Rimu E-Book

Lauren Keenan

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

Seitenzahl: 186

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

On the way to school, Amorangi realises he forgot to bring an old object to school to talk about. Quickly, he and his sister, Millie, decide to travel back in time and find something. They've travelled back before, after all. He pulls a piece of bark from a nearby rimu and pockets it to ensure they return then they jump back in time. Then begins an adventure that they nearly don't make it back from as one of their ancestors dies, and Amorangi and Millie find themselves fading away. In their travels, the children experience aspects of events in New Zealand history, such as the Taranaki wars, the Tarawera eruption, the Wahine disaster and quarantine onMatiu/Somes Island.

Leseprobe

First published in 2024 by Huia Publishers39 Pipitea Street, PO Box 12280Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealandwww.huia.co.nz

ISBN 978-1-77550-826-7 (print)

ISBN 978-1-77550-876-2 (ebook)

Copyright © Lauren Keenan 2024Cover illustration copyright © Victoria Grace Te Aho-White 2024

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.

Published with the assistance of

Recipient of a 2021 CLNZ/NZSA Research Grant from Copyright Licensing New Zealand

Ebook conversion 2024 by meBooks

This book is for Amotai and Lily-Raema for inspiring it all.

CHAPTER ONE

Rāwinia 1860

Rāwinia was hiding under the rimu when she saw the strange children. Who were they? She had no idea. In her entire life, she’d never seen such an unusual pair – Rāwinia didn’t know where they were from or where they were going.

Before the children appeared, Rāwinia had been crouching in the dirt, her long skirts covering her bare feet. No one could see her peeking out from the thick ferns. The fresh scent of undergrowth filled her nostrils. Ahh. This was such a nice place to hide. The only other person who knew about this secret spot was her big brother, Eru. But it didn’t matter that Eru knew where to find her. He wouldn’t tell. This place was their secret.

Hiding was fun. Unlike what Māmā was doing – cleaning her dust-covered feet in the nearby stream. When Rāwinia emerged from the bushes she would join Māmā and wash her hair in water so freezing it made Rāwinia’s head throb. The stream flowed from Mount Taranaki, and Rāwinia could feel the water’s icy origins, even on sunny days. Ugh. Washing her hair in the sea was so much nicer – there Rāwinia could dive under the waves and look for fish, so it didn’t feel like a chore at all.

‘We’re in the bush,’ Rāwinia had said to Māmā, right before she’d slipped into the trees. ‘There’s wood everywhere. We should chop down more trees so we can light more fires. Then we can heat the water for washing so it won’t feel like ice.’

‘No,’ Māmā had said. ‘We can’t be like that man who has moved up yonder, Te Pōrangi. I’ve seen him and his men chop down trees that aren’t his. Te Pōrangi has no respect for the forest.’

Rāwinia sighed. Māmā had a point. But, still.

A pair of tūī sang from a branch above. Rāwinia smiled. Just look at them up there. What a lovely sound they made! She stroked the tree; the bark felt rough under her fingertips. Just think of how many generations this rimu had stood through, in this very spot. Māmā was right. Tāne-nui-a-Rangi, the God of the Forest, deserved respect. Rāwinia and Māmā shouldn’t take anything they didn’t need to use. Not like that man with the white beard and bright red face, Mr Fox. The people of the papa kāinga often saw him stalking around the town and shouting things at the sky. That’s why they called him Te Pōrangi – TheCrazy One.

Rāwinia peeked around the rimu’s thick trunk. She could see Māmā soaking her feet in the stream. Beside Māmā sat a flax kete, bulging with berries they’d collected to trade. It had been a useful journey into the forest – those sweet berries would fetch a good price with the settlers. Not far from Māmā stood Eru, throwing stones into the river: plop, plop, plop. Eru’s hair was wet – he’d washed it already, so he was allowed to play. It was time to accept the inevitable and wash in the icy mountain water. She couldn’t put it off any longer. Rāwinia stood up and smoothed down her skirts.

It was at that moment that the strange children had appeared.

