Witi Ihimaera - Sky Dancer

“You never want to take notice of everything that Hoki says,” Bella said, “but sometimes, when the gods have granted you something, a payment has to be made.”

“Skylark’s the payment?” Francis asked, shivering.

They arrived in Nelson. Bella had to post bail for Arnie before the police would release him into her custody. She was shocked at his appearance. He was trembling, feverish, and although his arm was in a sling and he managed a one-armed embrace, he wouldn’t look her in the eyes.

Immediately she had signed for him, Arnie began to go over and over his sorrow. “I shouldn’t have left Skylark there, Auntie. When the pouakai grabbed her and took her back to its nest, I didn’t go after her and save her. If I had been the one taken, that’s what she would have done. I failed her.”

“No,” Bella answered. “Don’t even go there, Nephew. Don’t blame yourself.”

“But I’ve got to get back there,” he yelled. “I have to try to save her!” He snatched the car keys from Francis, who’d been jiggling them nervously, and stormed toward the carpark.

“Stop him,” Bella said.

By the time she arrived at the carpark Francis and Arnie were fighting. Francis had managed to wrest the keys from him, but was nursing a bloodied lip after Arnie socked him in the mouth.

“He’s gone mad, Auntie,” Francis said, and threw the keys to Bella.

Eyes bulging, Arnie approached her and raised a fist. “Give me the keys, Auntie. Give me the goddam keys.”

“No. And if you hit me, I’ll hit you with my handbag.” Bella was cruel. She looked Arnie in the eyes and didn’t try to make it sound pretty. “Face facts, all right? Pray very hard that the pouakai broke Skylark’s neck as soon as it caught her.”

“No, Auntie.” Arnie lunged for the keys again. “Skylark may still be alive.”

“Not after all this time,” Bella said. “You mustn’t hope. Instead, you should pray that she had a quick death and not the slow death of being taken back to the nest and being eaten alive piece by piece, or being fed to the chicks. Do you know what the chicks will do with Skylark if she is in the nest? They’ll play with her at first, like a cat does a mouse.”

“She was alive when I saw her last. Even in the pouakai’s beak I could swear she was alive —”

But Bella was relentless.

“The chicks will think it’s great fun to have this screaming little plaything running around in their nest. After a while they’ll get bored — and one of them will accidentally jab her with its beak and taste her — mmm, yummy. It’ll jab her again. The other chicks will join in the fun. Then they’ll dismember Skylark a piece at a time. She may even remain conscious for a long while. Hers will not be an easy death.”

Such horror took Arnie over the brink. “No. No . So help me, Auntie, I’ll hit you if you don’t give me the keys. I’ve got to go back. I’ve got to.” Arnie gave a shuddering moan, his eyes rolled up and he collapsed, unconscious, into Bella’s arms.

By the time Bella, Francis and Arnie arrived back at Manu Valley, Arnie’s condition had worsened. He was drawn, shivering and incoherent. Immediately, Hoki put him to bed and gave him two sleeping pills. Even so, his mind was filled with images of Skylark being pecked at by ravenous chicks and he thrashed about on the pillow.

“Skylark! Save yourself! No, oh no —”

For a long time, Arnie lay sweating and screaming out Skylark’s name, over and over again. And every time he did it, Hoki was stabbed with remorse. Then gradually the sleeping pills took effect and he quietened down.

“You mustn’t keep on blaming yourself, Nephew,” Hoki whispered to him as he drifted off to sleep. “If anybody failed her, it was me. You two were just the messengers. I was the one who really should have delivered the message.”

When darkness fell, Arnie was still sleeping. Hoki prepared dinner for Bella, Mitch and Francis — corned beef and mashed potatoes, Mitch’s favourite. After dinner the men went to the bach. The women began to do the dishes. Bella could tell that Hoki had something on her mind. “Okay, Sister, spit it out. What’s eating you now.”

Hoki was in between washing and rinsing. “Cora is being brought out of her coma tomorrow. Somebody has to tell her about Skylark. Somebody has to tell her that Skylark is dead.”

“You sure pick your moment,” Bella said. “Well, don’t ask me to do it. That’s your job.”

Hoki was holding the remaining plate from the last lot they had bought at The Warehouse. “I can’t,” Hoki answered. “I loved her —”

“What about me? I loved Skylark too, you know. Just because the chips are down and the going is getting rough, don’t you start piking out on me now.”

Hoki was too busy blubbering to be able to answer.

“All right, then,” Bella said angrily. “I’ll do it.”

Just to make herself feel better, she grabbed the plate that Hoki was rinsing and threw it on the floor. After all, why should her sister always be the one to send plates to the great heaven for broken crockery in the sky?

The next morning, Bella dressed in her formal black dress and tied a black scarf around her head. Mitch and Francis were up at the ripped sky. Hoki was seeing to Arnie, giving him some soup.

“Everybody’s got somebody to get them through this,” Bella grumbled to herself, “and I’ve got nobody. Great.” She drove fast down Manu Valley and into Tuapa. “Ah well, better get it over with.” She had never felt so lonely in all her life.

Cora was lying in the bed, attached to monitoring equipment. Dr Goodwin and his team were there. So was Lucas, face wan with concern.

“Hello, Bella,” Dr Goodwin said. “We’re just about to bring Cora back to us, so you’re just in time. Isn’t Skylark with you?”

“No,” Bella said. She didn’t know what else to add. In silence she stood next to Lucas and waited.

“I’ve been coming to see Cora every day,” Lucas said. “I’ve been watching her while she’s sleeping. She’s so … beautiful.”

Bella looked at him. This was the time when Cora would spit out the poisoned apple. When Sleeping Beauty would awake. As for the rest — Lucas’s dreams and the restoration of happiness to the kingdom, well, life wasn’t that simple, was it?

Dr Goodwin began the induction procedure. He kept checking the monitoring equipment and Cora’s vital life signs. A few suspenseful moments passed, before he gave a grunt of satisfaction. “It shouldn’t take too long,” he said to Bella. “Will you be here when she recovers?”

“Yes,” Bella answered.

Dr Goodwin and his team left the room. After a few minutes, Lucas, too, left to go back to work at the garage. “Will you tell Cora I’ve been here? Tell her I’ll be back.” Twenty minutes later, Cora gave a deep indrawn breath. Her eyelids began to flicker. Bella took Cora’s right hand in hers, not for Cora’s comfort but for her own.

“Is that you, Hoki?” Cora murmured.

Cora’s forehead was beaded in sweat. Her eyes opened. She was trying to focus, looking around the room, and Bella thought she was looking for Skylark.

“Oh, hello Bella,” Cora said.

The moment Bella had been dreading had arrived. “You must be wondering why Skylark isn’t here with me,” Bella began. “Well —”

“Skylark? Skylark?” Cora was sighing. She started to form the words. “I know about Skylark. Of course she’s not here. She’s in that other place.”

Bella’s heart stood still. “That other place? What do you know?”

“I have a message.” Cora began coughing. “From Skylark.”

“A message?”

Cora’s voice was soft and calm. “She’s trapped in that other place. You know, that place where she and Arnie went. It’s big, dark and horrible. And a huge bird, it kind of looks like Godzilla, a giant ogre bird, has taken her to its nest. There are eggs there. Skylark’s all wet and shivering.”