Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

Skylark looked into the face of the kaumatua who greeted her at the Maori Language Centre where Joe had said they’d find Deedee. Behind him she could see a young teacher taking children in Maori language lessons.

“Ae, kua mate te koka,” the old man confirmed. “She died three weeks ago. We had a big tangi for her. She was well loved.”

“But she can’t be dead,” Skylark protested. She looked back at the street, where Arnie was waiting for her.

“The children, particularly, will miss her,” the kaumatua continued. “Although Deedee lived way up on the mountain tops, she never missed a day’s work teaching them to look after the forest and the birds she loved.” He gestured in the direction of Deedee’s mountains. The peaks were like arrows pointing at Heaven. “All that you see up there belonged to her,” he said. “The tribe is taking it over. After all these years of complaining about her sitting up there protecting the land, they’ve now realised that Deedee saved a valuable resource for us.”

“I’ve come so far,” Skylark said. “I’ve come all this way just to see her.” She felt as if a wall had arisen between her and where she should be going. There was no way around it, over it or under it. Nothing.

The old man tried to be sympathetic. “Were you a mokopuna of Deedee?” he asked.

“No,” Skylark answered. She saw the look of puzzlement in his face, but she didn’t want to explain. “Thank you for letting me know,” she said. She turned to leave, and as she did so the young teacher gave her a curious glance, her eyes widening.

Skylark went down to the taxi to tell Arnie the news. “Could you ring Hoki?” she asked.

Mitch answered the telephone. “Are you there, Mother Ship? Do you copy?” Mitch thought it was a kid playing jokes, and was about to hang up when Hoki walked in. She snatched the receiver from him.

“I copy, Arnie. What’s the matter?”

“Deedee is dead. She died three weeks ago.”

“Aue, te koka kua ngaro ki te Po,” Hoki wailed.

Now it was Skylark’s turn to grab the phone. “Hoki? Are you there?” she said. “I’m really sorry about Deedee, but Arnie and I have to keep going. Do you have any idea where we should go now, where we should look? I’ve got to find the Time Portal.”

Hoki calmed down. “Deedee may have left a message for you in her house up in the mountains,” she said. “Go up there and see if you can find it. If you can’t, search for the Time Portal itself.”

“What does it look like?” Skylark asked.

“How would I know!” Hoki answered. “A doorway, I suppose.”

Arnie shrugged his shoulders. “A doorway? What kind of doorway?”

Skylark was in no mood for questions. “Let’s just do it,” she answered.

She was halfway into the taxi when she heard a voice calling to her.

“Were you looking for Deedee?” The young teacher was standing on the steps with the kaumatua, who was looking somewhat abashed. “The kaumatua is getting forgetful in his old age,” the teacher said. “He was supposed to give you an urgent message from Lottie.”

“Lottie?”

“She’s Deedee’s granddaughter. She told us that a strange girl would come looking for the koka. That’s you, isn’t it! Lottie works at The Warehouse on the checkout. You’re to go there. She said to tell you to hurry. There’s not much time left.”

The Warehouse was really hopping. All end-of-season lines had been discounted up to 50 per cent, and the locals had come in searching for bargains in clothes, shoes, garden furniture and kitchenware. Six checkout lanes were operating.

“Which one do you think is Lottie?” Skylark asked.

“The one chewing the gum,” Arnie answered. He pointed to a big, boisterous girl with blonde highlights in her hair (and she had lots of hair), greasy lipsticked lips, and cleavage — and there was lots of that too.

Skylark’s eyes connected with Lottie’s and, from the girl’s reaction, she knew that Arnie was dead on target. Lottie put up her “Position Closed” sign, took off her smock and yelled out in a loud voice: “Jack? I’m taking my lunch break now.” No asking. Just an announcement. Take it or leave it.

“How did you know she was Lottie?” Skylark asked as Lottie shoved her way through the shoppers.

“Easy,” Arnie said. “Just look for the bossiest girl on the block and she’s bound to be one of you.”

Lottie was fumbling in her purse for her car keys. When she reached Skylark she introduced herself. “Hello, I’m Charlotte. People call me Lottie, but my enemies call me Charlie. I’m Nani Deedee’s mokopuna. I know who you are. I was expecting you three days ago. I must say you’re cutting it really fine.” She swept on past, and Skylark and Arnie followed her out to the car park. She fumbled in her purse again and brought out a cellphone. “So what’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m Skylark,” Skylark said.

“Cool,” Lottie said. She was walking a fast clip, noticed Arnie, punched in a number and waited for the connection. “And is he your —?”

Skylark wished people would stop asking about Arnie or assuming he was her boyfriend.

“No, he’s just a friend.”

“Is he going with you?”

Gosh, Lottie sure asked a heap of questions. “Um, I don’t know.”

Lottie aimed her key ring at her car and automatically unlocked it. “No,” she said as Arnie went to get in the front. “Back seat for you. Us girls in front.”

“What did I tell you?” Arnie said. “Bossy.”

Lottie’s call was connected. “Hello? Is that you Quentin? The girl’s arrived. She’s got a boyfriend with her. No, I didn’t know there would be two of them either. You’d better prepare two parachutes —”

Parachutes?

“We’ll be there in twenty minutes. See ya, babe.” Lottie flipped her cellphone off and stepped into her car. She reversed without looking in the rear-vision mirror and drove at speed out of the carpark. An outraged skateboarder managed to get out of the way just in time. “If you don’t like the way I drive, get off the pavement,” Lottie yelled.

Apparently Lottie only used the mirror to put on lipstick or to primp her hair. Once she had done that, however, she seemed to relax. “Ever since I took over as guardian from Nani Deedee,” she began, “my whole life has been like this! Rushing here. Rushing there. I didn’t want it and certainly wasn’t looking for it. Once upon a time I used to go clubbing on Mondays. What do I do now? I go up to Nani’s mountains and check up on her birds. I used to have a girls’ night out on Wednesdays — and last Wednesday we had some male strippers in town. But where was I? Working on a brief with my tribal elders to put a case to the courts on Nani’s land. Then last Saturday I had a hot date, but what happened? I was back up on Nani’s mountain again, playing nursemaid to some kiwi chicks. I tell you, my entire social life has been ruined. Ah well, I guess there are things you just have to do. It’s not anything I have any choice about. At least you’ve finally arrived and that’s the main thing.”

Lottie drove through a red light. “Why all the rush?”Skylark asked. She was feeling very nervous of this girl who, like Hoki, seemed to think she would do what they wanted her to do.

“You know about the Time Portal, don’t you? Well, the way it operates is not all that straightforward. In particular, there’s only certain times during the period when it’s open that you can actually go through. You can go through right now but I haven’t a clue how long it will stay that way! So my cousin Quentin has been on call to fly us to the portal as soon as you got here.

“Fly? But I hate flying. I’ve just got off one plane and I am not getting on another!”