Falling into Rarohenga E-Book

Steph Matuku

• Herausgeber: Huia Publishers
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

It seems like an ordinary day when Tui and Kae, fourteen-year-old twins, get home from school – until they find their mother, Maia, has disappeared and a swirling vortex has opened up in her room. They are sucked into this portal and dragged down to Rarohenga, the Māori Underworld, a shadowy place of infinite dark levels, changing landscapes and untrustworthy characters. Maia has been kidnapped by their estranged father, Tema, enchanted to forget who she really is and hidden somewhere here. Tui and Kae have to find a way through this maze, outwit the shady characters they meet, break the spell on their mother, and escape to the World of Light before the Goddess of Shadows or Tema holds them in Rarohenga forever.

Leseprobe

First published in 2021 by Huia Publishers39 Pipitea Street, PO Box 12280Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealandwww.huia.co.nz

ISBN 978-1-77550-623-2 (print)

ISBN 978-1-77550-631-7 (ebook)

Copyright © Steph Matuku 2021Cover illustration copyright © Stacy James Eyles 2021

This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without the prior permission of the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.

Ebook conversion 2021 by meBooks

For my mum and dad

Contents

Chapter 01

Chapter 02

Chapter 03

Chapter 04

Chapter 05

Chapter 06

Chapter 07

Chapter 08

Chapter 09

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Acknowlegements

Backmatter

TUIKAE

I know something is wrong. I can feel it. That’s the crappy thing about being a twin. It’s like you’re connected by invisible cords that bleed if anything bad happens. Mum said that when I was little, I’d cry if Kae fell over, even if he was in another room or outside where I couldn’t possibly know if he was hurt. One time, I was at home with Auntie Huia while Kae was with Mum at the supermarket. He went missing, and apparently, I screamed and screamed right up until they found him in the underground car park playing racing cars with the trolleys. By then I’d had a fit or something, so an ambulance got called. I don’t remember much about it, actually, except they gave me a lemonade iceblock afterwards and I threw it up all over auntie’s leg. I still hate lemonade iceblocks, even now.

Anyway, I have that weird feeling in my stomach that I always get when something’s up with Kae, so I push my books away and go over to the library window, which looks out over the rugby fields. There’s a group of kids way off in the corner under the trees, crowded around a couple of boys fighting on the ground. Even though I can’t see properly through the smudgy window, I just know that Kae is there and that he’s not one of the spectators. So I take off, leaving reference books all over the table, and Mrs McKenzie hisses, ‘Tui, clean up your mess now,’ but I can’t because Kae is in trouble.

Again.

I sprint down the corridors and bang out the fire exit doors into the quad. Even though I’m hot from running and from that familiar cross feeling I get whenever Kae is doing something stupid, a shiver goes down my back and goose pimples spring up on my arms. It’s chilly for a late summer’s day. Dark grey clouds hang overhead and everything feels too still, as though there’s going to be a thunderstorm. I charge right through a group of giggling girls from my year, and one of them drops her phone and yells ‘bitch’ at me, but I don’t care.

Bloody Kae. Bloody, bloody Kae.

I’m getting a stitch already, so I slow down to a jog, and by the time I get to the group of kids I’m puffed out. They’re cheering, and a couple of them have their phones out filming, which makes me so mad. Kae could have his chances ruined forever if something like this gets online. Not that he’d care, but I do.

I use my elbows, and most of them fall back as soon as they see who I am. I’m pretty sure it has more to do with the fact that I’m Kae’s sister, rather than the fact that I’m a prefect. These guys don’t care about school rules much.

It’s Ari fighting with Kae, and I’m so not surprised. Ari’s always been trouble. He makes disgusting comments about me when I pass him in the corridor, and I’ve reported him more than once.

He gets Kae in a headlock and tries to punch him in the face, but Kae twists and elbows him hard in the gut. Ari grunts, before slugging Kae again.

‘Stop it, stop it,’ I shriek. I grab at Ari to pull him away, and he swings at my ear, and then kicks out. I trip and fall on top of him, and both of us hit the ground. My elbow connects with his nose, and there’s a sickening and yet – I’m not ashamed to say it – satisfying crunch.

The kids fall silent, and next minute Mr Tamati has Kae by the collar with one hand and is dragging Ari up with the other. Ari is covered with blood, and good job too.

‘My office,’ says Mr Tamati.

‘He started it. He took my uke, sir!’ Kae says.

‘It’s here,’ offers one of the boys, holding up Kae’s ukulele.