First, Rāwinia heard a loud rustle in the trees. This was followed by the sound of feet pounding the dirt. The tūī stopped singing and flew away. As soon as the birds disappeared, the two children, who were unlike any Rāwinia had ever seen, had pushed their way through the undergrowth not far from her – a boy and a girl.

Nearby Main Street was getting busier every year, so Rāwinia often saw people she didn’t know. But these weren’t normal strangers. Not at all. The boy wore baggy breeches made of soft fabric and a shirt without buttons that had the most startling image of a yellow creature emblazoned on its front. The girl wore stockings covered in small portraits of cats, and no skirt whatsoever. No skirt! Just cats. How very odd. The girl’s top half was even more remarkable: a shirt in the brightest purple Rāwinia had ever seen. And – the girl’s hair! It was short and curly. It only reached her shoulders. Rāwinia had never seen a girl with such short hair. Lucky, Rāwinia thought. I bet she doesn’t have to wash it in the cold stream.

Who were they? And where on earth had they come from?

‘Hurry!’ the boy called. ‘Millie! Run faster!’

Rāwinia dropped down behind the rimu and peeked through the ferns. The children stood on the other side of the tree, near the stream. Rāwinia watched as they held hands, then closed their eyes. She couldn’t stop staring. What were they doing?

The air shimmered, and for a split second it was as if the sky had broken in two. Rāwinia gasped.

The children had disappeared.

CHAPTER TWO

AmorangiThe modern day

It was a regular Thursday, and Amorangi had planned to have a regular day. When he woke that morning, it had never occurred to him he’d end up sneaking back in time and accidentally causing one of his ancestors to die. Nor had he known that doing so would trigger all sorts of other horrible consequences. If he’d known what was coming, he’d have made different decisions that morning. He would have crawled under his covers and refused to get out of bed.

Amorangi pulled on his favourite Pokémon hoodie and walked to school with his little sister, Millie – down the hill, through the trees and past the rimu near the stream. Mum had said they could walk to school by themselves today. They were old enough, she’d told them. It wasn’t that far.

‘Well, finally,’ Millie said as she walked. ‘Maybe now I can stay up until nine o’clock and drink coffee all the time. Just like Mum.’

Amorangi nodded. ‘I’m still the responsible one, though,’ he said. ‘I’m the oldest.’

Millie poked out her tongue. ‘But I’m the smartest.’

Amorangi passed the rimu, running the tips of his fingers against the tree’s rough bark. The rimu was twice as thick as any other tree in this small area of bush, and much taller. Its presence reminded Amorangi that while life might have its highs and lows, you could always count on some things, like this tree, to stay the same. He pulled his hand back from the rimu and stepped down towards the bridge, then stopped with a start.

‘Uh-oh,’ he said. ‘Oh no.’

Millie stopped walking. ‘What? What’s wrong, Amorangi?’

‘My homework!’ Amorangi said. ‘I forgot to do my homework.’

Millie exhaled. ‘Phew! I thought something bad had happened.’

Amorangi groaned. Millie didn’t understand anything. ‘It is bad,’ he said. ‘I had to bring something old to school for show and tell, and I don’t have anything to take. Now I might get growled by Mrs Clements.’

‘Something old?’ Millie giggled. ‘Maybe you could go back home and get Mum! She complains about being old every time she gets up from the couch.’

‘Be serious, Millie. Mrs Clements said that if anyone forgot their homework, they wouldn’t get to watch a movie in class this Friday. Mrs Clements even promised to bring popcorn for us to eat.’

‘The rimu is old.’ Millie pointed at the rocks in the stream under the bridge. ‘And I bet those are old too.’

‘Rocks aren’t the sort of thing I need. I need an object. Something cool. And interesting.’

Millie cocked her head to one side, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. ‘You could … go back and get something. You know. Go back in time.’

