Chapter 6.
There was mist all around us and I felt Eddie grip my hand hard. It was icy cold, and just when I thought we would freeze to death the mist lifted enough for us to see two long narrow openings.
‘Which way do we go?’ I whispered to Eddie. My teeth were chattering and my legs were so cold that I couldn’t even feel them from the knees down. Eddie shrugged and looked scared.
‘You choose,’ he stammered.
‘The left one then,’ I told him bravely. ‘Come on, let’s see if we can find Mum.’
We stumbled through the opening and the air immediately warmed up so we could feel our feet again. The mist slowly cleared as well and we looked around to see that we were standing in a mossy clearing in the middle of some bush. A warm sun was shining and for a few minutes we simply stood there, soaking up the warmth and letting it penetrate down to our bones. It was very quiet, apart from a few birds singing in the trees and the far off sound of water trickling. The air smelt really fresh, sort of earthy and clean. Eddie and I looked around with interest.
‘I can’t see Mum,’ Eddie frowned.
‘Maybe there’s a house or something somewhere,’ I said. ‘We did see Mum in a kitchen, remember.’
‘That was ages ago, though. She might not be there any more,’ Eddie said in a small voice.
We were scared to make too much noise. Everything was so peaceful that we somehow felt it wasn’t a good idea to talk. We stood there watching the trees waving lazily in the soft breeze, feeling a bit lost and bewildered. It was the sort of place you wanted to lie down in and daydream and not think about anything unpleasant at all.
‘I’m going to explore,’ Eddie said suddenly, and started to walk towards a gap in the trees.
‘I’ll come with you.’
We walked into the bush between a couple of large trees. A narrow track meandered around for a while and we walked down it, brushing leaves from our faces and trying to catch a glimpse of the many birds we could hear singing in the trees around us. We stopped at a narrow trickle of water where it cascaded down a ferny bank and ended in a clear pool edged with stones. Eddie reached down and scooped up a handful of water.
‘Stop. Don’t drink that,’ I screeched.
‘Why not?’ Eddie asked me. ‘I’m thirsty and it looks perfectly clean.’
‘There might be all sorts of horrible bugs in it,’ I said.
Eddie looked at the stream. ‘I can’t see any,’ he said indignantly.
‘You can’t see bugs. I mean, not that sort of bugs.’
‘I don’t care. I’m thirsty.’ Eddie drank a quantity of water and splashed a few handfuls over his face. I stood there watching him enviously. It looked cool and refreshing and I was thirsty too.
‘Oh what the heck. I’m sure it won’t kill us,’ I said crossly, and bent down to take a drink. The water was wonderful. It was cold and clear and tasted a tiny bit of earth and trees and well, life. I flicked a few drops at Eddie as I stood up. He immediately splashed me back and we had a loud and extremely satisfying water fight, which ended with me running away shrieking as Eddie tried to push a wet fern frond down the back of my T-shirt. I pounded along the winding track and only stopped when I came up against a huge fallen tree that blocked my way. There were vines climbing all over it and hanging down from nearby trees as well. Eddie and I tried hanging from them and swinging the way monkeys do but it was much harder than it looked, as the vines wouldn’t swing properly. There was too much other bush growing in the way. We wandered on and climbed a steepish bit for a while. I was hoping we would get to a hilltop or something so we could see if there were any houses around but there was bush all around us.
‘We could climb a tree,’ Eddie suggested.
‘Can’t be bothered. Anyway, we’d have to climb awfully high to see over this lot.’
We slumped down on a patch of leaves in the shade and listed to the birds. We tried to identify them but as the only birds we recognised were Tui and Morepork we didn’t have much success. It was not likely we’d see a Morepork in the daylight anyway. I felt my eyes growing heavier and I could see that Eddie had fallen asleep. I yawned and decided to get up in a few minutes.
A lot later, Eddie shook me awake. The sun had moved and our shady place was feeling distinctly chilly.
‘Poppy, we have to look for Mum.’
‘I don’t think she’s here,’ I said, as I stretched my arms. ‘Ow. My leg has gone all tingly. I must have been lying on it.’
‘Stand up then,’ said Eddie irritably. ‘What shall we do?’
