Awatea and the Kawa Gang

by Fraser Smith

  “Make Tui a kite,” she commanded.

  Awa sighed. Thinking that maybe it would keep her out of the way, he made a flag with some red Christmas decoration paper and attached it to the end of a stick. The flag’s two long tendrils flowed in the wind as he ran around the lawn to show her how it worked.

  Tui loved it. She ran off on her tubby little legs, waving her arm high in the air, and looking back to see her kite flying behind her. She fell over a couple of times. “Watch where you’re going!” Tai yelled after her, as she disappeared down the path to the front lawn.

  Awa and Tai forgot about Tui as they added more tail to their kite to make it fly better. Every time it swooped and crashed, they brought it in and tied on more thin strips ripped from an old shirt. They flew the kite over the cow paddock by Mrs Carol’s house, letting out the string until there was no more left and the kite was high and tiny in the sky. Tai tied the string to a fence post. They were wondering how long it could stay up for, when they heard yelling and honking from the front lawn.

  Awa was first on the scene. Tui wouldn’t let go of her kite. The gander was chasing her across the front lawn. His wings were flapping, and he was honking. Tui was yelling, and Awa could see she was getting tired. Looking back, she tripped over. The gander attacked, pecking her and beating her with his wings while she tried to get up. Tui screamed, “Tawa, Tawa, help!”

  The boys started kicking and pulling at the gander. He struck them with his wings and hissed down his beak, his head held high. This gave Tui a chance to stand up and run, still holding onto her kite. The gander ran round the boys and took off after Tui. When she disappeared into the house, he gave up the goose chase.

  Inside, Tui was sitting in the kitchen, clutching her torn kite and crying. Nan was inspecting puffy red marks on her arms. “What ever happened to this poor wee girl?”

  “Goose, Nan. Goose!” sobbed Tui.

  “Look at your poor arms!”

  “The gander got her, Nan,” Awa tried to explain. “He ran her down and started goose biting her.”

  “Goose biting? They have no teeth.”

  “She fell over, and he was pinching her arms with his beak when he had a good grip.”

  “You boys go and lock that gander in the paddock while I see to this girl. And Kim better see to that animal! It’s vicious!” Nan was looking for her precious iodine. The boys ran outside and gathered up their shanghais. They had no desire to hear Tui yell when the dreaded iodine went on.

  The gander must have known he was in trouble. He was running up and down the fence line, looking for a gap. The boys let rip with their shanghais, herding the gander off. He was too close to the fence to get enough of a run-up to fly over it, so he ran to a far corner of the lawn where there was a loose wire in the fence and pushed through it while stones smacked into the posts around him. The boys kept firing at the retreating gander, and he found refuge under the hedge at the far end of the cow paddock. They patched the hole in the fence with broken sticks.

  Tui was sobbing, her mouth full of milk and biscuits, when they got back inside. “Did you sort out that gander?” Nan asked.

  “Yes, Nan,” they said in one voice, their eyes on Tui’s arms, now a mixture of yellow and red blotches.

  “Poor little girl, very brave for a four-year-old. It’s lucky that gander never drew blood. If you boys weren’t there, Lord knows what would have happened.”

  Tui clutched her new kite. The Christmas decoration paper, now wet with tears, had leaked red dye on her face, chest and arms. But she wouldn’t be parted from it.

  The next day, she nagged the boys again as she helped them decorate their kite with scraps of Christmas paper. “Get the goose stick, the nice lady wants to see me.”

  Awa changed the subject back to the kite about ten times before he gave in to her nagging. “OK, OK, come on. Coming, Tai?” he asked, looking for support.

  The stick was in its place beside the gate, but they couldn’t see any use for it. There were no geese in sight.

  On Mrs Carol’s verandah, the morning sun was soft and warm. This place isn’t scary at all, thought Awa. He and Tai wandered into Mrs Carol’s bedroom, leaving Tui to rock in the old black rocking chair in the front room. As Tui sang to herself, they discussed ways to secure the bedroom from Kim, like wedging the doors from the inside, and bringing a chamber pot to mimi in so they didn’t have to go outside. They wanted Kim’s ten pounds to sleep in that house, and the sweetness of victory.

  “There is NO Mrs Carol,” said Tai. Awa wasn’t so sure.