Amorangi stared at his sister. Surely she wasn’t suggesting they time travel? No. No way. After their last adventure, they’d sworn they’d never do it again. Ever. And they’d been pretty good at keeping that promise. Of course, there had been a couple of exceptions. Those candies from when Grandma was a kid had tasted pretty good, and Amorangi loved exploring the native forest that had covered this whenua long before he was born. But that was only ever on Grandma’s birthday, when they knew how to control the magic. Today was a regular day. They didn’t know the rules for regular days.

But he did have to get an object from the olden days for show and tell or else he’d miss out on watching the movie and feasting on popcorn. Why not get something that was actually from the past? The kids in his class would be so impressed.

Amorangi turned to Millie. ‘Let’s do it.’

‘Wait,’ Millie said. ‘We don’t have an object to make the magic work. Remember? We need something to take us back! That’s what we do when we travel on Grandma’s birthday.’

‘I’ve got an idea!’ Amorangi walked up to the rimu, tore some bark off its trunk and put it in his pocket. ‘This should do.’

The two held hands and stood in the middle of the bridge. They closed their eyes and said the magic words. ‘We wish we could travel back in time!’

Amorangi was overcome with the feeling of his arms and legs going numb, and then he heard an almighty pop. Just like that, he was sucked back in time.

He opened his eyes and turned to Millie. They were in the bush. The smell of woodsmoke and damp undergrowth was all around them. Amorangi could hear a sound in the distance: plop, plop, plop. A girl wearing a long, dirt-covered dress scampered through the undergrowth, her long black hair flying out behind her. She didn’t see them. Phew. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to talk to anyone here and would remain just long enough to find something cool for show and tell. Something old. But not weird old, because whatever it was, he’d need to pretend he’d found it at home. Then, after school, he’d have to hide it so Mum didn’t find it and wonder where it came from. Either that, or Amorangi would have to take the thing, whatever it turned out to be, back to where he’d found it.

Amorangi frowned. Hmm. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. He looked down at what he was wearing – the bright yellow Pokémon stood out even more than usual in this thick, shadowy bush. It was so bright it might as well have been surrounded by flashing lights.

‘That pop hurts my ears,’ Millie said.

‘I know, right? So, let’s find something old really fast and get back to our time. Okay?’

‘Sounds good.’

The two walked quickly through the bush in the direction of Main Street and stepped out onto the narrow path running alongside the dirt road. Horses pulling wooden carts trotted past shops selling bread, fruit and other stuff sitting in brown sacks. Dust swirled upward each time the horses’ hooves made contact with the street, making Amorangi’s eyes water. He wiped his eyes and wrinkled his nose. The olden days smelled strange – an odd mix of clean and dirty. It was probably because there were so many animals: horses, pigs and dogs wandered around this small section of road alone. Or maybe it was because flushing toilets wouldn’t be invented for ages. He was sure of one thing. He didn’t like it.

Amorangi looked one way, then another. What should he choose for show and tell?

Millie giggled. ‘Take a horse and carriage. That would be hilarious. We could ride it to school.’

Amorangi smiled, imagining himself trying to hide that under his bed afterwards. His bed would touch the ceiling. He pointed at a giant rock sitting by the side of the road. ‘Maybe we should take that.’

‘Ha!’ Millie’s eyes crinkled. ‘I couldn’t carry something so heavy.’

‘Whatever. You’re stronger than you think, Millie. As much as I hate to admit it.’

‘Maybe. But I still couldn’t carry a rock.’

‘You don’t know unless you try …’

Millie stopped laughing and flinched.

‘What?’ Amorangi said. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘That man. Over there. The one with the long white beard who looks like an angry Santa. He’s giving me the creeps.’

Millie jerked her head towards a man standing a few metres away. He wore a white shirt, dark trousers and a vest covered in shiny buttons. On his head sat a tall black hat. Shaking his fist, the man walked briskly in their direction.

Amorangi stepped backwards. He didn’t like this. Not one bit. Going back in time this morning definitely hadn’t been a good idea. What had he been thinking?

The man raised his fist and hollered. ‘Begone, devil children!’

Millie spun around and ran back towards the trees. Amorangi followed her.

