He left it till after ten, hoping all the others were asleep. As he passed the girls’ dorm he paused to listen: there was nothing other than the sounds of people sleeping.
The fire was still burning, giving the community room a golden glow. Flickering flames formed black ghosts of shadows dancing in the corners of the room. He stood by it for a while to store some of its heat for the cold night ahead.
He was tingling with anticipation. All his plans had fallen into place. In a few minutes he would be in the cave with Ata. It was going to be a great night: first he would fill himself with junk food and then he would go to sleep alongside the boy from the past. Who knows what dreams they would share together. And later, in the morning, he would return to the woolshed as the winner of the game. Oh, how he would gloat. The best part would be seeing Mandy’s reaction when she…
‘So where’s this skeleton we’re going to sleep with?’
He spun round. It was a girl’s voice, coming from the corner by the bookcase. ‘Who is it?’
‘Me, Hine.’ She moved out of the shadows. ‘I’m here for the night in the cave you promised.’
Without a word he picked up his pack and marched off, heading back to bed.
‘Tyler,’ she called softly.
‘What?’ he answered much too loudly.
‘Don’t run.’
He stopped and pushed his hand into his pocket searching for the pendant. It wasn’t there! For a moment his anger turned to panic until he sensed a weight in another pocket. He grasped at it through the clothing of his trousers and soon felt the pendant’s calming strength.
‘Please, Tyler. It’ll be fun. I’ve got all the gear.’ Then she chuckled. ‘And I’ve got a tin of Auntie’s famous chocolate cookies.’
He stood staring and thinking. He wanted so much to be in the cave spending the night with Ata. Yet he didn’t want to share his friend with anyone, certainly not with a girl. She wouldn’t understand. She would only ruin it.
‘I’ll be really quiet,’ pleaded Hine. ‘You’ll hardly notice I’m there.’ The way she said it made him smile. Perhaps it would be all right with Hine. She was a bit different to other girls.
‘Okay,’ he conceded, moving towards the door. ‘But I hope you’ve got plenty of clothes and things, because you’re not sharing anything of mine.’
It seemed like the promised rain was starting. Large drops were falling as they reached the beach. The sea was roaring, with waves spilling up the creek and almost surrounding the rock that guarded the entrance to the cave.
Tyler crawled in first, shining the torch backwards to show Hine the way. He was now looking forward to showing off his cave. He shone the torch around. ‘Here it is, madam,’ he said, speaking like a posh hotel manager. ‘Your room for the night. Not quite all the comforts of home, but the sand is soft and at least it’s dry.’
Hine sniffed the air. ‘What’s that smell?’
Tyler chuckled. ‘Ah! That comes from my other guests.’ He swung the torch towards the nest. ‘May I introduce Hopi and Mopsie.’
Hine was delighted. ‘Oh, they’re so cute. How many eggs have they got?’
‘Two. But they might have hatched by now.’
‘I can see why you call her Mopsie. Was Hopi the one that got run over by the ute?’ Tyler nodded. ‘Did you know about this place then?’
‘Yes. I found it that morning. Hopi showed me. I saw him heading down to the sea and followed his tracks back here.’
‘And you never told us.’
‘I wanted it to be my secret,’ he said quietly.
Hine looked around the cave. ‘Where’s the other guest you promised? The skeleton?’
Without speaking he moved to the ledge. Hine followed. When he shone the torch over the skeleton she gasped, taking a step backwards. After a while Tyler said, ‘That’s Ata. I think he’s about four hundred years old. He was a moa hunter. See…’ He pointed to the mound of stones. ‘He had a bag of gizzard stones and this big moa bone. That coating of dust is the remains of his clothes, probably a seal skin.’ He was surprised to find how much he enjoyed talking to Hine about Ata.
‘You haven’t touched the bones, have you?’
Tyler looked at her. Her eyes were wide with fear. ‘No. I know not to disturb things. That’s for the experts.’
