William the Water-Walker

A young man leaves school in Tonga and looks forward to the future.

William the Water-Walker

 

I’m happy, happy, happy,

Happy as can be,

I’m so very happy,

Look at little me.

I’m so very happy.

Hear me shriek and shout,

Just watch me leaping about.

But he wasn’t leaping. Skipping was more like it. And he sang the song under his breath, not shrieking or shouting. But William was indeed happy, happy, happy.

That morning he had sat his final exam, and he knew he had done very well. He had aced it, in fact, just as he had aced the other Bursary exams. He was certain to get a Government Scholarship, and in about eight weeks he would be on a plane to New Zealand, to attend Auckland University, and fulfill his dream of studying Chemistry.

We are very happy,

We are very glad,

We will not be miserable,

We will not be sad.

We are very happy,

We don’t make a fuss,

‘Cause there’s no-one as happy as us.

William was quite sure that his best friend had passed too, and would be on the plane with him…

It was a warm sunny day, like most days in Tonga. William took a short cut across the ground in front of the buildings of Tonga High School. It had rained earlier in the day, and, as usual, the ground was partly covered in large, shallow puddles. They would dry up in a few hours, but now, looking down on them, William imagined he was in an aeroplane flying over a land of forest and lakes. Wearing sandals, as everyone did in Tonga, he could walk through the puddles easily enough.

Leap, leap, leap,

High up in the sky,

Leap, leap, leap,

Leaping very high,

Leap, leap, leap,

High up in the air,

That’s me leaping, up there.

Could he still do it?

When he was much younger, William had convinced himself he could actually fly. Not high up in the air, but just above the ground. He would be walking home alone in the dark, coming back from the church youth club. He would try and take longer and longer strides, and then he would push himself forward with his back foot, and move with both feet off the ground for a moment. Of course, it was only for a second or two, and then his front foot would touch the ground again. But, over a period of months, William had convinced himself that he could stretch out that period to three, four, five seconds. In fact, William would count up to fourteen till he felt his foot come down on the ground. He was actually flying, though only a few inches above the ground!

He never told anyone about it. Perhaps if he had told someone, they would ask him to prove it, and he would fail. But as it was, he had this secret, that he could glide along without touching the ground, and no-one else knew.

Well, in a few weeks he would be flying for real, in a jet aircraft, to a new country and a new life. But no one was watching right now. Could he still do it?

He looked at the next puddle. About two metres wide. He could not step that far without getting at least one foot wet. But maybe he could glide across.

He practised on dry land. One, two, three… No more than that. He tried again. Same result. He walked up to the puddle, his strides getting longer and longer. Then he stepped out. One, two, three, four… And then his foot came down. In the water, true, but very close to the far side of the puddle. Surely he could not have stretched his stride that far. Try again… same result. Then he begain to feel silly about the whole business. He was not a kid any more. He was seventeen. He was going to start a whole new life.

He remembered that his uncle sometimes referred to children as “herberts”. Tonga was full or herberts, because people had such large families.

Forty thousand herberts,

Shrieking with delight,

Forty thousand herberts

Are a wonderful sight.

But none of those herberts,

As far as I can see,

Is nearly as happy as me.

Christmas came and went.  As always, William spent time with his friends, swimming in the lagoon, fishing from the wharf, watching TV together, going down town. But it was not the same. They all knew that this was their last year of freedom �" that a new life was about to begin, and they would never be together in the same way again. Indeed, William was disappointed. It was not such fun as it had been in the past. While he was still thrilled and happy, there was a sort of heaviness too.

Just watch me leaping about..

Leaping wasn’t the same, even in his mind.

And then there were the preparations. New clothes, a new passport, endless talks about how to get on as a student in a big city, where his relatives lived, who to contact, what to do.  And, especially, what not to do. All the dangers of drugs, crime, bad friendships, wasting money. All his relatives were warning him to be so careful.

Of course, there was the church. There were Tongan churches in Auckland, and William looked them up online. They looked exactly like people at his own church �" they even dressed the same. William recalled a verse from the bible :

But those who trust in the Lord shall renew their strength,

They shall mount up on wings as eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

The last day of childhood came. His last evening before the flight to Auckland and a new life.

William was so tensed up that he had to go out for a walk alone. Down to the inlet of the sea, where he found a small rowing boat tied to a tree with about three metres of rope. He did not know who the boat belonged to, but this was Tonga, and no one would mind if he sat in it for a while.

Pushing it into the water he got inside and let it float out with the tide, still attached to the tree by the rope. Now there was a gap between himself and the shore, just as there would soon be between his old life and his new life.

He sat there in th boat for over an hour, watching the sun set in a blaze of glory.

Then he stood up, walked across the water, and on into the future.