Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

“Okay, Auntie. Check.”

“One other thing,” Hoki added. She rummaged in her flax kit and, when she came up for air, she had a pendant in her hands. Attached to the cord was a bird claw. Hoki placed it around Skylark’s neck.

“What is it?” Skylark asked.

“Among all the birds of the land, hawks are the supreme diurnal birds of prey. They are totally fearless. They are also greatly loving of their young. The hen bird offers only the choicest pieces of prey to her young. Each chick is fed in turn. Each gets its share. Arnie already has a claw, and I give this one to you because I have such a claw.” Hoki lifted her skirt to show her withered foot. “As the hawk loves its children, I love you both. May this claw protect you in whatever you do. It can open flesh to the bone. Should you be in danger, let all beware of my fury.”

Skylark was still fuming about Arnie. “You planned this all along,” Skylark accused. “From the very first, you planned that Arnie would come with me. Well, I don’t —”

“Oh tough,” Hoki answered sharply. “Get over yourself.” Ignoring Skylark’s open-mouthed look, she grabbed her and kissed her on both cheeks. She would have done the same with Arnie, but he backed away.

“May the force be with you,” Hoki said to him as she left out the front door. “And with you too, Skylark dear.”

Skylark watched Hoki leave the hospital and walk to her car. She saw the plastic pumped-up doll on the passenger’s side and was disgusted. “It’s got blonde hair, mine is brown. And I hardly ever wear lipstick.”

“The birds won’t know the difference,” Arnie argued. “Don’t you think it’s an improvement on the original?”

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Skylark warned. “We haven’t even started on our trip.”

She watched Hoki drive the car out of the carpark.

Arnie was nervous, raring to go. But it wasn’t dark enough — and those strange, sinister seabird shadows were still gliding across the sky.

“We’ve got to keep to the plan,” Skylark answered. “Better to wait for complete darkness, otherwise we’re dead before we hit the highway.”

“But we’ve already left it late enough to catch the ferry, “Arnie argued. “Leave it any later and we may as well not go.”

Skylark kept a firm grip on the leash. Half an hour later, just as Arnie had reached the limit of his patience, she saw Karoro and Toroa abandon their watch. She gave Arnie the green light.

“Okay, we can go now,” she said.

“You just did that to show you’re the boss, didn’t you.”

They left by the back door and had their first argument about who would drive.

“It’s my wagon and I will drive,” Arnie said.

“And it’s my life and you’re supposed to ride shotgun.”

“Then lets toss a coin,” Arnie said.

“Heads,” Skylark answered.

Much to her anger, the coin came down tails.

“All that I will say,” she hissed as she got in the passenger’s side, “is that we the unwilling, led by the unknowing, will try to do the impossible for the ungrateful.” She slammed the door.

Meanwhile, Hoki had returned to Manu Valley. She carried Lucas’s doll into the spare bedroom and put it to bed. Bella, who had just settled down in her armchair and lined up three vodka shots, watched her agog. “You’re supposed to be on your way north,” she said.

“Arnie’s taken my place,” Hoki answered. “I should have known that as soon as my back was turned you’d hit the bottle.”

“Arnie’s gone with Skylark? You’ve got to be joking. They’ll kill each other.”

“No they won’t,” Hoki answered. “They’re only at each other’s throats because they don’t know each other. It’s better this way. They’ll be forced to talk, or go out of their minds with boredom. The talking will bring them closer together.”

“You hope.”

“As well as that,” Hoki continued, taking one of Bella’s vodka shots and slugging it to the back of her throat, “I just don’t have the physical strength and stamina for the journey; it’s for younger people to go on, not an old kuia like me. Arnie, he can roll with the punches.”

“What happens if there are any big problems?”

“They’re just going to have to sort it out themselves,” Hoki said. “I’m home, and I’m home to stay. I’m too old to change my habits. And you’ve become a habit. We’ve never been apart, Sister dear, never. I’m not about to start now.”

However, all that evening, Hoki tossed and turned with worry. She dreamt of skies black with gulls who had not been duped by the decoy routine. In her dreams she watched as the seabirds followed Skylark and Hoki out of Tuapa. They grouped above Arnie’s wagon, waiting until it had reached the highest bend of the mountain road.

Now. Now .

Horrified, Hoki watched as the seabirds stalled, closed their wings and stooped, uttering their wild hunting cries as they dived.

“No!” Hoki screamed. The seabirds attacked. They smashed themselves into the windows. They covered the entire ute with their wings, as if they were feeding on it. Blinded, Arnie took his foot off the accelerator, but it was too late. The ute smashed through the railing and began to fall over the cliff.

Falling. Falling. Then it hit the rocks and burst into flame.

Hoki woke up, sweating, and saw it was dawn. Dawn? She looked at the clock: five-thirty. The ferry was scheduled to leave at six. She banged on Bella’s door, but Bella was already up, washed and ready for the first watch. “I’ll go on up to the clifftop. Why don’t you wait for Arnie’s call? Didn’t you say he’d call when they reached Picton?”

Hoki waited by the telephone. Six o’clock came and went. In her mind’s eye, she saw the ferry breasting the sea, leaving Picton. She could hear the boom of Bella’s shotgun and the squealing cries of the gulls.

Six-thirty. Still no call. I should have gone, Hoki told herself. I shouldn’t have left the responsibility to Skylark and Arnie.

Seven o’clock. Seven-thirty. Hoki feared the worst. She had always had the gift of matakite, the second sight, seeing into the future. Perhaps what she had seen last night wasn’t a dream at all. Perhaps the police had already been called to investigate a ute, smashed on rocks pounded by the sea. They were already pulling out the bodies of a girl and a boy. Above the scene, Kawanatanga was watching. He turned to Hoki, laughing at her, and she put her hands up to her ears to close him out.

The telephone rang just after eight. For a moment Hoki was too frightened to pick it up, just in case it was the police to tell her the bad news. Just in case it was a doctor at a hospital to say Skylark and Arnie were in critical condition.

“Mother Ship, are you there, Mother Ship? Do you copy? Over.”

Hoki gave a cry of relief. “We copy, Arnie. Thank God you’re alive. I’ve been out of my mind with worry. How’s Skylark?”

“She’s okay. Do you want to speak to her?”

Hoki was so cross that Arnie could be so casual. “In a moment. So, you got out of Tuapa without being seen? How was the trip to Picton? Any problems?”

“No,” Arnie answered. “Sweet as. We hit some roadworks on the way, just before Kaikoura, and that slowed us down and —”

“Yes, I know,” Hoki said, “you’ve missed the ferry.”

“Missed the ferry?” Arnie sounded puzzled. “I thought we would too. But even when the time went past six Skylark insisted we press on. Nag nag nag.”

“Good on her!”

“And guess what, Auntie? The ferry had been delayed. Bad weather apparently. We just made it on time. We’re the last vehicle on board. The ferry’s leaving right now.”

“Now?”