I don’t care about what they were fighting about. I’m more concerned about my earring, which flew off somewhere when Ari shoved me. I drop to my knees and begin feeling around for it. They were a present from my Auntie Huia, and they’re pretty much the only thing I have of hers. Besides which, they’re diamonds, so hello. I spot a little twinkle in the grass and snatch it up with relief, just as Mr Tamati says, ‘And you too, Tui.’

‘Me?’ I scramble to my feet and jam my earring back into its piercing. ‘I had nothing to do with any of this. I was trying to stop it.’

‘Oo boke by nobe!’ Ari says, his hands cupped around his stupid, bleeding face.

‘You kicked me!’ I snarl, and because I’m still mad at losing my earring, I kick him back. ‘How does it feel?’

‘All of you! My office!’ Mr Tamati roars. ‘Anyone else?’

All the watching kids sift away, heads together gossiping, and soon it’s just the four of us under the darkening sky.

Ari and Kae slouch off up to the school buildings, and Mr Tamati says, ‘I’m surprised at you, Tui. I hope your brother’s influence isn’t rubbing off on you.’

‘I seriously doubt it,’ I snap, straightening my uniform and smoothing my long hair back.

We may be twins, but Kae and me are nothing alike. Thank God.

TUIKAE

Tui is the biggest pain in my arse ever. She’s been banging on and on since we left the school grounds, and I’m over it. It’s all the same. ‘Why are you such a dick?’ ‘Why can’t you get it together?’ ‘You’ve got exams; you’ll never pass at this rate.’ And the classic, ‘You lost me my prefect badge, which could mean the end of my future, and if I don’t get into uni, I’ll kill you.’

I finally snap. ‘Piss off. It’s not all about you. And nobody asked you to get involved. You just stuck your nose in where it didn’t belong, as usual.’

‘You’re so stupid!’ she growls. ‘When are you going to realise that what you do affects me too?’

I don’t bother replying. I just plop my headphones back on my ears, deliberately speeding up to leave her behind.

We’re cutting through the back of the old shopping centre. There’s not much there now. Most of the shops have either closed down or made the move to the big new mall on the other side of town. There’s a dairy with overpriced everything, a fish and chip shop, a roast dinner shop, a TAB, a clothing store that sells knock-off designer tees that fall to bits in the first wash, a second-hand furniture store and a shop that fixes old lawnmowers and bikes.

As I grump through the little walkway between the shops, I spot a lady sitting on the brick corner of a weedy garden bed. She’s dressed all in black – not in a Gothy, witchy kind of way, but more sophisticated, like the corporate chicks you see on their way to business meetings in the city. Her hair’s all sleeked back and her lips are blood red. She’s so out of place, I can’t help staring at her a bit.

She catches my eye and winks.

I hastily look away, thinking, Jeez lady, you’re old enough to be my mother.

Except she isn’t. She seems older and younger at the same time. Older than me, older than the world. But young too. No wrinkles or anything.

Tui snatches the headphones off my head and I jump. I yank them back.

‘What were you even fighting about, anyway?’

‘He took my uke. I told you.’

‘But you’ve let him play it heaps before. I’ve seen you.’

‘So? I didn’t want him touching it right that second, okay?’

‘You’re so stupid,’ she says, again.

‘Piss off,’ I say, again. There’s no way I’m going to tell her the real reason. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

She flounces off in a huff, and I glance around to see if that lady in black is watching, but she’s gone. I peer down the walkway through the shops, half thinking I should go too, and never, ever go home. I could run off, seek my fortune like in the old days. Stow away on a ship, join a great fleet migrating to a new land, never to return, ever.

Whatever.

A drop of water falls on my hand, and I look up. The clouds are thick and black now. Another drop spatters my cheek.

With heavy feet, I follow Tui home.

TUIKAE

on top of everything else, it rains on our way home, and by the time I get through the front door, I’m absolutely satched.

Kae barges past me as I’m hanging my jacket up. ‘Let me tell her.’

I’m so mad with him, I yell out, ‘Mum, Kae got suspended!’ I add under my breath, ‘and bloody good job too.’

Kae gives me this dirty look and stomps off to his room, leaving his shoes and wet jacket lying on the hallway floor. I kick them into the corner. Hopefully they’ll go mouldy.

‘Mum?’ I call up the stairs.

There’s no reply. No surprises there: Mum’s hardly ever at home.

I head straight to my room. I unpack my books, boot up my laptop, get changed out of my wet uniform and hang it up to dry. Then I go down the hall to the kitchen. I take an apple from the bowl and bite into it, staring idly out the window at our messy garden. When Auntie Huia was alive, the hedges were nicely trimmed and the vege garden was weeded and tidy.