‘Devil children!’ the angry Santa man yelled as he chased them. ‘Your clothes! What a degraded and unnatural sight they are. I shall catch you and return you to whence you came. Hell!’

The two of them ran with all their might; they pushed through the undergrowth, back towards the spot they’d appeared from. As soon as they arrived in their spot, they held hands and said the words: ‘We wish we could travel forward in time!’

Pop!

Amorangi peered at what was around them. They were back in their own time – same bridge, same stream, same familiar traffic noise coming from over the hill. Thank goodness.

Millie crossed her arms and glared at her brother. ‘Well, that was a silly idea. Let’s just go to school. We don’t want to be late, or Mum will never trust us to walk by ourselves again.’

‘Yeah.’ Amorangi nodded. ‘I can take one of those stones to show and tell. I’ll say it’s special because it rolled down the maunga hundreds of years ago. It might not even be a lie, you know – who knows where these stones came from? And taking a stone to school is better than risking seeing that creepy man again.’

Amorangi walked to the end of the bridge. He was about to fetch a rock from the stream when he heard Millie scream. He spun back around to look at her.

Millie’s eyes were wide, her mouth open. ‘It’s gone!’

Amorangi looked from left to right but didn’t see anything. He turned his gaze back towards the rimu he’d touched not so long ago, right before he’d had the dumb idea of travelling back in time.

It wasn’t there.

The tree he’d known his entire life, which had stood in that exact spot for generations, had disappeared. There was nothing left. Not even a stump. Amorangi’s body suddenly felt heavy and numb. His legs wobbled underneath him, then they stopped working completely. He fell to the ground.

‘Argh!’ Millie screamed. ‘Amorangi! What’s happening?’

Amorangi could hear Millie, but he could no longer see her.

‘Amorangi! Help!’

But Amorangi couldn’t move. Then everything went black.

CHAPTER THREE

Rāwinia

Rāwinia blinked. Where did the strange children go?

From her hiding spot, she squinted towards where the children had stood, rubbed her eyes and looked again. They were still not there. It must have been her mind playing tricks on her.

Another sound echoed through the forest – a thud of footsteps, heavier than the children’s. Someone else was coming.

Rāwinia looked in the direction the children had run from and froze. It was the man with the white beard and red face. Te Pōrangi. Mr Fox.

‘Come back, you little devils,’ he yelled. ‘Where are you? Have you slithered into the underworld like snakes?’

Rāwinia remained hidden. She made herself as small as possible in the undergrowth, crawled under a giant fern and peeked out from between the leaves. Mr Fox ran to the side of the stream and stood as still as a tuatara. Māmā sat on the other side of the river with her eyes closed. She hadn’t seen a thing. Eru’s plopping had stopped – he must have wandered away.

‘Where did they go?’ Mr Fox said to himself. He looked up, up, up – up to the top of the rimu and to the canopy of branches above. He rubbed his hands together and smiled so widely that Rāwinia could clearly see the row of yellow teeth inside his mouth.

‘What a wonder this tree is to behold,’ he said. ‘I shall sell you for a pretty penny. How fortunate the felling crew are close by.’

He strode away, and Rāwinia watched him go. She felt as if cold winds had blown from the sea and nestled deep inside her body. There was something about Mr Fox’s smile she had not liked as he had looked at Tāne-nui-a-Rangi’s tree. And who had those children been?

‘Psst.’ A sound from beneath a nearby fern. ‘Rāwinia. Over here.’

Rāwinia turned and smiled. Eru! There he was.

‘Did you see Te Pōrangi?’ Eru said. ‘I could hear him yelling, all the way from the river. So many words, falling out of the mouth of a man with so little to say.’

‘Āe!’ Rāwinia nodded. ‘And what about those children? Did you see them?’

‘I did! And what were they wearing? So much colour!’ Eru said. ‘I think they must be patupaiarehe.’

‘No. They can’t be. They’re not frightening enough.’

The old people at the papa kāinga told many stories about patupaiarehe, the tree fairies. The patupaiarehe could be harmless, but they sometimes stole people and cast spells on them. It sounded very scary.

