Skylark saw a seashag and, for a moment, felt a clutch of terror.
“Is it all over now?”
“Better be!” Bella laughed again. She swayed, made some drunken steps to the cliff edge and raised her fist to the world. “But the manu whenua face an even greater threat today than the seabirds ever posed. It comes from men now, you bloody buggers!” Bella pointed in the direction of the logging trucks. “I had another fight with the road builders today. Those beggars, they take liberties with us. They don’t only want what’s theirs. They want what’s ours too. Greedy. Like the seabirds, they eat everything up. When will it stop? Someone has to be around to tell them to stop. Me and Hoki may have been just a couple of crazy ladies to them, I know, but at least we drew the line. Someone always has to be here to draw the line. And the line, Skylark must be drawn at the valleys that are left to us. Someone has to keep the boundaries in place. Someone has to say no to the bulldozers. Someone has to drive them back to the sea. Someone has to say no to the pollution. Someone has to say yes to the Earth and the people of the Earth.”
Bella raised a defiant fist in the air. “I may be drunk,” she said, “but I’m not down for the count. The line will always be drawn here, Skylark. At Manu Valley.”
Then it was time to leave.
Skylark was wearing one of her favourite badges: Please Leave Me A Green And Peaceful Planet.
Bella had recovered somewhat from her drunken state and, shamefacedly, had put herself together to say goodbye to Cora. “Where the heck is that nephew of mine!” she scolded. “He knows you’re going north today.”
Skylark coloured. At first, on her return from the other side of the sky, things had been really good between her and Arnie. But, after a few days, he’d stopped coming up to Manu Valley to see her. He seemed embarrassed and withdrawn, offering excuses about how he was busy at the garage, as if he couldn’t get away quickly enough.
Well, Skylark thought, if he won’t come to me, I’ll go to him. “I’ll stop by the garage on the way out.”
Bella hugged Cora. “Your daughter, Skylark, she’s a wonderful girl.”
“She’s always been a good girl. I don’t know why she puts up with me.”
“You’re her mother. The only one she’s got.”
“Yes, well, some people don’t know when to give up, do they.”
“Will you be all right back up north by yourself?”
Cora gave Skylark a rueful look. “I guess I’ll have to be.” With that, Cora stepped into the ute.
Skylark drove down Manu Valley, and they were soon in Tuapa. She stopped outside Flora Cornish’s diner.
“I won’t be long,” Skylark said to Cora. “Why don’t you go and have a cup of coffee.”
If there was a problem with Arnie, Skylark wanted to have it out with nobody around. Her heart was beating nervously as she approached the garage. What if he wasn’t there?
He was. When he saw Skylark, his face fell. “So you’re on your way then.”
“Yes.”
“Well, thanks for coming around.”
Skylark wasn’t going to let him get away as easily as that. “Arnie, what’s wrong with you? I could never have done it without you. I thought I could, but I was wrong. You got me around the country, up to Parengarenga, down to Tauranga and across to Nelson. You came with me through the portal and I don’t know how I would have got on when I had to tell the Runanga a Manu about the seabirds. If you hadn’t been my warrior —”
Arnie had a spanner in his hand. At Skylark’s words he threw it across the garage. It clanged against the breakdown truck. He turned to face her and there were tears in his eyes. “Please don’t do this to me, Skylark. Please, just go, will you? I let you down. I mean, I was the one who left you there. I shouldn’t have done that.”
Skylark stared at Arnie. “Is that what all your silence is about?”
“Don’t you understand? I was supposed to look after you and I didn’t do my job. When we were flying in the upper Heavens, I lost it, and I went running across the sky, and that’s when the pouakai saw me. And you saved me. You! Some sidekick I turned out to be. Some intrepid hero —”
Skylark felt herself going numb. She didn’t know what to do. “Well, that’s that,” she said quietly. Then she put out her hand. “Would you like to give me the keys to your wagon?” she asked. “We left it at Wellington airport, remember?”
“My keys? What for?”
“Didn’t Mum tell you? I’m taking her across on the ferry as far as Wellington. While I’m there I thought I’d pick up your wagon and drive it back. That is, if you don’t mind. If you do, I’ll just catch a bus back.”
“You’re coming back? You’re not going away for good?”
“I thought you knew,” Skylark answered. “Didn’t Mum tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“You can’t trust her to do anything properly,” Skylark said crossly. “I told her she’s on her own now. I’ve got my own life to get on with. Do you remember what Lottie said? There are some things that you have no choice about. When Bella goes, who will look after Manu Valley? It’s going to have to be me. And you know what?” Skylark’s heart was beating fast.
“What?” Arnie asked.
Boy, he wasn’t making this easier. “After all we’d been through,” Skylark continued, “I was kind of hoping that —” She took a deep breath. How could she get it through his thick head! Then she thought she heard Te Arikinui Kotuku’s voice: This would be a good time to pretend, Skylark. Rolling her eyes with irritation, Skylark struck a pose and said in a girly voice:
“Arnie! Save me, save me, I’m so helpless!”
Arnie couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. “What did you say? I didn’t hear you!”
Skylark put her hands on her hips and wagged a finger at him. “You heard me. I’m not saying it again.”
“So is this the part where the hero gets the heroine?” Arnie asked. He strode over to her and took her in his arms.
“When who gets what?” Skylark was still trying to get over the shock of Arnie’s arms around her.
“Oops, I’ll rephrase that. When the heroine is lucky enough to get the hero?” He pulled her in to him. Tighter. Tighter.
“That’s better. Maybe.” Hmm. Arnie felt more muscly as a boy than as a bird.
“Good, that means we can — uh —”
“Uh? Can what?” Arnie’s eyes were confusing her, but Skylark wasn’t about to give up everything.
“You can kiss me, and now that we’ve destroyed the evil avian empire, we can ride off into the sunset.”
Skylark pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t push my luck if I was you,” she said.
Three days later, Bella awoke at 3 a.m. The curtains were billowing across her face like gossamer in the darkness. She knew something wonderful was going to happen.
She had been coming home in the afternoons to find berries on the floor and window sills. One night she dreamt of fluttering wings and feathers caressing her cheek.
“Uh oh,” Bella said. “Time to stop drinking and destroy the evidence.”
Over the following days, Bella tidied all the rooms, swept the floors, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen and washed the clothes. Most important of all, she made two trips to the dump to get rid of the vodka bottles. She bought some household deodorant and went around spraying it so that not one hint of alcohol lingered.