Chloe climbed into shorts and a T-shirt. It was already a warm morning. She fed Snowball and went to feed the chickens and let them out, checking for eggs. Then she checked the sheep paddock to make sure there was enough grass for them. One more day, then they’d have to be moved, she decided.
It was such a beautiful morning. Chloe made herself some breakfast and sat on the front steps to eat. She had barely started when the three boys came past. They beckoned her over to the gate. Taking her bowl of cereal with her she stood and waited to hear what they had to say. Wiremu was grinning all over his face, while Hemi and Walter looked glum.
“We going to be rich!” Wiremu said.
Chloe looked at him and raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
“True!” he said. “My dad was telling my mum last night. She got HEAPS of money. She’s going to give it to her famblies, her whānau. You too.”
Hemi and Walter were nodding their heads.
“It’s true, alright,” Hemi said. “Everyone is talking about it already. They’re going to have a meeting tomorrow. It’s really stink! Why can’t it be my dad what got adopted? I want to be rich too!”
Chloe smiled. Clearly Hemi hadn’t thought it through. Then she had a thought.
“Where ...?” she said quietly. She stopped.
“Where, what?” Wiremu asked.
“Where is she?” It was the most she had ever said to them.
“Who? You mean that lady?”
“Heeni.” Chloe said. “Your grandmother.”
“Yeah, nah, she’s not my nana.” Wiremu shook his head in disgust at the thought.
“Where is she?” Chloe said again. It was an effort, but she was keen to go and find her, and these boys were the only ones who would tell her.
“She’s over to my place. I had to sleep in with my sister!” Apparently, this was even more disgusting.
Chloe sagged with disappointment. There was no way
she was going over there to talk to her. Too many explanations required, and it would be too hard. Maybe she’d see if Mereana would go with her.
The boys ambled off.
“See ya’,” Wiremu called.
She waved at them and went back to her breakfast. When she went to put her dishes in the sink her mum came through, yawning and complaining about a lack of sleep.
“What happened last night?” Chloe asked.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. You’re going to have to ask Dad. It’s not my story to tell.”
Disappointed again, Chloe washed her dishes and put them away, and went back to get a book from her bedroom. She thought she’d go out to the tree in the garden and read for a bit until everyone else was up.
Lily erupted with a roar through her bedroom door.
“Nobody didn’t wake me up! I wanted to see the sun come up. You promised!” she yelled at her mum.
“Sorry, chickadee, I was too tired this morning. We’ll do it tomorrow. Come and have some breakfast.”
Lily sulked by the kitchen door. “I don’t want no breakfast.”
“I don’t want any breakfast, thank you Mum,” her mother corrected. “Okay, please yourself, but you may get hungry later.”
Chloe slid out the back door before Lily could get any bright ideas about joining her in the tree. She swung herself up onto the lowest branch, and with her book in her shorts pocket, climbed to the lookout that someone had built in the tree a long time ago. It gave her a vantage point over quite a large part of the surrounding properties. With her back against the tree trunk and her legs dangling over the far edge, she settled down. Birds occasionally landed close by, but didn’t stay long. A light breeze caused the tree to sway slightly. Chloe was at her happiest.
Sometime later she became aware of a furtive movement along the road. Someone running from shrub to shrub. Carrying a bag slung over his shoulder. Far in the distance a voice could be heard faintly.
“Walter! Walter!”
He was closer now, within spitting distance, as Dad sometimes said. Chloe broke an old pinecone off the tree, and taking careful aim, lobbed it to where she had last noticed him behind the hedge.
“Ow!”
Walter stepped out into the road to see where the cone had come from. He didn’t think to look upwards. Chloe sat back and took another pinecone from a nearby branch. Walter was still rubbing his head, and as he turned away Chloe lobbed another in his direction. It hit his bag on his back. This time he looked up. Chloe pointed her arm towards his house. He put his head down and slunk off back the way he had come.
At that moment, Mereana and her friends came along the road towards him.
“You’re not trying to run away again are you, Walter?” Keri asked.
He muttered something unintelligible and skirted right around them as far as he could, without falling in the ditch. The girls turned off from the road, into Chloe’s drive, looking up at the tree and letting her know they had seen what had happened. Smiling, Chloe climbed down the tree and ran to the front of the house to greet them.
“Perfect aim!” Jess said. “Couldn’t have done it better myself! At least this time we won’t have to go looking for him.”
“We’re going for an explore,” Mereana said to her. “To the haunted house. Do you want to come? Probably better you don’t tell your parents where we’re going.”
Chloe nodded. She raced inside to ask permission to go with the girls, put on a pair of sneakers, and raced out the door again, with Lily loudly complaining that she wanted to go too.
Chloe knew of the haunted house; some of the kids at school had been hassling her about not talking. They had threatened to take her to the haunted house and lock her in. Luckily a teacher passing by had overheard them and had intervened. Chloe made sure never to pass by the house when she was by herself. Not because she thought it was haunted, but because she was afraid she might do something embarrassing if she got locked in there. But with these girls beside her, she felt safe.
