“Even as I was driving up here and saw the seabirds coming up the valley I didn’t want to believe it. I still don’t want to believe it,” he said.
“You know about all this?” Skylark asked.
“Ever since I was a kid and used to live with Auntie Bella and Auntie Hoki,” he answered, as if that explained everything. “I used to think it was a fairytale — until now.”
“I should pinch you so that you’ll know you’re not dreaming,” Skylark said. She had meant it to sound like a joke but it came out mean, and Arnie glowered at her. Trying to patch things up, Skylark added lightly: “Come to think of it, you could pinch me too and we’d both know we’re wide awake.”
But it was too late. “I would be so into that,” Arnie said. He turned from her and opened the small backpack he had brought with him. Inside was some cordial and sandwiches.
“Thank you, Nephew,” Bella said, tucking in, trying to calm Skylark and Arnie down by acting normal. “This is hot work. What brings you up here?”
“The hospital has been trying to get Skylark all morning. Obviously you three have been too busy up here to hear the phone. I volunteered to come and pick her up.”
“Has something happened to Mum?” Skylark asked, her eyes pricking with tears. “Can you take me back with you now?”
“I might think about it,” Arnie answered.
Bella put down her sandwich and glared at Arnie. “That’s enough, Nephew. Can’t you see how worried Skylark is?”
Hoki saw her chance. “I’ll take you,” she said to Skylark. “We can have a good talk on the way. Can you and Arnie hold the fort, Sister dear?”
Hoki began to make her way down the cliff face. Skylark followed her. All this stuff was getting so hard to take and, halfway down the cliff, her anxieties about Cora made her stop for breath. Would Mum recover? If so, how long would it be before Mum’s next relapse? Was Mum involved somehow in all these weird prophecies about the birds? “Oh Mum,” Skylark wailed, “What’s happening? What’s going on?”
When Skylark and Hoki were out of earshot, Bella pulled Arnie’s ears.
“Ow! What was that for!”
“No wonder you can’t get a girlfriend,” Bella said.
“Are you belted in?” Hoki asked.
Skylark would have preferred to take the station-wagon, so that she could be in the driver’s seat. However, Hoki assumed they would go in her car, which had been specially configured so that she could drive with her withered leg. Hoki floored the accelerator with her good foot.
“Well, you want to get to Tuapa quick and smart, don’t you?”
“Yes, but I’ve never been driven before by a —” Oops.
“That’s the trouble with you and Arnie,” Hoki said. “Always shooting from the lip without thinking before you let fly.”
They left the homestead behind and drove down Manu Valley. Watching Hoki’s hands and feet flicking expertly from gear shift to accelerator pedal and clutch, Skylark marvelled yet again at this old woman who often appeared to be so fragile but was in reality stubborn, strong-minded and resourceful. Hoki seemed to know exactly what Skylark was thinking.
“People have always thought Bella was the stronger sister,” Hoki said, “just because she’s older than me. They look at me and all they see is that I’m smaller and I have a bad leg. But, you know, when you grow up with a leg like mine it makes you strong, not weak. Even Bella thinks she’s the stronger one, and sometimes it’s best for me to go along with her. But, you know, my sister cries at the drop of a hat, especially over her birds. They come to her with their broken wings or legs, and by the time she’s finished blubbering over them, they can’t fly because they’re so waterlogged. Bella’s the pushover, not me.”
Hoki pushed the car around an S-bend. Changed gear. Decelerated. Not even a tap of the brake to do it. Put her foot back on the accelerator. Eased the car back onto the straight.
“I’m really sorry,” Skylark began, “for what Mum did, causing that rip in the sky. She didn’t mean it.”
Hoki slammed on the brakes. They were at a break in the forest, where the trees thinned, and the road curved outwards. Skylark could see Tuapa below and the sparkling sea beyond. Above, like a disturbing dream, seabirds were ascending into the valley.
“You were supposed to stop it,” Hoki said to her. “You were supposed to stop the sky from opening. You didn’t even need to wave a wand or say abracadabra. All you had to do was stop your mother going up to the ancient tree and smoking a cigarette. Why didn’t you?”
Skylark stared at Hoki, angry. “Get out of my face,” she said. “Every time I say I’m sorry about something you or Bella take it as an excuse to get at me again.”
“I refuse to believe you’re not the chick,” Hoki said, pressing her attack. Her eyes were glowing, looking into Skylark, slipping into her brain searching for something. The old lady went from one memory to the next, opening one door after another, peering into the darkness of each memory. Trying to find something she could recognise. Skylark closed her eyes, pushed — and Hoki found herself being thrown out.
“Don’t do that again without asking my permission,” she glared. “Don’t blame me for what you’ve failed to do. If you want to stop what’s happening, go find a magic needle and sew the sky back together. You and Bella have been coming at me out of left field, throwing one whammy after another at me, and I’ve made it clear to you to back off.”
Hoki was so angry. She was angry at Skylark for talking to her like that. She was also angry with herself for choosing the wrong time and place to bring up the matter of who Skylark was supposed to be. How stupid, when the girl was so concerned about her mother.
“All right, Skylark dear,” Hoki said, patting her shoulder. “But I have to say this —”
“Give me a break —”
“You may not have any option, Skylark.” Hoki was hardhearted, for Skylark had to be confronted with it. “You may be between a rock and a hard place. We now have a new situation. You’re part of it, whether you like it or not.”
“You always talk in circles, Hoki.”
“The two events — the ripped sky and your mother’s hospitalisation — may be connected.”
“How!”
“You’ll have to figure that one out for yourself.”
Half an hour later, Skylark and Hoki arrived at the hospital. Skylark was dreading the worst. Why had Dr Goodwin called her so urgently?
“You go on, Skylark,” Hoki said as she parked the car, making a bigger space by pushing the car in front like Mr Bean.
Skylark walked quickly into the hospital, along the passageway to Cora’s suite. Cora’s bed was empty. Heart beating, Skylark ran back down the passage.
“Where’s my mother?” she asked.
The receptionist looked puzzled. She pursed her lips doubtfully at the badge Skylark was wearing: Why Should I Tidy My Bedroom When The Whole World’s A Mess?
“Oh, you mean Miss Edwards? She’s been taken to emergency.”
The receptionist pointed the way, and even though the signs on the door read Keep Out, Skylark barged right on in. She saw Cora and knew something was terribly wrong.
Cora was jerking like a puppet on strings. She was snapping her head backwards and forwards. The doctor and his nurses were holding her down.
“At last you’re here,” Dr Goodwin said when he saw Skylark. “We’ve been trying to get you all morning. Do you hold Power of Attorney?”
“Yes,” Skylark said. “What’s happening to my mother?” She was shivering. Trying not to show she was scared out of her wits.
“She’s in a critical condition,” Dr Goodwin said. “Her body is in overload. All the drugs she’s taken have pushed her to the point where her life signs are spiking. We’ve taken the temporary measure of stabilising her with sedatives that we hope won’t be adding to the problem. But what we really need to do is to induce a coma —”