing," and it sounded tempting.

"No. I think I'll turn in. I'm tired and need some rest. They will come soon too, I think. Mauruuru for the invitation and your hospitality and thank you for the dances. It was the best party I've had the pleasure to be at, thank you. I will see you in the morning."

He turned and almost fled the kitchen toward the fare and entered, lay down and stared at the ceiling for a while, listening to the sounds of the crickets and other insects. Curiously there were no mosquitos in the room. His mind was on Helena and Vai.

He never saw the disappointed look on Vai's beautiful face when he escaped the kitchen and slowly Vai went into her room next to the bathroom. Her mother's room was just on the other side of the same bathroom she too lay on her back, her eyes closed, but in her mind, she saw pictures of dreams she's had in the past and tried to make sense of them.

A little while later she heard light footsteps and whispers. Her mother talked with someone very quietly and they went to the other bedroom, giggling. A while later she listened to moans, little cries, followed by several minutes of rhythmic sounds and suppressed shrieks and grunts from a man's throat and then some heavy breathing. Vai had known her mother would fall in love with either one of the men, perhaps both. Ivan possibly reminded her of Martin, a doctor from the hospital that she still worked with in Papeete, a good-looking man, but a womanizer beyond acceptance, but her mother did love his charm. Still, she had broken up with him a few months ago and hadn't dated since. Gábor wore a ring and for her mother, that was a stop sign, at least with Westerners. Knowing her mother as someone who could satisfy two men if it came to that, Vai had to smile. If Ivan turned out to be a good man, she would stay with him in a monogamous relationship, but wouldn't say "no" to an opportunity if it presented itself and her partner wouldn't protest.

With a pounding heart and a smile on her face, Vai went into a light sleep, but rhythmic sounds and suppressed moans of pleasure filtered through the thin separating walls put her into the mood for some pleasures for herself. Vai laid hands on herself until she experienced her body's release with imaginary scenes of the man in her former bedroom. After that, she fell into a light sleep until the sky turned gray with the first light of a new day.

Rising from her bed she remembered her mother in the neighbouring bedroom with a man, certain it would be Ivan, Vai liked the idea. Her mother had talked with her about European men and that aside from their strange cultural habits and customs they were reliable and thoughtful and treated their partners with respect, which their own people had abandoned since the white men's intrusion into the South Pacific. She had a mixed opinion about them but said when they were good, they were good, but when bad, they were the devils. The worst thing she said was their bigotry and the trend to be arrogant and self-righteous. Neither one of these two men made that impression on Vai and it seemed her mother came to the same conclusion or she would not have invited Ivan into her bed. She tiptoed to the curtained doorway and peeked through the gaps, but her mother was alone. Ivan must have left, leaving her with a Medusa hairdo, rumpled bed sheets, and a smile on her face. If she could have had the same pleasures with Gábor, she would have called that a happy ending. Vai withdrew silently and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for everybody.