‘Nobody should do it. Not until he’s ready.’ She leaned forward a little and pointed to the clear spot by the neck. ‘What was in there?’
Tyler tried to think of a suitable lie, yet something about Hine’s fear made him put his hand in his pocket. ‘This,’ he said, presenting the pendant in his open hand.
Hine peered at it but wouldn’t touch it. ‘You shouldn’t have taken it. It belongs to him.’
‘But he gave it to me.’ He then told how the pendant had been revealed. ‘He wanted me to have it.’
Hine was not so sure. ‘We’ll find out soon enough. He’ll let us know if you should keep it or not.’
‘These are yummy,’ said Tyler. ‘Can I have another?’
Hine handed over another chocolate cookie. ‘Auntie always says, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.’
‘Your Auntie sounds like a nice person.’
‘Yes, she is.’
‘Does she let you do things you want to do?’
‘Mostly. She can be very strict at times.’
‘What would she think about what we’re doing now?’
‘I think she would be very concerned if she knew. What about your parents?’
‘I dunno. They probably wouldn’t like it. But I don’t think they’d get upset.’
‘They would, you know,’ said Hine. ‘What we’re doing is a big no-no with adults. If anybody finds out about this, we’ll be in big trouble. Boys and girls are not meant to sleep together. They might do things.’
Tyler felt his face go red. ‘We’re not doing anything.’
‘No, we’re not.’ Then she saw his red face. ‘And you just make sure it stays that way, Tyler Matthews,’ she teased. ‘Your bed is going way over there.’
‘That’s where it smells most,’ he complained.
‘I know,’ she grinned. ‘That’ll keep your passions under control.’ Tyler couldn’t help but smile—having Hine there wasn’t so bad after all.
They prepared for bed. Tyler smoothed a place in the sand for his sleeping bag, then set out the things he might need during the night: Game Boy, camera, alarm clock, invisible ink pen, chippies, drink, spare batteries, small radio, Swiss army knife.
Hine looked over at his corner and asked, ‘You sure you’ve got everything you need there, Tyler?’
‘Yeah, I like to be prepared. Anyway, what’s that you’ve got?’
‘My cellphone.’
‘You won’t get a signal in here.’
She turned it on and looked at the screen. ‘No, you’re right. But I can still text messages and send them later.’ She pointed at his radio. ‘Can you get anything on that?’
Tyler turned it on. Even though he scanned both FM and AM there was nothing except hisses.
For a while Tyler played a game and Hine pushed buttons on her phone. When he looked at his clock it was after midnight.
‘What time do you think we should get up?’ he asked.
‘We have to get back before anyone wakes or we’ll be in trouble.’
‘I’ll set it for six. Nobody’s been up at that time.’
After setting his alarm, he fitted the camera into the Game Boy and pointed it at Hine.
‘Hey! Why are you taking photos of me in bed?’
‘Evidence,’ he said smugly. ‘Mandy won’t believe us unless I’ve got a photo. You can take one of me in the morning.’ He snuggled down in his bed. ‘I’m going to turn the torch off now.’
‘Good night, Tyler,’ said Hine, and then added, ‘And Teddy says good night too.’ She held up a small, ear-chewed, fur teddy bear. ‘He hopes you have a good night’s sleep.’
‘Good night, Hine. Good night, Teddy,’ he chuckled. As he turned off the light, he added in a whisper, ‘And good night, Ata. Look after us both, won’t you?’
Tyler woke several times during the night. He was surprised by the absolute darkness: it was just as dark with his eyes open as shut. At first there were plenty of sounds from the storm raging outside. Then later it was silent except for the gentle sound of Hine breathing; there was nothing from the penguins.
The raucous alarm woke him from a deep dream that was slow to fade. It took some time to find the clock and return the cave to peaceful silence.
‘That was enough to wake the dead,’ said Hine rolling towards him.
Tyler shone the torch up onto Ata’s ledge. ‘No,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t seem to have.’