At the front gate, they checked there was no one looking then, giggling madly, they tore down the path and around the back, out of sight of others. Chloe’s heart was pounding with excitement and fear. Jess pushed open the back door, which creaked loudly on its rusted old hinges. They all giggled again. Then boldly, Jess stepped through the door with the others following.
The room they stood in was a kitchen. Everything was filthy – dusty, cobwebby, insecty; and it smelled really bad. A dead mouse lay in the sink, decaying. It must have fallen in recently. Rat and mouse droppings littered the floor, and a desiccated bird lay in a corner.
“Yuck!” Keri said. “There’s nothing much haunted about this. It’s just abandoned. Come on, let’s see what else there is.”
Room by room they explored the house. Downstairs there was only the kitchen and the lounge, plus a lean-to with an old bathtub. Up the stairs they found three bedrooms, and a tiny bathroom.
“Hey, look! There’s something in this dresser.”
It was the only piece of furniture in the room. Jess was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of why the house was haunted. She pulled open the top drawer, tugging hard on the handle when it stuck halfway open. She put her foot against the dresser and pulled again, falling backwards as the drawer finally gave up its treasure.
Jammed in the side of the drawer and caught along the runner was a packet of photos. Jess opened the packet, and they looked quickly through the photos. A young woman and some little children. A man and a woman. Some people sitting outside drinking and smoking. Most of the photos were coloured but faded. Some were black and white. Jess put them back in the packet and tucked it away in her pocket.
“Let’s look at these outside, in better light,” she said.
They each wandered away from the room, looking to see what else there was that could give them a clue. Mereana opened a wardrobe and found some old clothes, moth eaten and falling to pieces. Chloe pulled out an old suitcase and inside, found more photos, old cards and, in a rolled-up packet, s
ome documents.
She said quietly to Mereana, “Look!”
“Oh,” said Mereana. “Look at this. It’s my dad’s birth certificate. It says Hoani and the right date of birth, but the wrong last name. Mother Heeni, father ... can’t read it.”
Together Chloe and Mereana sat on the floor and went slowly through the contents of the suitcase. Keri and Jess joined them, having found nothing else of interest. Totally engrossed, it took them a moment to notice that there were footsteps on the stairs, climbing slowly to where they were sitting in one of the bedrooms. They looked at each other, showing varying degrees of fear.
Chloe leapt up, dropping the papers, just as Heeni stepped through the door.
Chapter 28
Keri
My heart finally stopped pounding and the goosebumps went back to normal. But it took a while. Heeni looked at us in surprise too. Whether she had known we were there I don’t know. She must have heard something.
“Hello, girls,” she said. “What have you found?”
Chloe was gasping. This was going to put her anxieties through the roof, I thought. Mereana finally got control of herself.
“Oh, you don’t know how much you frightened us! We came for an explore. The other kids said this house was haunted, and we wanted to know why. But all we found were some old photos and documents.”
Heeni put out her hand. “May I see?”
Mereana gave her the birth certificate and Jess gave her the packet of photos. Her eyes grew round as she looked at them.
“These have been here all this time?” She spoke as if to herself. She looked at the suitcase. “I put that away in that cupboard, all those years ago,” she almost whispered. “Why are they still here? They were supposed to go to the families who took the boys.”
“Why did you give the babies away?” Mereana asked boldly. “How could you do that to your own children?”
Heeni lowered her head. “You don’t understand,” she said quietly. “It was the only thing I could do. I had to make sure they were safe.”
“Why couldn’t you keep them safe! They were your children!” Mereana was winding up like I’d never seen her before.
“Come on,” Heeni said. “Let’s go and sit outside, in the sun. Bring all that stuff and I’ll tell you why I couldn’t keep them safe. It’s not a nice story, but it’s the truth.”
Jess, being the tallest, picked up the suitcase, and the rest of us carried whatever was left on the floor and in the wardrobe. We trailed downstairs after Heeni and sat in the shade of a tree, out of the hot midday sun.
Heeni’s story
When I was young, Heeni began, I was a wild child. There were eight of us in the family. I was the youngest, and I was spoiled. By my parents, by my brothers and sisters, by everyone. I was pretty, I could sing, and everyone loved me. Especially the boys. By the time I was fifteen, I could have any boy I liked, and I liked the bad ones. The ones who drank, and didn’t work, and were never going to amount to much. I got pregnant to one of them, and he was the baddest of all.
Our parents made us get married. I didn’t want to. I was just sixteen by then. I wanted to stay home and have my mother take care of the baby, but she decided I needed to grow up. She didn’t know what that boy was like. She thought I would settle down and grow up and learn to love that boy, just like she had. But I didn’t ever learn to love him, because he was violent to me. He would hit me for nothing. He wouldn’t hit the babies, I’ll say that for him. He loved those babies. But by the time Hoani was two years old, that man stopped loving him. Hoani was only little, but he didn’t like his dad hitting me, and he used to shy away from his dad when he was around. That man didn’t like that, and he started hitting him too.