Rāwinia continued, ‘Besides, the old people always said patupaiarehe had light hair, not the same colour as ours.’

Rāwinia and Eru sat under the rimu and swapped theories about the children. Were they magic? Were they settlers from a strange country? Were they from the North?

‘It was all very unusual,’ Eru said. ‘Maybe patupaiarehe are less frightening than we’ve always been told. For how could they have disappeared into thin air like that if they didn’t have patupaiarehe magic?’

Rāwinia nodded. Eru had a point. ‘I think you’re right. They must be patupaiarehe; just with different hair.’

‘We’ll have to tell Māmā,’ Eru said.

‘I’m just glad you saw them too. I would have thought something was wrong with my eyes otherwise.’

A noise shattered their peace: the sound of voices, footsteps, heavy objects being dragged. Rāwinia and Eru leapt to their feet. What was happening? And where was Māmā – surely she could hear all of this from down by the stream? Rāwinia’s breath became shallow, and she felt shaky and twitchy.

The noise got louder and louder. Whatever it was, it was getting closer.

‘Quick!’ Eru said, his eyes darting from side to side. ‘Rāwinia! Hide!’ But it was too late to slip back behind the rimu.

‘Oi!’ A voice boomed out. ‘You two! What are you doing here?’

Mr Fox burst through the undergrowth, another man right behind him. Mr Fox pursed his lips, which were wet with spit, and glowered at Rāwinia and Eru .

‘Get out of our way,’ he said. ‘I demand that you return to your primitive dwellings, right this instant.’

Rāwinia stepped closer to her brother. Eru reached out his hand and placed it on her shoulder. They looked at each other, then back at Mr Fox. Rāwinia wanted to flee, but it was as if some other force was keeping her feet rooted to the spot.

‘What are you doing?’ Eru said to Mr Fox.

‘What do you think, boy?’ Mr Fox waved a large metal saw. The man standing behind him held a second saw. Its jagged teeth caught the light. ‘I’ll give you a clue. This is too large to use to comb my fine beard!’

‘You can’t take the trees away,’ Rāwinia said, her voice quivering.

Mr Fox raised his bushy eyebrows. ‘Who are you to tell me what to do?’

‘The trees belong to Tāne-nui-a-Rangi,’ Rāwinia said. ‘They’re not yours to take.’

The man shrugged. ‘I found it, so it’s mine. It’s called progress – not that your sort would understand anything about that. In any case, if you really must know, I was led to this tree by the Wheel of Fortune. This tree is my fate.’

‘Eh?’ Eru said. ‘How is chopping down one of Tāne-nui-a-Rangi’s trees your fate?’

Mr Fox stroked his long beard. ‘I would never have come here if I hadn’t been chasing two devil children. But now I see: their divine purpose was leading me here, to this beautiful tree. Now get out of my way.’ Mr Fox waved his saw at Rāwinia and Eru. ‘Or else.’

Eru stepped towards Mr Fox, fist in a ball. ‘Kāore.’

Rāwinia placed her hand on her brother’s arm. She spoke urgently. ‘That saw has teeth like the shark we saw last week, hunting near the islands off the beach. It would hurt you, especially in the hands of Te Pōrangi. Look at his eyes – he is even more pōrangi than usual today.’

Eru unclenched his hands. ‘I wish you were wrong, sister. But you’re right.’

The men turned and started to hack at the tree. Eru and Rāwinia rushed away and crouched in the ferns, crying silent tears for the rimu that had been their hiding place.

‘Maybe we should go,’ Eru said. ‘This mamae is deep. It pains me too much to watch.’

Rāwinia shook her head. ‘No. I cannot. The rimu has stood for many generations; we cannot let it be removed without bidding it farewell and saying a karakia.’

‘Then I’ll stay, too,’ Eru said. ‘Perhaps Tāne-nui-a-Rangi will intervene to save his tree. Or perhaps the patupaiarehe will return and help us. If either of those things happen, it would be a shame to miss it.’