by Jack Lasenby
Once when Maka wrinkled her nose at some tonic I was giving her, herbs seethed in milk, I said, “You’re much better. But I want to see you your old self.”
“I can never be like that again.”
“A broken arm that heals well is sometimes stronger than the old arm.”
Maka nodded, smiled, and turned to Tepulka. That day she asked for her daughter.
Earlier, Tepulka had put the child into her arms, but Maka had shown no reaction, had not even tried to hold it. Tepulka understood. “It’s not safe with her,” he said. “Not yet.” And he carried it away. Now Maka took and held her child close. I thought of my time learning from the Shaman. And again I heard his voice quoting, “If the mind be not satisfied, the body can never be cured.”
Chapter 35
Thirteen
Sometimes we sang as we travelled. Sometimes we talked of what we must do when we found our place: grow a crop of potatoes, plant our winter wheat, store food and herbs. Clip the wool and hair from the sheep and goats. Weave for another trip to the Cold Hills. And learn to read and write. The Children liked talking about that most of all. I even began to think of my old dream of planting trees, working north, winning back land from the desert, taming the sun.
Puli sewed cloth and stuffed it with wool to look like a baby’s body, arms and legs. Tepulka carved the wooden baby’s head, feet, and hands. He drilled holes, fastened it together. He painted the face, took the hair he had saved, and glued it on the head. Together, he and Puli gave the doll to Kimi. She carried it all day, singing to it, feeding it, copying everything Kitimah did with Arak and Perrah. She called her doll Chakah.
It was about that time I became certain my plan was working. Some day Paku would become their leader. Puli their storyteller. Tepulka their healer. The babies would grow up – Maka’s daughter was already walking.
When we found the mounds of sloppy dung, the large tracks, we sniffed the air, and I remembered Taur’s cows and described them to the Children. Tama said nothing, but I saw him smile at the thought of catching some calves, adding them to his Animals.
One golden morning we climbed a green heave on the valley floor and stood side by side, looking. Above us, closing off the southern sky, the row of mountains we had travelled towards so long: their black rock ribboned with snow, tussock basins pranked white. And filling the valley beneath our feet, spreading and disappearing to left and right, Lake Tip, its level blue.
With Hurk, Kimi ran after Tupu. Tepulka, Maka, and the little girl they had named Tara. Paku and Tulu. Kitimah carrying Arak and Perrah. Puli and Tama. “Thirteen,” I murmured. They knelt before the water, bowed their heads to it as if worshipping. And I followed the Animals down.
About the Author
Jack Lasenby was born in Waharoa, New Zealand in 1931. During the 1950s he was a deer-culler and possum trapper in the Urewera Country. He is a former school teacher, lecturer in English at the Wellington Teachers’ College, and editor of New Zealand’s School Journal.
Jack Lasenby held the Sargeson Fellowship in 1991, the Writer’s Fellowship at the Victoria University of Wellington in 1993, and was the Writer in Residence at the Dunedin College of Education in 1995. He is the author of many novels for children and young adults, including award-winning books The Lake, The Conjuror, The Waterfall and The Battle of Pook Island. He has been the recipient of New Zealand’s most prestigious children’s fiction awards: the Esther Glen Medal, the Aim Children’s Book Award, and the NZ Post Children’s Book Award.
Kalik is the fourth and final title in the ‘Travellers Quartet’. The first, Because We Were the Travellers, received an Honour Award in the 1998 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards. Taur, the second, won the senior fiction category of the same awards in 1999, and The Shaman and the Droll, the third title, was a finalist for the awards in 2000.
Jack Lasenby lives in Wellington and is presently working on his ‘Aunt Effie’ series as well as another book about the ever popular ‘Harry Wakatipu’.
Also by Jack Lasenby
Charlie the Cheeky Kea 1976
Rewi the Red Deer 1976
The Lake 1987
The Mangrove Summer 1989
Uncle Trev 1991
Uncle Trev and the Great South Island Plan 1991
Uncle Trev and the Treaty of Waitangi 1992
The Conjuror 1992
Harry Wakatipu 1993
Dead Man’s Head 1994
The Waterfall 1995
The Battle of Pook Island 1996
Because We Were the Travellers 1997
Uncle Trev’s Teeth 1997
Taur 1998
The Shaman and the Droll 1999
The Lies of Harry Wakatipu 2000
Copyright
I am grateful for the assistance of Creative N.Z. – the Arts Council of New Zealand. Their grant in 2000 made this novel possible.
Published with the assistance of
This book is copyright. Apart from any 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 prior permission of Longacre Press and the author.
Jack Lasenby asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
© Jack Lasenby
ISBN 9781775531227
First published by Longacre Press 2001
9 Dowling Street, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Book cover design by Christine Buess
Cover image by photolibrary.com
Book design and map by Jenny Cooper
Printed by McPhersons Printing Group