Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

Skylark was first back to the ute. What do you know — the keys were in the ignition and Arnie had put her wallet back into her backpack. Now why did he do that?

“You’re taking a big chance, aren’t you?” she said as he joined her.

“No,” he answered. “I’m counting on you to have enough common sense to realise that we need each other to get safely back to Manu Valley. For one thing, you can’t drive all the way by yourself.”

“Okay,” Skylark agreed. “But I wouldn’t be too cocky about it.” She jumped into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

“Good,” said Arnie. His gamble had paid off. “But no funny business, right? I’m with you right up to the end credits, got it?”

“Right up to the moment when the hero rides off into the sunset with the girl?” Skylark tried not to sound too sarcastic.

“Something like that,”

“Well, you’ve just missed out on being stranded up here by that much,” Skylark said, eyeballing him, “so if you shut up now you may even escape with your life.”

Arnie nodded okay, but then remembered something. “I’d better tell Hoki and Bella not to expect us back so soon. They’ll want to know we’re making a detour.” He took out his cellphone and dialled Tuapa. “Hello? Is that you, Mother Ship? Do you copy? We’re just leaving Parengarenga. Birdy hasn’t got the Apocrypha. For some reason, she’s given Skylark a feather to go with your claw.”

“A feather? Why would Birdy want to do that? To go with my claw? Was I supposed to give Skylark the claw?” Hoki was bewildered and very worried. “So are you two coming home now?”

“No, we’re on our way to —”

Hoki felt a shiver of apprehension. She glanced out the window and saw Karoro and Toroa hunched on the telephone wires. The hairs on her neck began to prickle. The seabirds were listening in.

“Arnie, listen, I’m cutting the connection. Do you hear me?”

“What did you say, Auntie? Are you still there? We’re on our way to Tauranga. Apparently Joe has the Apocrypha and —”

Hoki slammed the telephone down. With a sick feeling, she saw Karoro and Toroa leaving the telephone line. As they did so, they flew past the window where Lucas’s doll was, seated and screeched with anger.

Foolish woman to think your deception would work.

Back in Parengarenga, Arnie stared at the cellphone, puzzled. Maybe his batteries were running low. He shrugged his shoulders and nodded at Skylark. Time to go.

“Goodbye, Birdy,” Skylark said.

“Goodbye to you,” Birdy answered. “Don’t be put off by Joe’s temper and grumpiness,” she said. “The bark is worse than the bite.” Skylark and Arnie pulled out, and Birdy waved. Then her face opened with joy and she cupped her hands and shouted: “Skylark! Skylark! Do you know what people call a whole lot of skylarks circling in the air? They call it an exaltation, dear, an exaltation!”

Skylark watched Birdy in the rear-vision mirror. The old woman waved and laughed and danced in the sun.

Kaa. Kaa .

Kawanatanga was on the rampage. On his way to the ripped sky, his squad had been attacked by the hawk clan and he had lost two of his best men. Then, as he was encouraging the seabirds to go through the opening he had inadvertently descended to the point where one of the old hens had almost shot him down. Now, Karoro and Toroa, charged with keeping the house of the two old hens under surveillance, had arrived with their intelligence.

“Sir,” Karoro said, “the young chick is not there. She is not in Manu Valley at all.”

Kawanatanga’s tail lifted with anger. His wings trembled as he raised each white plume at right angles. He threw back his head in a malevolent hiss. “Then what is that thing in the nestroom that you have been watching with such commitment and devotion?”

“My Lord, it is a scarecrow made of plastic.”

With a quick movement, Kawanatanga advanced on Karoro, extended his neck and caught the hapless bird by the throat. “So where is the chick then? Where is she?”

Toroa backed away, nervous. He tried to bluff his way through Kawanatanga’s anger. “My Lord, all is not lost. The good news is that while we were sitting on the telephone wires we overheard the old hen in conversation. The female chick has just left Parengarenga with a male chick companion. They are on their way to the one called Joe. The bad news is that the female chick has the claw and the feather —”

“The claw and the feather?” Kawanatanga shrilled. “But how can that be? All they need now is what Joe will give them and —”

The chick knew about the Apocrypha. If she had got that far, she could get further. “Our future is at risk,” Kawanatanga screamed. “As long as the slightest possibility exists that the chick might find a way to overturn what was promised us, she remains our greatest threat.” Kawanatanga arched his throat and flapped his wings, calling for his lieutenants to come to him. When they were assembled, he gave his commands. “You albatrosses, mollymawks, fulmars, petrels, prions, shearwaters, pelicans, gannets, boobies, skuas, gulls, terns and noddies all! Urge your troops through the ripped sky! Meanwhile, I must take my pursuit squad of seashags, fifty in all, northward, for we are in great danger from the chick. She must be stopped. Kill, kill, kill. ”

Karoro and Toroa echoed Kawanatanga’s exhortations across the sky. Satisfied, Kawanatanga gathered his pursuit squad around him. “We fly northward on the next wind,” he said. “But first I want to leave a little message at the nest of the two old hens.”

Long after leaving Parengarenga, Skylark could still see Birdy dancing like a mote of sunlight. What did the old woman say a group of skylarks was? An exaltation, that was it.

Skylark liked that. It made her feel empowered. Humming to herself, she looked in her backpack for one of her badges: We Are All Clark Kent.

Arnie was still sleeping when they passed through Auckland. However, at the bottom of the Bombay Hills where the highway forked, he woke up, scratched his armpits and asked: “Do you feel like a break?”

Skylark eased the ute to a halt. She and Arnie swapped sides, and immediately she sensed his relief at being back behind the wheel. She couldn’t resist needling him. “I should have realised,” she said. “You’re a boy racer. You’ve never been driven by a girl before, have you.”

“Well …” Arnie shifted uneasily in his seat. “Actually, I’ve never let anybody drive Annabelle before.”

“Annabelle?”

“The name of my ute,” Arnie explained. “And before you accuse me of being sexist, Annabelle’s the full name of my mother.”

“You’ve made that up,” Skylark said, folding her arms.

“Why would I do that! If I’d known you wouldn’t believe me I would have brought along Mum’s birth certificate.”

It was happening again. When would Skylark get past all of her stuff. Arnie remembered how, when he was a boy and some other guy had you in an arm lock, you yelled “Pax” and you were released. Maybe it would also work with a girl. He slowed the ute down to a halt. “Look, we’ve already had enough fights getting this far. Are we going to fight the whole trip?”

Skylark stared out the window. What was it about Arnie that kept snapping her elastic? How could she even begin to tell him about why she kept pushing him — anybody — away? But she had to try, so that once and for all he would understand.

“Nobody knows what it was like for me when I was growing up,” she said. “I was an accident which wasn’t supposed to happen. Mum and Brad had fallen in love with the idea of having a baby, especially a little girl, but when I arrived I wasn’t exactly what they had in mind. What they wanted was some pretty little doll with a cute button nose that they could dress up and show off. But Mum grew to love me and I loved her back. Then Brad left her and I’ve been the head of the household ever since. I’ve had to look after my mother, stand her back up when she’s been let down by the series of himbos she’s had trashing her life.”