Kevin sat outside Hoheria’s locked door talking with her. He felt sick with worry. Where was it all going to end? How could he rescue Hoheria? Her voice sounded strained, plaintive.
‘Are you handling all this?’ he asked. There was a long silence, then the sound of a muffled sob, quickly choked off. He had to strain to hear her reply. ‘Just.’
Kevin imagined Hoheria, sitting on her cell floor by the door, at the mercy of a monster and clinging to everything she knew and loved.
‘Knew and loved.’ Maybe that was the key. He called out to her.
‘Wrap yourself in all the good things in your life,’ he said. ‘Make a list of them. Think of them and feel them. Keep saying them to yourself.’
‘I’ll try.’ She started calling out to him. ‘You. Our home at Kokopu Waters. Our life together. Sean and Alex. Cheryl and Paki. Little Eric.’ She went quiet.
Kevin could hear her snuffling. ‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘Keep going. Think of everything you like.’
‘You mean like warm rain and sunny days in spring? My sheepskin jacket? Mānuka honey?’
‘Yes! And smoked fish, Socks the cat, Waha, your horse. Woolly blankets in winter, the smell of daphne …’ Kevin listened for a response, and heard a half-hearted chuckle.
‘You should have been a poet.’
‘See, something’s working.’
Kevin thought back to the distraught woman at the markets. He shook his head as if to wake himself up. Really bad things were happening, things he didn’t understand. But maybe they’d get through the minefield. Maybe they’d find a way.
His reverie was shattered when the station door banged. ‘Good,’ he thought. ‘Cheryl’s back.’ He turned his head just in time to be confronted by an angry, bristling man, wearing a torn windbreaker and clutching a rifle at port arms.
‘Okay,’ the man said. ‘Where is she?’ The dreaded Jim. It had to be.
‘Look, pal, we’d better talk about this.’ Kevin stood, instinctively calculating his striking distance, and took up a stance in front of the cell door. Was this guy used to heavy-duty aggro? He had the look of somebody accustomed to violence. He didn’t sound too friendly either.
‘Never mind the talk. She’s a monster. She kills people. Where is she?’
‘Put the rifle down first.’
In answer the fellow clutched the rifle tighter. ‘I’m going to shoot her before she kills anyone else.’ He looked like he meant it.
Maybe some psychology would help. ‘She’s got one of the Ponaturi inside her. She’s trying to deal to it. Kill her and it might get in you.’ But let’s not be too polite, Kevin thought. That’s my mate he wants to shoot. ‘Anyway, pal, you even try to hurt her and you’re dead.’ Forget the psychology. Let’s all be perfectly clear where we stand.
The fellow took a step back. He clutched the rifle tighter. But he looked wary rather than intimidated. ‘I don’t give a flying fuck who she is. She needs putting down.’
Kevin’s muscles tightened as the adrenaline pumped. No way was this guy going to listen to reason. Then from inside the cell came a noise like a dog whining. Both men stopped to listen. Jim was just swinging the rifle around to point at Kevin when with a huge crash and a splintering of wood the door flew out of the frame, knocking Kevin flat. From where he lay Kevin couldn’t see behind him, but in the fading light he watched Jim’s eyes widen and his jaw drop. And then, to his horror, Jim pointed the rifle and fired two shots.
Frantically Kevin turned, expecting to see Hoheria on the floor. But she was still standing. She was looking straight at Jim. Blue fire was dancing around her hands and a bundle of chain was heaped on the floor.
‘Quickly!’ she said. ‘Get out of here. I can’t hold it for long!’ The flames flickered, like a gas bottle was running low. Kevin scrambled to his feet and rushed for the door, right behind Jim.
Out on the footpath Jim was disbelieving. ‘I shot her,’ he said. ‘Twice. Nothing happened.’
A gibbous moon hung over the eastern horizon, bright enough to cast long shadows. But it wasn’t bright enough for Jim to see the look on Kevin’s face. He didn’t see the punch coming either. It hit him full in the face and he dropped the rifle. Kevin picked it up by the barrel and swung it against a lamp-post with all his strength. The stock split and the breech shattered, scattering metal pieces all over the road. He handed the rifle back to Jim.
‘Here y’go, dickhead,’ he said. ‘Why don’t you do something useful and jam this where the sun doesn’t shine?’
Jim looked at the smashed weapon and threw it on the ground. Kevin couldn’t see his expression in the moonlight but his tone was clear enough, even if his words were muffled by pain. He was afraid of Kevin, but covering the fear was an anger that made him shake with the need to hurt somebody.
‘This isn’t over,’ Jim said. ‘I’ll be back.’ He whirled on his heel and with one hand over his bleeding nose started striding up the road, his legs stiff and his shoulders hunched in thwarted fury.
‘Kevin!’ came a shout from down the road. There was Cheryl, a bedroll over one shoulder and a pīkau on her back.
