“It looks like something’s happening up at Manu Valley,” Lucas said. The noise had brought him out of his garage. He saw smoke and a mushroom cloud of dust hurtling into the air. “Maybe one of the road gangs is using some explosives to clear the bush.”
At Tuapa College, Ron Malcolm felt the ground tremble. Fearing an earthquake, he yelled out to his class, “Get under your desks!” The students screamed, but when there wasn’t a second shockwave they calmed down. “Sir, look —”
Ron saw a crack in the sky. He gasped in astonishment. How could that be? Then a bright light poured like molten silver into the rip. In that moment Ron thought he saw something incredible — an old woman, pulling at the sky with her hands. For a moment she seemed to falter in her task. Then, with another agonised cry, she flexed her feet, became incandescent, and pulled the seams together. The sky joined together with a roar.
Down in the main street, Flora Cornish shook her head and closed her eyes. When she opened them she knew she had been dreaming. This was Tuapa, as sleepy as ever. There above Manu Valley was the sky, as seamless as ever. Yet, when she blinked again the ripped sky stayed printed on her retina. And she knew she had heard somebody screaming and seen somebody dying. Her thoughts went to Hoki.
More people came out onto the street. They stood reassuring themselves for a few minutes. Old Mrs Barber said she had just put her washing on the line and was glad a thunderstorm wasn’t on its way. Harry Summers said that it must have been a freak local weather event, which he blamed on global warming. Lucas said he’d take the truck up the valley later to find out what it was.
The sun was hot and the sky was clear and it was good to have a bit of a chinwag. Suddenly, a strong hurricane-like wind began to blow from the Manu Valley. The air was filled with an unearthly silence.
The sun went out.
From the main road, the townspeople saw them coming. Seabirds were beating out of Manu Valley, retreating back to the sea.
Tears were streaming down Bella’s face. She looked up at Hoki. “I don’t want you to go, Sister. I don’t want you to do this. There must be another way.”
“No there isn’t. The sky must be closed forever.”
“Come through the sky,” Bella pleaded. “Let’s try to figure out how we can close it from the outside.”
“You know that can’t be done.”
“I’m giving you an order,” Bella yelled. “You just do as I say!”
“Please, Bella,” Hoki begged her. “You know I don’t want to leave you. But there’s no other way.” She began to weep. She had joined the sky with her wings but the seams at her feet were still opened. “Sister. Help me. My feet have no strength to pull the sky closed.”
Skylark and Arnie were hugging each other. “Don’t go, Auntie Hoki,” Arnie cried.
But Mitch and Francis knew this was the way it had to be. Mitch began a wild haka:
“Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora ka ora
It is death, it is death, it is life, it is life …”
That’s when Bella stepped forward. She took Hoki’s right foot and positioned it. Then she took Hoki’s withered left foot, kissed it, and put it into the sky’s left overlap.
Sighing to herself, Bella nodded. “Finish your job, Sister.”
With a hiss, Hoki struck at the right bottom seam. With another cry she struck again at the left bottom seam, her withered claw welding into the sky.
Shouting with rage, Hoki began to pull the bottom part of the rip together with her feet.
“Move, damn you,” she cried.
In her death throes she pulled the seams together.
The sky joined with a roar.
Chapter Fifteen
A week later.
In the bright summer sunlight, Tuapa looked the way it had always been. Flora Cornish opened her diner, as always, at five in the morning. Fishermen came in for a hot breakfast at six before heading for the harbour and setting out to sea. Around seven, the girls from the massage parlour ended their night shift and headed home to hit the sack. Lucas came roaring through the main street half an hour later to open his garage. Right on eight, Ron Malcolm clocked in at Tuapa College. The buses bringing rural students to school started to arrive at eight-thirty. Over at the medical centre, Dr Goodwin had started his morning rounds. Nothing about the tranquil scene would have suggested that anything out of the ordinary happened there. Nothing, that is, except for the splash of media excitement when Cora Edwards had fallen from the stage in Bye Bye Birdie. For one brief moment, Tuapa had its five minutes of fame. Now, it was back to normal.
Skylark snapped Cora’s big suitcase shut.
“How are you doing, Mum?” she asked.
Cora was in her usual muddled state. She sat in the middle of Bella and Hoki’s bach, trying to pack the other suitcase. She was taking back more clothes, personal toiletries and shoes than she had brought with her. Not only that but there were all the telegrams, letters and gifts received from fans and well-wishers.
“Why do you need them all?” Skylark sighed.
“Honey, I just can’t leave all these signs of affection behind. I have to answer every letter personally and, after all, they prove my fans still love me and that I am still a star. Just wait till my agent Harold gets a load of all of this. He’ll be on to South Pacific Pictures and I’ll be back at the top.”
Skylark smiled to herself. It was just great to see her mother on the way to recovery. Of course there was a long way to go, but Dr Goodwin had organised Cora to be admitted to a programme of drug rehabilitation when she returned to Auckland. It had also been good for Cora to have had her summer romance with Lucas. Now that she was leaving, however, he had realised that a bird in the hand was better than one who was flying away and had made up with Melissa.
“I’ll tell Bella you’re ready to go,” Skylark said.
“But I need you to help me!”
“No, Mum,” Skylark answered. “From now on, you must help yourself.”
She left the bach and knocked on the door of the homestead.
“Is anybody home?” Skylark called. When there was no answer, she walked in.
The house was quiet, shadowed. Once upon a time two sisters had grown up and lived in it; now only one sister lived there. The physical impact of the loss could be seen everywhere. Hoki had always been the one to keep the house tidy. Now, dishes were piled in the sink. Clothes were waiting to be washed. The sitting room was a mess. And Bella was drinking like a fish. Vodka bottles, gin bottles, beer bottles and whisky bottles were everywhere.
One room, Bella’s bedroom, however, was perfect: the bed was made up; everything was in place on the top of the bedside vanity. And why? Ever since Hoki’s death, Bella had taken to sleeping in her sister’s room, pulling the sheets and blankets around her as if that would help her get over her grieving.
Through the window, Skylark saw Bella silhouetted against the sky at the top of the cliff. She walked out into the sunlight and up the cliff path. Bella was looking out across Manu Valley to the sea. The forest was mysterious, shining with beauty. Far away, the sea was like a sparkling emerald.
Skylark took Bella’s right hand and kissed it. The old lady pulled her into an embrace. She reeked of alcohol.
“So I was the one after all,” Skylark began. “But why did Hoki have to die for me?”
“She did it gladly,” said Bella. “For you, me, everybody, the landbirds. She did it to keep the order of things.” She was trying to focus with her eyes. “Did you know I didn’t want her to go to rescue you?” she asked, slurring her words. “I thought that surely you must already be dead. But Hoki has always been so stubborn.” Bella let out a bellow of raucous laughter. “She knew it was her job, her responsibility. After all, you were her mokopuna. How could she leave you there! My sister Hoki had a long and wonderful life. Yours is just beginning.”