That’s when I knew I had to go. But I couldn’t take the boys. I had no money and no job, and even though I was smart, I had no education either. So, I made a plan. I chose families who already had children, and I asked them to take my boys. So that their dad wouldn’t know which was his and which wasn’t. But, only two families said yes, and they only wanted one baby each. I gave them Robert, who was so little, only three months old; and Tama, who was one, he went to another family. I cried every night for my babies. I went to live with my sister with Hoani, but that man found me there, and he gave me such a hiding.
By now I had met someone else. He was smooth. So smooth and he said he loved me, and he would take me away from here. But I had to get rid of the kid. That’s what he said. I had to get rid of Hoani. My older sister Anahera had no babies. I gave Hoani to her. I knew she would look after him, her and Isaac. I said I would come back for them when I was settled. They all said that was good.
But I never came back. I went with that new man to Australia. But I kept crying for my babies, and in the end, he got fed up with me, and he left me. I had no money, no nothing. I slept on the streets and I used to steal food, and whatever else I could to survive. I lived on the streets for about two years.
Then one day a Salvation Army lady came to me and said they could help me, but I had to abide by the rules. I was so happy. Someone who cared. And I did abide by the rules. I stayed in the hostel, and I got on a course, and then I got a job.
Then I met another man. He was a wonderful man. I didn’t tell him about my past. I was scared he wouldn’t want me. Looking back, I think he would have loved me anyway. But it was too late then. We got a business together, and we worked really hard, and we got rich. All the time I thought about my boys, but by then they would have been growing up, and they didn’t need me upsetting them. Every time I thought about writing a letter or using the telephone, the words died.
Two years ago, my lovely man died. He had a heart attack. Then I found out I had cancer. It got worse and worse, even though I had all the treatments. I decided that I would have to make the trip and see my boys before I died. I didn’t know Hoani had died ...
Chapter 29
Chloe
Heeni started to cry. It was such a sad story. Chloe put her arms around her and Mereana did the same from the other side. She cried and cried. Chloe had never experienced something like that.
Keri got up and motioned to Jess.
“We’ll just go and get some cold drinks,” Keri said.
They walked softly to the side of the house and out to the road.
Chloe and Mereana kept their arms around Heeni, as her cries gradually turned to sobs, and then eventually she stopped her crying. She sighed heavily. She patted their arms.
“You’re good girls,” she said. “I’m proud to have you as my granddaughters. I’m just sorry I messed up so much.” She hiccuped and gave another little sob. The three of them sat there, without speaking, just holding each other and rocking.
They were just starting to stand up when shouting from the road startled them. Keri and Jess came running around the corner.
“Did you hear that yelling? It’s Pani and some of her friends. Saying we shouldn’t be in here. They said it’s tapu and haunted and all kinds of things like that.” Jess was agitated. She kept looking over her shoulder towards the front of the house.
“Pani, my other granddaughter?” Heeni asked.
“Yeah, and Wiremu and some others I didn’t know,” Keri said. “They were saying someone died here. But that doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t look like anyone has been here since you left, does it?” she asked Heeni.
“No,” she said slowly. “No, it doesn’t. We’ll find out what they are talking about.”
She moved slowly, uncurling herself from the ground. She straightened up, and put her shoulders back then walked resolutely to the front of the house. Jess and Keri gathered all the photos and documents together and followed behind at a distance. Chloe and Mereana walked closer to Heeni, giving her time to compose herself before she confronted the kids by the gate.
As they turned the corner, the kids started yelling again, until they saw who it was. They stood respectfully as Heeni reached them.
“What’s all this abou
t tapu?” she asked.
“We got told it was tapu,” Wiremu said earnestly. “All the whānau said we can’t go there. Someone died in that house.”
“Who died?” Heeni directed this at Pani, who was the eldest.
She squirmed. She looked away and shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said.
“I think you do,” Heeni said. “But never mind. I’ll go and ask someone who will tell me.” She turned and headed off towards Nanny Anahera’s place.
Chloe turned towards the other girls, and they all nodded at her and began to follow. Behind them straggled Pani and Wiremu and the rest of the group. Pani moved closer to Mereana and began talking to her quietly so no one else could hear. Chloe saw Mereana flinch and move away from Pani. Pani kept it up, quietly goading her, but Mereana ignored her. She drew down her eyebrows and clenched her jaw and moved closer to Chloe.
“Whatever she says,” Mereana said to Chloe, “Ignore her. She is not worth the effort.”
Chloe nodded. She already knew that, but it was good to have an ally. They moved closer to Heeni. Pani was unlikely to say anything that Heeni might hear.
At the gate, Heeni turned to Pani and said, “I will come and see you soon, but now I want to talk to Anahera.”
“What about them girls? How come they are allowed in?”
“Because they are staying here. I will see you later.” Heeni turned and walked inside, motioning the girls to follow her in.
Nanny was in the kitchen as usual, preparing for the hui tomorrow. She had pies and savouries and cakes over every surface. She looked up in surprise as they all trooped in.
“Kia ora! What have you all been doing? Make a cup of tea and have something to eat. Come on, come on.”
Keri put on the kettle, Jess got out cups and the teapot, and Mereana got out the tea, milk and sugar, and some side plates. They sat at the table while Nanny wiped her hands and sat with them.
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