A Friend in Paradise

by Des Hunt

  “What are you doing man?” yelled Johnny. “Forget your gizmo. That thing’s sinking.”

  But Price wasn’t listening.

  To Robbie it seemed ages before Price raised his head and waved a piece of electronics at them. All the time the boat seemed to be settling deeper into the water.

  “Hurry up,” urged Robbie in a whisper. “Please hurry.”

  With the electronic bug tucked into his pocket, Price headed below. The nose of the boat dipped dangerously as he disappeared out of view.

  “Hold it Price!” yelled Johnny. “Don’t! You’re tipping the bow down.”

  There was no response.

  “Price!”

  The man had gone.

  Robbie watched with growing fear as the hole in the bow tipped slowly towards the waterline. If it got there before Price could get out, then he would lose both his friends.

  For what seemed like hours, Robbie stared at the entry to the cabin, willing Price to reappear. All the time, the boat was sinking deeper into the choppy water.

  When something did finally happen, it was not Price who came out of the opening — it was a cage. A moment later Price followed, his face split in a huge grin. There was no mistaking the message. Puku was OK.

  She might be alive, but she wasn’t safe yet. Getting her across from one boat to the other was going to be tricky, and it had to happen fast before Richardson’s boat sank.

  They tried the quickest way first, which involved bringing the boats together and passing the cage from one to the other.

  It didn’t work.

  Three times they tried and each time they nearly dropped the cage between the two boats. If they kept that up, Puku would be crushed.

  They had to try something else.

  Johnny found a second rope and threw it over for Price to tie around the cage. He then kept the boats a few metres apart as Price lowered the cage into the water. There it floated for a few moments while Johnny frantically hauled it across. Unfortunately that was the moment when a wave bigger than any of the others crashed against the boats. Johnny had to jump back to the wheel to keep the boats apart. The rope began sliding over the edge.

  “Grab it!” yelled Price.

  Despite his injuries, Robbie launched his body off the seats and onto the deck, clutching for the rope. He got one hand onto it, but the drag was too great and the thing ripped into his fingers as it continued sliding.

  “No!” he screamed.

  There was only one way to stop it. He had to roll over onto the injured leg so that the rope would wrap around his wrist. The pain was unbearable, but it worked. The rope held until Johnny had the boat under control and could come and help.

  Once Johnny had taken the load of the rope, Robbie collapsed, knowing he was about to pass out. He managed to hold on long enough to see the cage come over the edge. The last thing he saw was water pouring out of the breathing holes. Too much water. It must have been fully submerged. God knows what had happened to the animals inside?

  * * *

  When he came to, Price was on board and showing his bugging device to Johnny. “I knew it wasn’t my program at fault. Steam got into the GPS and disabled it. Then when it dried out it started going again.” He grinned. “You’ll note that my device kept working all the time though.”

  “Just as well,” said Johnny. “Or we’d never have found it. That thing would have sunk before anyone found it.”

  “Has it sunk?” asked Robbie.

  The two men turned to him.

  “Hello,” said Price. “You’re back in the land of the living.”

  “Has the boat sunk?” Robbie repeated.

  “Yes. It went down almost as soon as I got off it.”

  “Were there any other animals?”

  “Not that I could see. Though I didn’t look any further once I found Puku.”

  Robbie turned to the cage lying on the deck in a puddle of water.

  “Is she all right?”

  “Yes,” replied Price with a smile. “She got a little wet, but we’ve dried her and she seems OK.”

  “Are the babies there?”

  In answer Price lifted the cage and opened the door. There was Puku nestled on what looked like one of Johnny’s old shearing singlets. Her three babies were cuddled alongside. Robbie stretched out and touched her. “Hi there, Puku,” he said. “We came to take you home.”

  Then he lay back and slept.

  Chapter 22

  When Robbie awoke his mother was sitting by the bed.

  “Hi, Robbie.” She smiled. “How’s the holiday going then?” She leant forward and hugged him.