  Tui rushed in and said, “Where’s the bath? Show me the bath.”

  “Do you want a bath, Tui?” Awa joked.

  “No, I want some toffee.”

  “Toffee?” Tai was curious.

  “Yes, Tawa. The nice lady said it is hidden under the bath.”

  Awa’s skin prickled, but he held her hand and said, “Come this way.”

  The bath was in a small room towards the back of the house. Light came through a small, high window. The bath had curved legs, like paws gripping the floorboards. Bits of bird’s nest and a few leaves had settled on the bottom of it. Tui knelt down at the tap end, reached under the bath and pulled out a sealed AG jar.

  “See, toffee! Open now, please!”

  Awa’s skin prickled again. “Outside,” he said.

  Sitting in the sun on the verandah, he felt safer. They struggled with the lid. They got the screw ring off after banging it a few times on the floorboards, but a pocket knife was needed to lift the seal.

  “The nice lady said we could have it,” said Tui, reaching her little hand into the jar and popping a large lump of toffee in her mouth. “Thanks, lady! What else have you hidden?” she called.

  Awa and Tai cautiously tasted the toffee. It was good. Awa knew that food should be stored in a cool, dark place. But how come Tui was so sure it was there? Should he get Tui to ask about the ring?

  With her mouth still full, and dribbling, Tui said, “OK.”

  “OK toffee,” said Tai.

  “No, OK lady,” said Tui and ran back inside. The boys followed.

  “Where, lady? Where?” Tui was inside Mrs Carol’s wardrobe, pushing through old floral dresses towards the back. Tai put his head in to watch her. The back of the wardrobe was lined with the same wallpaper as the walls. Tui felt along a seam of paper that was loose. She pushed her fingers under a floppy edge, and something clattered to the floor. Tui scrambled to pick it up. “It’s all right, Miss Lady, I got it.”

  Tui came out of the wardrobe and smiled towards the door. Awa looked to see what she was smiling at and caught a flash of a smile and a wash of red in the thin air beside the bedroom door. Tui was putting something shiny on her thumb.

  “Yes, I will give it to Nan.”

  She ran outside and picked up the toffee jar. Awa helped her put the lid back on. The gold ring sparkled on her little thumb.

  “We have to put it back under the bath and then give this to Nan!”

  Awa wasn’t sure about going back into the house. He said, “You know where to put the toffee, Tui.” She ran back inside with the jar.

  On the steps of the verandah, Tai asked Awa, “What did she get from the wardrobe? It looks like a ring.”

  “It is,” said Awa. “Gold, with a flashing stone.”

  Tui came out without the toffee, talking to herself again and turning the ring on her thumb.

  “We can have one piece a day, you boys, and NO MORE! I will, lady!”

  Tui offered her hand to the boys. “This is the nice lady’s ring. She told me where it was. She hid it from a bad man! She wanted me to find it for Nan.” The ring flashed in the sun. It was heavy gold, with a large, smooth, dark stone that glistened with greens, purples and pinks.

  Nan was thrilled. “Mrs Carol’s ring! Where did you kids find it?”

  “The nice lady told me to give it to you,” said Tui.

  “We’ve been looking everywhere for this. It’s very preciou
s, a black opal. Mrs Carol loved that ring. It was her mother’s, a family treasure. We couldn’t find it when she died. Thank you, Tui. I think we’ll put it away, and when it fits you, it can be yours.”

  “The lady said to give it to you. She hid it in the wardrobe, behind the wallpaper.”

  “Why would she hide it, I wonder?”

  “The lady said she hid it from a bad man.”

  “I can guess. Well, you can thank Mrs Carol, but ask her if I can give it to you when you’re grown up.”

  “I will, Nan, right now,” said Tui, running off.

  Awa and Tai didn’t follow her. It was all a bit too much.

  “No way I’m gonna sleep over there!” shivered Awa. “Ten pounds be buggered.”

  “Buggered twice!” said Tai.

  12

  Poachers

  The Kawa Gang were back at Mangokuri. Awa and Tai had followed Toss’s horse tracks to the Rumbles’ where they finally caught up with him. They were all having afternoon tea.

  “I have news for our vigilantes,” Toss said. “But first, what news from you two?”

