“I’ve already said I’m sorry. What else do you want me to do?”
“Do you think it’s easy for us,” Bella persisted, “to keep Manu Valley? To stand up to all those people who come to us and want us to sell it? They come because they want to harvest the timber. Or else they tell us, ‘Look, you two old ladies are standing in the way of progress. Because of you we have to build our road around the coast instead of in a straight line from Christchurch to Tuapa. You’re costing us a lot of money.’ Even some of our own people come to harangue us for keeping hold of the land. They say, ‘This is tribal land but the only tribe living on it is you two old kuia. The rest of us live in the cities where life is very hard and hits us in the pocket. If you sell, the money will help to send our kids to school. You’re holding us all to ransom. You are benefitting yourselves while we lose out.’”
Bella’s voice was as firm as steel. “When everybody else is bending with the wind, very few people will lean against it. It has been very difficult, sometimes, for me and my sister to say ‘No’ to people who want to throw cash at us or get angry with us. Just as difficult is for us to keep on paying the rates so that we can keep Manu Valley. Our parents left us money, but that ran out quickly. Hoki and I were younger then, so it was easy to keep some cash coming in. I used to work with Mitch on the fishing boats and Hoki worked in the fish processing factory. As we’ve become older, making money has become harder. We rent out the bach. We live simply. Sometimes we go without. This is the price to pay, Skylark. You know why we do it?”
Bella couldn’t stop herself. “Hoki and I are servants of the Lord Tane. We are his handmaidens, guardians of all the landbirds, nga manu whenua o Tane.”
“Whatever gives you your jollies,” Skylark muttered uneasily. She started to back away. This sister was as nuts as the other one.
“No, let me explain,” Bella continued quickly. But she knew, even as she began to tell her story, that she wasn’t going to tell it as good as Hoki. Once she started, however, she had to keep going.
“When the First Man came to Aotearoa some families were assigned to guard the land, to protect it, and to protect the birds who lived on it. However, when Aotearoa was discovered again, the Second Man was rapacious. Wherever he went he tilled the land and felled the Great Forest. Year by year, the Great Forest has diminished and the bird populations with it. No longer does the moa graze the southern grasslands. No longer does the huia sing in the forest. Of all the landbird species who once lived here, thirty per cent are now extinct. Many tribes of birds have been decimated, and only fragments of the Great Forest remain. The only reason Manu Valley still exists is because Hoki and I are descended from the original protectors, the women priests who set up our system of guardianship. It’s a family thing. My mother and her sisters were the guardians of this sacred valley before me and Hoki. Before Mum and her sisters it was her mother and sisters. And so on way back generations. Just our luck —” Bella tried to smile — “but there has always been a prediction that in the generation of Hoki and my guardianship the manu whenua would face their greatest challenge. We have to face it together. We can’t do it alone. Got the picture now?”
Skylark nodded. If this was Bella’s little trip through la-la land, fine, as long as it didn’t hurt anybody. “Pax?” she offered.
Bella grunted and put her hand out to seal the compact. But as they were shaking Skylark thought back to the seabird attacks and realised, with the chill of certainty, that there was a crazy logic to what Bella was telling her. “The seabirds have something to do with this, haven’t they?”
“Me and my big mouth,” Bella said.
“You told Skylark what?” Hoki asked. She was in the kitchen making dinner, and Bella was helping her dish out. Skylark and Arnie were sitting at the table, staring past each other.
“I’m sorry, Sister,” Bella said. “My mouth ran away on me.”
“Don’t blame your mouth,” Hoki scolded. “Next time you go to the pub, lay off the vodka shots. So what exactly did you tell Skylark? What kind of damage control will I have to put into place?”
When Hoki’s temper was up, she took it out on anything that was to hand. She banged the pots and pans as if they were cymbals.
“Don’t make me feel any worse than I do now,” Bella said. “I told her about Manu Valley, about Mum and —”
“And?” Hoki waited.
“I told her about you and me being the handmaidens of the Lord Tane.”
It was lucky for Bella that Hoki didn’t have a serving spoon in her hand, otherwise she would have thrown it. “You had no right, Sister,” Hoki exclaimed. “That was my job. I hate it when you do my job.”
“It just came up. I took advantage of the opportunity. What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that Skylark can’t be rushed. She could be frightened off. She has to be brought to the understanding of what’s happening in Manu Valley very carefully. I’ve only had time to give her the First Lesson. And what happens? You come along and tell her who we are, and she hasn’t even graduated.”
Bella never liked being backed into a corner and, in retaliation, could say things she really didn’t mean. “Sister, you’ve always been too slow, you’re forever dragging your leg.”
Hoki gave a small angry cry. “Kindly keep my leg out of this.”
“Well, you’d better hurry up with the lessons,” Bella said. “There isn’t much time. Can’t you twiddle your knobs and get a better reception? Isn’t it about time you went digital?”
“You shouldn’t make a mockery of my gift,” Hoki answered. “Nor do I need you to criticise the way I do my job, thank you very much.”
Hoki gave Bella plates of food to take to the table. Bella put them in front of her guests, took a seat and made the silent duo into the silent trio.
“We’ll eat when Hoki joins us,” she said finally.
There was the sound of a smash as something broke on the kitchen floor.
“Should I help her?” Skylark asked.
“No,” Bella said. “Hoki’s perfectly capable of breaking the dishes all by herself — aren’t you, Sister dear,” she yelled.
“When Auntie Hoki’s cooking,” Arnie confirmed, “she doesn’t like offers of help, because it draws attention to the fact that she’s a —”
Bella mouthed the words: See Are Eye Pee Pee Ell Ee. Skylark got the picture. “The consequence is,” Bella said, “that every month we have to go to The Warehouse to buy more crockery.”
An ominous silence descended. When Hoki came to the doorway it was clear that she had heard Bella’s remarks — and that war had been declared. Even so, she tried to appear calm for the sake of her visitors.
“Are you hungry, Skylark?” Hoki asked. She was balanced on one walking stick and pushing the tea trolley across the floor. On the trolley were two pots of stew. Somehow, she misjudged when to stop — and the stew sloshed over and into Bella’s lap.
“Oops, I’m so sorry, Sister. And your best dress too.”
Bella gave Hoki a suspicious glance but accepted the little accident. However, as Bella passed Hoki her plate to be filled with stew, Hoki miscalculated the distance. The plate fell between them and there was a second crash as it departed to the Great Kitchen in the Sky.
“You meant to do that, Hoki,” Bella said.
Hoki beamed a smile of innocence and, changing the subject, turned to Skylark. “What I find interesting,” she said, “is that all of us at the table are named after birds.”