  He grinned. “OK, I s’pose. It’s been a bit dull at times.”

  “Like when you’re not trying to crash planes or blow up volcanoes? Yeah! I can see it could get boring.”

  Then he told her.

  He told the whole story. The kiwi, the fishing, the break-in, the Internet stuff, the lahar. And he told her about Puku. He didn’t know whether Price would approve, but he found it wasn’t a secret he wanted to keep from his mum any more. His father already knew.

  She listened without comment. When he’d finished she nodded. “Mmm, Price told it much the same way.”

  “You’ve met Price?”

  “Yes! I stayed at Jim’s place last night. You’ve been in a drugged sleep for two days.”

  Robbie took that in. He had a feeling it had been a while. He’d stirred a couple of times, but only for a minute or two. Now he felt wide awake, yet very sore. “What do you think of Price?”

  “He’s different, isn’t he?”

  “He’s great! He knows everything!”

  She nodded slowly, smiling. “He gave me a message for you. But I’m not sure I approve of it.” She paused.

  “Go on!”

  “He says he didn’t tell the police about the kaweau, the bug or the snooping on the Internet. And he thinks you shouldn’t either.”

  “So, the only ones who know about Puku are you, Price and Johnny?”

  “Jim knows as well, now. Paradise has been sold to a trust Johnny Marshall heads. That’s what Price was organising when he was away. They’re going to do their own research on the bush. ‘Join with its being,’ is how Johnny puts it.”

  “What about the emus? They could spread disease into the bush.”

  Again his mother smiled. “I don’t really know. But I did hear Johnny ask how Aussie birds would go in a hangi. Maybe he’s planning something for when you get out.”

  * * *

  A week later Price and Robbie were in the ute heading for Paradise. A cage was tightly tied on the back. Nobody spoke. There was far too much to think about.

  They stopped for a minute to view the valley. The sheep had already gone. Soon it would belong to the trust and nothing would ever be farmed there again. It could return to the way it was before.

  Price forded the river and drove up to the bush-line. He helped carry the cage as deep into the bush as they could. Then he left the boy alone.

  Robbie walked around for a while looking for the right tree. The one he found was perfect. An old rimu with a huge trunk covered in flaky brown bark. The wide branches were covered with all sorts of plants. There were mistletoes and orchids and grasses and shrubs. It was like a garden in the air. Puku and her family should be safe there. But just in case, he searched the ground nearby for any signs of possums. There were none. If they were in the bush they would be on the leafier trees like rata and titoki.

  He dragged the cage to the base of the tree. One by one he took out the youngsters, placing them on the trunk. They scuttled under the nearest flake of bark, waiting for their mother.

  The next part was the hard bit. Though he knew she must go sometime, Robbie was sad it had to be so soon. He began to feel a great loss. It was much more than losing a pet. Puku had helped him accept his father’s death. An ancient animal had shown him life was worth living, after all.

  He picked her up and cradled her in his arms
, just like he had when he first found her. She was still cold and scaly. But to him, she was as warm and cuddly as a kitten. He held her near the trunk. Gently she climbed from his arms onto the flaky surface. The babies popped out and joined her.

  It was a slow journey up the tall tree. Puku with her rocking walk; the babies darting in and out of the bark. Robbie sat on the ground and watched. For the first time he was seeing the kaweau in her own world. She blended so well that Robbie could mostly only see her if she moved.

  When she got to the branches, she let the babies go on ahead. Then she stopped and turned to look down. Robbie saw the yellow of her tongue move across her lips. It was her goodbye, before she turned and disappeared into the garden.

  Later he cleaned out the cage. At the back he found the most wonderful thing — a complete kaweau skin, perfect in every way. Puku had shed her skin as a gift; a present to a boy who had cared enough to let her be. By giving her species a new chance of life he had found new meaning in his own.

  And that’s the way it should always be.