  “I meant to tell you, I thought I saw some wooden floats out in the channel where the leopard seals were,” Awa blurted. “But then Tai got ripped up by the magpies and had to get patched up and I forgot.”

  “Yeah, your Nan told us how brave you were, Tai. All that stinging iodine, eh?” He smiled. “Floats? That would be right. Cray pots most likely. That tractor has been back. They cut the wire again. I reckon they come before dawn on a low tide.”

  “Why don’t they just drive along the beach?” asked Pa.

  “How many floats do you reckon, Awa?” asked Toss.

  “Eight or ten. Could be more.”

  “Poachers,” said Pa, “that’s why. Too many pots, too many crays, black market money. Tide’s nearly low. Let’s go down and have a look.”

  Awa, Tai, Carrot, Pa and Toss set off to investigate. Awa led them to Flip-top’s resting spot. From the higher ground above the boulders, they counted twelve small, dark floats scattered around the channel.

  Toss waded out while the others watched from shallow water. “Yep!” he yelled back from the closest buoy. “Pots, and a good catch too.”

  Back on the beach, Pa asked, “When do you reckon they’ll be back?”

  “Tide’s low at dawn tomorrow. I followed tractor tracks back to the creek on the farm boundary. It looks like they drive a truck down the shingle creek bed and unload the tractor onto the bank under the willows. They don’t use our road gates. What say the Kawa Gang stay in HQ tonight, keeping their ears open? I reckon they could get to you quickly, Pa, and you could drive out to my place. We could meet those huas under the willows with their catch.”

  “We should get the cops,” Tai piped up.

  “We could try, Tai,” said Pa, “but it’s a long drive from town.”

  “There is strength in numbers,” said Toss. “We’ve got Ma and Pa Rumble, Bill and Lill, the Kawa Gang, Carrot, and my five dogs and me. I reckon we can stop them. Apart from those huas wiping out the crayfish, I’ve got my sheep to worry about.”

  It was quiet in the tree hut that evening. The only sounds were the murmur of the sea and a ruru calling in the distance. Carrot closed his eyes as soon as it got dark, but the boys were excited and restless. Late into the night, they made up stories about a Māori boy called Puhaha, who lived two hundred years ago.

  Carrot woke them at dawn. “Look out! Look out!”

  They strained their ears. “Shhh, Carrot,” mumbled Awa.

  “Shhh, Boy!” Carrot said loudly.

  But they all heard it. The rumble of a diesel engine in the distance. It was action stations for the Kawa Gang. They were knocking on the Rumbles’ door five minutes later. Pa and Ma were both up, and they all crowded into Pa’s old Austin. Pa stopped to pick up Nan and Pop, who were also ready to roll. It was a squeeze, but only Carrot grumbled. He didn’t like getting his tail feathers in a tight spot.

  Pa followed Toss’s horse down the shingle creek bed, and sure enough there was a flat-deck Bedford truck backed up to the bank under the willows. “They drive the tractor straight onto the bank,” said Pa under his breath.

  They all sat down beside the truck to wait. Awa memorised the number plate. Half an hour later, Carrot and the dogs began to growl quietly. Then came the sound of the diesel engine. Toss hissed his dogs to sit. Awa held Carrot.

  The tractor came along the bank and lined up to drive straight onto the back of the truck. Nan rushed up from under the willows and blocked the way, waving her arms. The driver got a shock, but he kept moving forward slowly. Nan stood her ground. Awa ran to join her with Carrot on his shoulder. Then Pop.

  Another man stood on the transport tray, with four bulging wet sacks. “What the hell do you want?” he shouted, jumping off.

  Toss sued the dogs and they surrounded the tractor, barking. The man jumped back up on the tray, gripping the sacks for balance.

  “You get off that tractor, both of you!” Nan commanded.

  “Jump in the lake, lady!” shouted the driver, pointing at her. “Outa the way, or I’ll flatten ya!”

  “Zealots!” Carrot screamed, drowning out all the other noise. The driver’s eyes widened as Carrot flew at him, perched on the steering wheel, and grabbed the pointing finger tightly in his beak. He pulled, hard!

  “Argh! Cut it out!” The man swung at Carrot with his other hand, and Carrot dodged into the air. The tractor’s engine stalled.

  Toss yelled at his dogs, “Sit down!” They sat quietly.