Mum doesn’t have time to do the garden properly anymore. Kae and I take turns mowing the lawn, and we pull out weeds every now and then if Mum bribes us, but otherwise the garden pretty much does its own thing. Much like all of us, really. Mum’s always off working or studying, Kae is always in his room playing music, and I’m always head down in my schoolwork. I have to, if I’m going to get into uni down south, away from this dump. I’ve got it all figured out. Become a doctor, or a lawyer or something, be rich, live my best life away from here. Okay, so maybe not all figured out, but that’s the general idea.

I take another bite, chew and then notice something strange. The washing on the line is hanging all limp and drizzly in the rain, but – here’s the weird thing – half of it is still lying in the basket underneath, like Mum couldn’t be bothered hanging out the rest.

Her laptop’s on the table, and piles of paper and notes are stacked to one side. The screen saver’s still on, so she can’t be too far away.

‘Mum?’

No reply.

I glance up at the calendar hanging on the wall. Most of the days on it are marked with Mum’s stuff, either ‘Work’ or ‘Uni’, but today’s square is blank. Maybe she’s just gone to the shops or something. Or maybe the school’s called her and she’s gone off to get us? My heart drops at the thought of it. Whenever we get in trouble (and I mean Kae, because I hardly ever do), Mum usually blames herself, and then she throws herself into her work so that she can make more money and give us a better life, whatever that is. To be perfectly honest, she’ll be madder that she’s missing work or study time than about whatever Kae and I have done, anyway.

Hanging next to the calendar is a collage photo board, all pictures of us smiling and being happy. Not showing the truth, really. Still, most pictures don’t, do they? They say a picture tells a thousand words, but I reckon most of the time they tell a thousand lies. The only picture on the board that comes halfway to showing our true feelings is the one where Dad has been cut off with angry scissors. Kae and I are about ten there. Kae is scowling, I look unhappy and Mum’s face is just blank, like there’s nothing left of her. I remember that after Dad finally left, she started to slowly come back to herself, but she never came back to us. Not really.

I check the bathroom, the lounge, the laundry. The laundry door leading to the garden is wide open, and raindrops are splattered across the lino. That’s when I start to freak a bit. Mum would never leave the house with the doors open, never.

I go to Kae’s bedroom and knock. I always knock now, ever since that disgusting incident of two years ago when I’d barged into his room unannounced and sprung him … doing you know what. I mean, he could at least do it under the covers like I did. Boys are so gross.

He doesn’t answer. I gingerly crack the door open, my hand ready to cover my eyes just in case. But he’s lying on his bed, playing his stupid ukulele and humming along to music in his headphones. He hasn’t even changed out of his uniform.

His curtains are still drawn, so his room is dark – and messy. You can only just make out the posters on the wall, and the photos of Auntie Huia, and his school friends and sports teams and things. There’s also a picture of Dad, the other half to the one in the kitchen. Kae grabbed it when Mum went crazy, chopping up the photos and burning Dad’s stuff in the backyard. It’s the only photo of Dad in the house. When I was younger, I used to sneak in to look at it. I’d pat his face and whisper my secrets to him. But he never answered, and after a while I stopped doing it. I guess I grew out of it.

With a grimace, I toe one of Kae’s dirty socks on the floor, and he scowls.

‘Get out.’

‘Did Mum say she had anything on today? I keep telling her to write it down for us but she keeps forgetting.’

‘She’s never here anyway. Who cares where she is?’

He strums again and starts crooning, ‘It’s not easy to push on through, it’s not easy without you …’

It gets on my nerves.

‘I hate that song. Can’t you play anything else?’

‘Get out!’ he roars, and throws a book at me.

I dodge it and stick my tongue out at him. Then I stamp up the stairs to Mum’s bedroom, hoping I’m putting Kae off his strumming with all the noise. I push the bedroom door open. And that’s when I start screaming.

TUIKAE

When Tui screams, I almost fall off the bed. She never screams. Screaming is Out Of Control and Tui is never that. Deliberate, planned, organised and boring, that’s Tui. If she’s screaming, there’s gotta be a good reason for it.

I scramble from the bed, and charge up the stairs two at a time, still holding my uke. I have to admit, I’m pretty relieved to see her standing in Mum’s doorway. From the sound of it, I thought she’d be bleeding to death or something.

I push past her to see what she’s looking at and stop short.

‘Whoa.’

The room’s a mess. Furniture tipped up, clothes and ornaments thrown all over the room, the dressing table mirror shattered.

‘Shit.’ My voice comes out all croaky. ‘We’ve been robbed.’