‘She’s okay,’ Kevin called. ‘I think.’ He turned back to the station.
Hoheria was standing in the doorway. She looked like an avenging angel with blue fire dripping and a halo of light around her head. He stepped back and was about to flee when Hoheria held up a fire-ringed hand. ‘It’s quite safe,’ she said. ‘I’ve got this thing under control.’
‘For real?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That idea of yours did the trick.’
Kevin moved to her and tentatively touched her on the arm. The blue fire didn’t diminish, but it didn’t burn him either. It made him tingle.
Quickly he pulled his hand away. ‘So it’s over?’
‘Yes. Until I go to sleep, that is. I don’t know what happens then. But I can feel the Ponaturi getting weaker.’
Cheryl looked worried. ‘What do we do about the rest of tonight?’ she said. ‘Tomorrow night?’
‘I don’t know,’ replied Hoheria. ‘The cells are no good. I might as well come home.’
They were walking near where the old concrete bridge crossed the Kahuika River, silent and swirling in the moonlight. ‘How’s Paki?’ Hoheria asked.
‘He’s sore,’ said Cheryl. ‘You broke some of his ribs. How do we know you won’t do it again?’
Hoheria was silent. The blue flames flickered. Then she spoke. ‘See this fire?’
‘Yes.’
‘I can control it. And the Ponaturi hates it. It eats him up like acid. I can feel him getting smaller. He wants to get out but he can’t. He’s trapped. I can breathe him back in to the blue fire if he tries to escape to someone else.’
‘How do you control it?’
Hoheria moved to Cheryl and took her hand. ‘Paki was right,’ she said. ‘It’s love. If I think of all the things I love, like really think of them, picture them, let my feelings towards them rise up, the fire comes out.’ She seemed taller, heavier. ‘Feelings about people are especially strong. When I think of Kevin, you and Paki, I’m very powerful.’ She reached for the blankets and the pīkau. ‘Here, let me carry that lot. You’ve taken enough of the weight.’
‘Paki’ll be relieved. But tell me, what about when you go to sleep?’
Hoheria looked worried. ‘That’s the thing. I don’t know. I guess I just have to stay awake till the Ponaturi can’t affect me any more.’
Kevin laughed. ‘Finally, I’ll be able to teach you to play chess.’
Hoheria turned to him. ‘That might be tricky. I’ve got a feeling if I get irritated or annoyed the creature’ll get stronger.’
‘That’s okay,’ said Kevin. ‘I promise to let you win.’
‘Welcome home,’ Paki said after he heaved himself painfully into a sitting position, leaning against the wall. Cheryl wedged two cushions behind his back. ‘What are you going to do this time?’
Hoheria swallowed. An etched mirror above the woodstove glowed in the candlelight. Moonlight shone through the window. ‘Nothing, I hope. And I’m sorry about your ribs.’
‘Never mind them,’ Paki said. ‘What about you?’
‘I can control the blue fire now, and the Ponaturi, but…’
‘But what?’
‘I’m worried about what happens when I go to sleep.’
Hoheria spent the next half-hour explaining to Paki how she raised the blue fire and how the Ponaturi hated it.
When she finished, Paki nodded thoughtfully. ‘Seems straightforward,’ he said. ‘We just have to keep you awake till the creature’s gone completely.’ He sneezed, and winced. ‘Then you can sleep. What do you have to do to raise the fire?’
‘I meditate.’ She sat cross-legged by the open window in the cool spring breeze, crossed her hands in her lap and started breathing slowly and rhythmically. Her eyes were open, but focussed elsewhere. Paki went to speak, but Kevin put a finger to his lips and shook his head.
After a few minutes Kevin spoke. ‘It’s probably okay to talk now. I’d say she’s got the whole show on the road. You’ll have to work hard if you want to disturb her.’
‘How do you know?’
‘She used to do this back in Kokopu Waters. Sometimes she’d be out to lunch for a whole morning.’
‘She can stay out as long as she likes, if she’s cramping that little monster’s style.’
Hoheria sat till nearly midnight, unmoving and unseeing, her breathing cut to half her normal rate, her back straight as a plank of wood. Finally, when Cheryl rose from her fitful doze to make another pot of tea, she stirred. She opened her eyes wide, raised her arms over her head, and stretched. Then she turned and looked directly at Kevin, sitting half-asleep in an armchair by the woodstove. She held out her arms to him.
‘Come here, sweetheart, give me a cuddle.’ Her voice sounded clear and sharp. This was the old Hoheria returned.
Kevin rose from his chair, stepped across the room, and embraced Hoheria, losing himself for a moment in her sweet-smelling softness. ‘How do you feel now?’ he said.
For a moment she retreated back into herself, then a huge relief started to show on her features. ‘It’s gone. There’s nothing there.’ Her voice was almost disbelieving. ‘I think I finally digested it.’