  Awa guessed the poachers were a father and son. The guy on the back was just a teenager. The father still had his wetsuit on. He breathed heavily and looked at his bleeding finger. “We’re minding our own business and you crazy people come out of nowhere! Piss off!”

  “The cops are coming,” said Tai.

  “What did we do?” the man snarled.

  “Cut my fences, trespassed on farm land and poached crayfish,” replied Toss.

  “There’s plenty of crayfish in the sea!”

  “Not if you keep pillaging them.” Nan was up closer now.

  “Unload, young fulla,” said Toss.

  The teenager looked at his father. The father looked at the dogs, Carrot and the vigilantes. He nodded at his son and slumped over the steering wheel, nursing his finger.

  “We’re going to put them back in the sea.” Nan had her chin in the air as she lectured. “You should only take what you need, then there will always be plenty.”

  “Just trying to make ends meet, lady.”

  “Not a good example to a young man, are you? We want you both gone. If you go fast, you might beat the law. If you ever come back, we’ve got your number plate.”

  “Give us a break. What about our pots?”

  “Confiscated,” said Pa.

  Toss whistled his dogs to heel. This was a signal for action. Pop and Pa lifted the sacks off the tray, the tractor was driven onto the truck, and the poachers drove off fast, up the shingle creek bed and out of sight.

  The four sacks of crayfish were stacked in the boot of Pa’s Austin, the lid open wide. “We’ll get these back in the sea, Toss.” Pop was worried the crayfish might die.

  “I’ll come down and lift the pots and fix the fence properly this time. And I’ll chuck the pots up the back. We don’t want them ending up at one of the baches. Well done, vigilantes! That’s a load off my mind.” Toss smiled.

  The Kawa Gang cheered, “Oo e oo e oo!”

  The crayfish were gently carried back to where they had come from. Awa and Tai got to open the sacks under the water, and they watched as the crays slowly untangled themselves and walked off into the deep. Toss and Nan quietly said a karakia. As the last few crays were shaken gently out of the sacks’ corners, Nan said, “Our gift back to Tangaroa. I have a feeling he will be kind to us in return.”

  13

  Mercy Dash

  The boys were moping around the house. Nan
liked them inside for meals and bed, but she didn’t want them under her feet all day. It had been raining, and only Tui wanted to play at Mrs Carol’s house.

  Tui was happy because Kim had knocked off the gander. The goose stick was not needed any more. Next day, she refused to help them eat the gander. “Goosey goosey gander, where will you wander? Upstairs and downstairs, and in my lady’s chamber.” She was singing an old nursery rhyme. “Poor nasty gander.”

  “Roasted with gravy?” asked Tai.

  “No goose!” said Tui, who ate everything else on her plate.

  Nan agreed that Kim should take the boys out to Mangokuri for some fresh air as soon as it stopped raining. Next morning was fine, and they got ready in record time.

  Pa Rumble was on his seaweed rounds when the Humber 80 roared up the beach. While Kim took a cray pot out to the reef, Awa and Tai ran back down the beach. Carrot was perched on the back of Pa’s horse.

  “Avast!” Carrot shouted from a distance as the boys ran up. “Avast!”

  Pa looked up from his agar and leant on his rusty fork.

  “Avast, me hearties! Ragamuffins on the starboard bow!”

  “Look out! Boy, Boy!”

  Awa and Tai were laughing. Carrot started his version, “Hehe haha haa!” and flew over to land on Awa’s shoulder.

  Pa took a couple of steps closer, limping.

  “What’s happened, Pa?” asked Awa as they shook hands.

  “Bloody fork, went through my boot and my toe, Boy. Be better in a couple of days. No sense in lying around being useless.”

  “Old bugger,” murmured Carrot.

  “I’m done for this tide. Call in when you come past. I s’pose you’ll be off with the bird?”

  “If that’s OK?”

  “Ask the bird. Seems he knows what’s best.”

  “Carrot walk?” asked Tai.

  Carrot nodded furiously on Awa’s shoulder. “Boy, Boy.”

  “Off you go then. Avast, me hearties! Yo-oh-heave-ho!” Pa sang as he heaved the last forkload of seaweed onto his cart.

  The motley crew of three set off down the beach towards Kawa Gang HQ. All was well at the tree hut. The boys tidied up a bit and dragged in some more firewood before heading back to Kim.