Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

Skylark had reached the threshold. She stepped over it.

“Don’t you understand? Mum’s not going to come out of this. Not unless I go back in Time to ask the landbirds to forgive her for burning down their sacred tree.”

Kaa. Kaa .

The light was waning fast. Kawanatanga exhorted his troops to redouble their efforts. But every time they spilled air and closed wings to dive through the ripped sky, the old hen or the male chick who had arrived to help her let loose with the shotguns — and the formations broke up in terror.

“Kaa- kaa. Advance, you cowards.”

The sun was beginning to set. The moment it went down, the ripped sky disappeared before Kawanatanga’s very eyes.

Thwarted, Kawanatanga screamed his rage at his seabird army. “We will have to return tomorrow.” He turned away, flicking a wingtip, and at this signal the seabirds followed him down and out of Manu Valley.

Below him Kawanatanga saw a car returning from Tuapa. It was being driven by the other hen, the one with the withered claw, and in the passenger seat was the chick.

“She is still a threat to us,” he said to Karoro and Toroa. “Remain behind and keep watch on her.” Then he realised that unlike the two old hens, Skylark was not under the Lord Tane’s protection. He placed a bounty on Skylark. “Any gull who brings back her eyes will be richly rewarded.”

Kawanatanga could not contain his elation. He swooped down on the car. Flying level with it, he taunted Skylark with a message:

I’d watch my back if I were you .

“You have to do what?” Bella asked, when Skylark outlined her thoughts to her at dinner that evening.

“Don’t you see?” Skylark answered. “It makes perfect sense. My mother transgressed a Maori tapu and needs to be forgiven for it.”

“And you know tapu,” Hoki insisted. “You know how sacred the paepae was. You know that when a tapu is broken it must be put right.”

Bella looked darkly at Hoki. She had prepared a meal of bacon bones and puha. She banged the serving bowls down on the table and blessed the food. “We give thanks for the kai we share tonight. We also ask for rescue from the lame-brained ideas of a young girl who doesn’t know any better, and from a certain old lady who is egging her on. Amen.”

Hoki gave a gasp of anger, but Bella compressed her lips and began to dish out.

“You should be ashamed of yourself, Sister,” Bella continued. “Why are you encouraging Skylark to even think of such a thing?”

Stung, Skylark sprang to her own defence. “I’ve come to this understanding by myself,” she said. “And don’t think I am doing it for you and Hoki, either. If I don’t go, my mother won’t revive. The only ones who can give her forgiveness happen to be the Runanga a Manu.”

“It’s a crackpot idea,” Bella said. “It’s preposterous, and I won’t have a bar of it. Now let’s just forget the whole thing and eat. I’ve been looking forward to my dinner.”

Skylark was firm. “If I get there before the seabirds from the present arrive, I can tell the runanga they’re coming. That should make up for what Mum did.”

“Are you crazy or something!” Bella asked. “Just how do you think you can do that? It’s not like flying to Auckland. You‘re talking about doing the impossible. Where’s your time machine! Porangi, that’s what you are.” Bella looked at Hoki, expecting her to come around and help her out. But all Hoki said was:

“Sister, Skylark has divined the pattern and the part she has to play in it.”

Bella reached over the table and rapped Hoki on the head. “Knock, knock, is anybody home? You’re unbelievable, Hoki dear. I know we’re looking for a solution to our problem but this one is really dopey.”

“Oh, get over yourself, Bella,” Skylark interjected, not caring whether she was being rude or not. “Whether you like it is of no concern to me. I’ll save Mum, and while I’m at it fulfil your prophecy. I could kill two birds with one stone, right?”

Hoki winced. “Skylark, please watch your language.”

“All I want you two to do is figure how to get me back there,” Skylark persisted.

“I refuse to be a part of this,” Bella said, pushing her plate away. “And thank you both so much for spoiling my appetite.”

Skylark looked squarely at Hoki. “Looks like it’s up to you then,” she said.

After dinner Hoki made up the spare bed for Skylark. She was so cross with Bella that she didn’t help with the dishes and instead rocked and rocked on the old chair on the verandah. She looked up at the dark sky and into the immensity of the universe. Her mind was open and thoughts were whirling around in it.

“An answer to Skylark’s question must be found,” Hoki said to herself. “But where?”

All around, she heard the forest whispering, sneezing, seething. There was something so ecstatic about the night world, something slightly dangerous which thrilled her. People were so ignorant to think that everything went to sleep at night; the night forest was as alive as the day world.

Hoki heard Bella grumbling through the house, going from room to room and switching off the lights — including the verandah one. Bella was like that sometimes: grumpy, petty and mean. Sighing to herself, Hoki reached for her walking sticks. Making as much noise as possible, she clattered her way to the bathroom. There, she dropped the soap, scrubbing brush and nail scissors as she washed; then she got into her dressing gown. On the way to her room she stopped at Bella’s closed door and opened it. The interior was dark, but she knew that Bella was sitting up in the bed, glaring at her.

“When we were little girls,” Bella began, “I put two signs on that door. One was for Mum and Dad, saying Keep Out. The other was at little girl height: This Means You, Hoki. The bottom sign’s still there but obviously you never learned to read.”

“And you never learned that I grew up,” Hoki answered. “Isn’t it about time you raised the sign so that I can see it?” She felt her way in the darkness and tried to get into bed.

Bella swung a leg over, preventing her. “Oh no you don’t,” she said. “You’ve already ruined my dinner, you never even came to help me with the dishes, and since then you’ve been making enough ruckus to raise a ghost. I will not let you ruin my beauty sleep as well. So go away.”

“It’s too late,” Hoki said as she hopped over Bella’s leg. “And I’m not talking about my getting into bed either.”

Bella was rigid, her arms crossed. Hoki felt for them and tried to snuggle in under them, but Bella wasn’t budging.

Ah well, best to plough on regardless. “I feel so lonely, Sister dear,” Hoki said. “I don’t know where to turn, where to go, what to do. I feel so hopeless —”

“Oh, what’s the use,” Bella said. She pulled Hoki over and into her arms. Then, unexpectedly, she said, “You’ll find the answer. You always do.”

“So you’ve come around to Skylark’s and my way of thinking?” Hoki asked.

“Get real, Sister,” Bella growled. “It still sounds like a crazy idea. But the awful thing is that even dumb old me can see the logic and the pattern that is developing from it. Still, it’s not going to happen. Even you can’t do the impossible.”

“Oh can’t I?” Hoki said. She never liked it when Bella thought she knew better.

“No you can’t,” Bella replied. “Now snuggle up and go to sleep, and if I bite you during the night it’s only because I’ll be dreaming of bacon bones.”

The next morning, Bella wasn’t at all surprised to find the place in the bed empty beside her. When something was really bothering Hoki she was likely to stay up all night. Bella wandered into the sitting room and yup, there was Hoki flipping over the pages of the Great Book of Birds. Bella went into the kitchen, made a pot of tea and brought a cup back to Hoki.