She giggled. ‘What about the penguins?’
They were both still there, though Hopi was standing as if getting ready to leave.
‘Did you hear the storm?’ asked Tyler.
‘Yes. At one stage there was water lapping at the opening. I think the stream must have flooded.’
Tyler swung the torch to the opening, thinking that the water may have made the entrance bigger and maybe easier to get in and out. But there was no entrance. In its place was wet, brown sand with dampness spreading over the floor. There was a tide mark where the water must have peaked about half a metre from Hine’s feet.
A horrible feeling crept into Tyler’s gut. He moved for a closer look. The tunnel was completely blocked. The sand seemed to be in layers as if it had been forced in. Now he knew why everything went so quiet during the night. The storm might still be out there; it was just that they could no longer hear it. Then he had a terrible thought: if the sound couldn’t come in, then neither could the air. They were trapped and sooner or later would run out of air.
He turned to the ledge where Ata was resting. Now he knew how the boy died: he’d run out of air and died of asphyxiation.
Hine must have read his thoughts. ‘Do you think he got trapped too?’ She looked calm but there was a hint of fear in her voice.
Tyler nodded. ‘This place isn’t all that hard to find but Bill doesn’t know about it. That’s because it’s mostly blocked. It probably got opened by a bad storm and now it’s back to normal. Maybe it hasn’t been open since Ata came in.’
They were silent for a while, each taking in the situation. It was bad, really bad. If they didn’t find a way out then…Tyler shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that.
He handed Hine the torch. ‘You hold this. I’m going to dig our way out.’
‘Be careful.’
Tyler looked at her sharply. For a moment she sounded just like his mum.
‘I’ve dug tunnels in sand before. It’s all right as long as you don’t get too much sand above you.’
He started at the top where the sand met the rock. His idea was to keep rock above him for as long as possible. The damp sand was easy to dig. The hardest part was shunting the sand back out of the way. He was soon deep enough to move his hands into the passage.
It was hard to remember how long the passageway was. When he thought he was halfway he took a rest. Hine continued for a while shifting sand away from the tunnel so that it would be easier when he started again.
Breakfast was chocolate and Auntie’s cookies. Hopi came and looked at them for a moment before waddling into the tunnel looking for a way out. A moment later he reappeared and returned to Mopsie, talking to her in his funny way. Tyler looked at the clock: it was after seven, well past Hopi’s normal departure time.
‘Bill and Molly will be up by now,’ he said.
‘Yeah, but unless they go into the dorms they won’t know we’re missing. There’s still time.’
He stood. ‘There’s still a lot of sand to shift.’
They made quicker progress in the second half of the tunnel. Hine emptied the cookie tin and gave Tyler the lid. That made digging much easier. Hine used the base of the tin to carry the sand back into the cave. Soon he was out of the passage and there was only sand above him. Now all he had to do was go up and they would be free.
Even though he was tired, Tyler decided to finish the job. The sooner they got back the better. He began digging upwards. The sand was wet enough for droplets to form as he dug. Chunks of soaking sand kept falling on top of him.
Then came the awkward bit, where he had to turn over so that he could reach higher. He turned okay and was taking a small rest when suddenly water started pouring from above. He had to get out but was round the wrong way to move backwards easily. He could feel the water rising up his body as it filled the space where he sat. By squirming and twisting he got himself so that his lower body was back under the rock. He knew he had to get his head back or the sand would collapse onto his face. Yet he was too weak and everything took so much energy. With his last bit of strength he managed to turn sideways just as it all fell around him in one final rush.
He was trapped. The damp sand pushed with ever increasing force. It was impossible to breathe. His heart pumped so hard it felt like it would burst. He tried to move an arm down to his trousers. He wanted to hold the pendant. If only he could reach the pendant, things would be all right. He had to touch it one last time. But it was impossible. He was too weak. Too weak to do anything…too tired…oh so tired…Then came the blackness and it didn’t matter any more.