Falling into Rarohenga by Steph Matuku

Author:Steph Matuku
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Huia (NZ) Ltd
Published: 2021-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

TUIKAE

I stare at the empty beach in disbelief and then in growing anger.

‘What the hell?’ I storm up to the water’s edge and shout, ‘Tui!’ but my cry is swept away downriver, into the dark.

I pace up and down the beach, up and down. My anger slowly dissipates, to be replaced by unease and then panic. She’s gone off and left me. Left me! How could she do that? And then I remember my angry words, the hurtful things I threw at her, and I know why she left.

It’s not her fault she spends most of her time alone. Well, maybe a little bit. She’s a prickly kind of person, Tui. It’s not easy getting close to someone who’s practically a kina in disguise. But she’s only been that way since Dad left. She didn’t have to watch out for Mum. She could have been like me and gone off with her friends and left Mum to wallow in her sadness. But she didn’t. She stayed home and made sure Mum had clean clothes and something to eat, and that the house was tidy. She took it all on, and gradually all her mates drifted away. She didn’t have time for them, and so they didn’t have time for her. Funny how that happens sometimes.

When Mum finally came back to herself, it was too late for Tui. She was kind of trapped in a habit of being alone, and she didn’t really know how to come out of it. I suppose I wasn’t much help. I pushed her away when I could have taken her along with me.

So she got stuck into her books, and you know what happens with kids who study a lot. They get really good marks, so they study even more, and the future starts looking real bright for them. Tui didn’t want me or Mum throwing shade on that light. So she pushed us away too.

Still, I didn’t have to be so mean.

I guess I am a dick.

I hunker at the water’s edge and dabble my fingers in it. She was right. It is freezing. I squint across and I think I can see a shadow of trees across the other side, but they’re ages away. Ages and ages.

What if I drown? What happens if you die in the land of the dead? I turn the question over in my head, but there isn’t anyone to ask. Not even Tui.

Fed up, I wrench a rock out of the sand and chuck it into the river. There’s a faint splash, satisfyingly far out in the dark somewhere, and then suddenly, the rock comes whizzing back, just missing my head. It hits the bank, sand splurts up and my heart jumps into my mouth. I can’t believe it. It missed me by that much!

Someone – or something – is rising up from the water. It looks like a person, but under the light of the moon its skin has a shiny green glow. It doesn’t have hair,

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