Paki’s voice came out of the darkness. ‘Hope it doesn’t give you a gutsache.’ He coughed. They could hear the hiss of an indrawn breath as he sat up. ‘I think I’d rather eat a bus. Good on you, girl. Getting rid of that little greebly is really something.’
Kevin could see Eric’s little face peering over the bedclothes. ‘We’re all safe now, boy,’ he said. ‘Your auntie killed the monster.’
Cheryl poured the tea and spooned honey into the cups. They sat up for the next two hours, drinking more tea, eating bowls of rabbit stew, and talking. Paki was especially pleased.
‘I’ve been so worried for you, girl,’ he said. ‘Not that the thing would kill you, but that you couldn’t live with the things it made you do.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘Can you remember anything it made you do?’
‘I don’t remember attacking you and Kevin. I do remember killing that young man, though.’ She shuddered. ‘It was really freaky. I can even remember what it felt like.’ Tears welled. ‘I hope I never feel like that again.’ She looked around at everyone in the room. ‘The awful thing is, it felt so good. I loved it. And it wasn’t just killing him, it was soaking up all his feelings, the worse the better.’
Paki gave her a long, careful look. ‘I don’t think you’ll have to go through anything like that again,’ he said. ‘They used to call it a learning curve, and it’s a steep one you’ve been on. But if you know things like that you’ll really be able to help people now.’ He stopped, as if a thought had suddenly struck him. ‘I suppose you’re becoming a modern-day tohunga. You know, how to deal with monsters and kēhua. Things that trouble people.’
Hoheria looked like the idea disturbed her. ‘That’s not for me,’ she said. ‘I’m a young woman, for a start.’
‘You mightn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. Anyway, everything else is turned on its head. Why not that?’
In the morning Cheryl asked Hoheria if she wanted to go to the markets.
‘That’ll be the day,’ she said. ‘Look what happened last time.’ She turned to the window and took a deep breath of fresh air. ‘I wouldn’t mind a walk, though.’ She looked around, at Kevin. ‘Come with me, kare. Just down to the bridge.’
It had rained in the night and wisps of steam were rising from the road in the early morning sun as Kevin and Hoheria stepped out. Long-abandoned cars littered the roadside, and broken power and telegraph wires tangled with hedges and untrimmed trees to block the footpaths. Hay paddock lawns and peeling paint on the frontages of the houses they passed seemed almost normal. Birds chirruped loudly and the occasional horse-drawn cart clopped by, loaded with produce and goods for the markets.
‘Mōrena!’ the driver would call. ‘Ata mārie!’ or, ‘top o’ the morning!’
‘It’s so good to have you back,’ said Kevin. ‘I couldn’t see how you’d beat that thing. I kept trying to think of a way out yet I couldn’t see anything but doom and gloom ahead. I hoped I hadn’t lost you.’
Hoheria squeezed his hand. ‘As soon as I stopped myself from hurting you I knew I’d won,’ she said. The sun warmed their backs as they walked in the middle of the road, down a gentle grade towards the bridge and the wide Kahuika River.
They were almost at the bridge when they heard a shout behind them.
‘Oi! Just a minute, you two!’ It was Jim, holding a rifle trained on Kevin and approaching rapidly. ‘You didn’t think you were going to get away with it,’ he said. ‘I told you I hadn’t finished.’ He lifted his rifle to his shoulder and fired a shot. It spanged off the cracked tar seal near Kevin’s feet. ‘Turn around and keep walking. Down to the river.’
‘He can’t hurt me, but he can shoot you,’ Hoheria said. ‘I think he knows it too.’ She half-turned. Jim, twenty metres behind, gestured with the rifle.
‘Just keep walking,’ he said. ‘Both of you.’ He aimed suggestively at Kevin. When they were halfway across the bridge, at the mid-point of the river, Jim called again. ‘That’s far enough.’ The pair stopped and turned.
Jim looked at Hoheria. ‘You. Into the river, or I shoot your mate.’
Kevin’s jaw dropped. He hadn’t expected this. He was just about to tell Hoheria not to do it when Jim fired a shot that smacked into the base of one of the concrete arches right next to Kevin’s head.
‘I mean it,’ Jim said. ‘Jump, or he dies.’
Hoheria threw Kevin a stricken look and started climbing the railing. Far below her the grey-green waters swirled. ‘Don’t follow me,’ she said to Kevin. ‘I’m a good swimmer, anyway.’
Kevin was just reaching for Hoheria to pull her down off the rail when Jim’s rifle cracked. The bullet hit Kevin in the thigh and he collapsed, clutching himself.
‘The next shot gets him in the head,’ Jim spat at Hoheria. ‘Go on, jump.’
Hoheria threw him a look of pity, of great sorrow, then turned her gaze on Kevin, lying huddled in the roadway, clutching his leg. He looked so vulnerable, hurt and helpless. She started to move to him, but Jim gestured with the rifle. There was no choice.
‘Go home, to Kokopu Waters,’ she said to Kevin, and jumped.