I thought for a while but my brain was all fogged up from sleeping in the daytime and I couldn’t think straight.
‘Maybe we should go back and try the other doorway,’ Eddie suggested.
‘Good idea.’ I took a couple of steps towards one of the trees then stopped. ‘Eddie! I don’t know where we are!’
We stood and looked at each other stupidly. We could not remember which direction we had come from. There was no sign of our footprints on the fallen leaves and I turned around a few times, trying to remember which direction we had been facing.
‘Listen for the stream,’ Eddie said, with a note of panic in his voice.
We listened and argued about where we thought it was. Eddie insisted he was right so we set off again with him in front. He led the way confidently until we came to the water. We found that this was a totally different stream, which dripped and gurgled down the hillside away from us. Our one had run quite swiftly though a rocky channel but this one was only a trickle, nearly hidden beneath overgrowing ferns.
‘We’re lost,’ Eddie said blankly.
‘It is all my fault,’ I croaked. ‘We don’t even know which direction the opening is in. I’m so stupid. I should have marked it with my sneaker or a stick or something.’
Eddie looked at me in horror. ‘But we have to get through,’ he whimpered. ‘I want to find Mum and she must be in the other doorway. And even if she isn’t, we need to know where the crack is so we can go back home again.’
‘Maybe we are close enough to work it from here,’ I said soothingly, hoping that I was right. ‘I still have the bunch of thyme in my pocket.’
I took it out and looked at it doubtfully. It still looked okay, although a bit ragged around the edges from being in my pocket. ‘Now all we need is something that squeaks.’ I looked at the trees and bushes with a sensation of hopelessness.
‘Maybe we could make the squeaking sound ourselves,’ Eddie said after a while.
I felt a bit doubtful about this but decided we didn’t have anything to lose. We both began screeching at the tops of our voices. Five minutes of this and nothing had happened except that our throats were sore and we scared off every bird in earshot. We sat down on the ground in disgust.
‘Lazy Daisy will be furious. She will have to cook the tea all by herself tonight. And do the dishes,’ I said in an attempt to cheer Eddie up. He looked at me and shrugged and we both sat silently, trying to figure out a way out of the mess we were in.
‘I guess Dad will think we are dead as well,’ Eddie muttered after a while. I tried to think of something cheerful to say in answer to this but was forced to admit he was probably right.
We sat for what felt like hours. The birds all began singing again and it would have been a lovely peaceful spot to rest if we hadn’t felt so awful inside. I was trying to put on a brave face so Eddie wouldn’t realise I was actually terrified and I suspect he was doing much the same thing. I wished I had done the sensible thing and prepared for a journey instead of leaping through the crack like that. I could have brought all sorts of useful stuff, including a compass. That way we would have known what direction to go in. But it was too late for that.
‘I’m hungry,’ Eddie said finally.
‘Me too. I don’t know what we can do about it, though. I haven’t got any food with me. Have you?’
Eddie searched though his pockets and came up with a lollipop that looked ra
ther old and uninviting. The stick was bent and the cellophane wrapping was torn and covered in fluff.
‘You can have half if you want,’ he said doubtfully.
I shuddered. ‘No thanks. You can eat it, if you’re sure it’s not too dirty even for you. Where did you get it anyway?’
‘I swapped it to Toby for a pencil sharpener. I was saving it for an emergency.’
‘I guess this qualifies as an emergency,’ I told him.
Eddie tore the cellophane off and crunched down the lollipop.
‘Where do you reckon we are, Poppy?’
‘I think we may have gone back in time,’ I said hesitantly. ‘There are no sounds of cars or planes or even people talking. I’m sure we only changed time and not place, so that must mean this is what our street looked like years ago.’
Eddie looked around with interest. ‘Cool,’ he said. ‘I wonder if this is where the school is.’
He walked over to a small manuka bush and tossed the lollipop stick at it.
‘Don’t do that,’ I said automatically. ‘You should put it in a bin.’
‘There isn’t one,’ Eddie pointed out. ‘It’s only cardboard stuff and that comes from trees so it doesn’t matter anyway.’
‘It might,’ I argued.
‘How?’
‘It might change things so that in a thousand years time there is something different here.’
Eddie scoffed at this. ‘I don’t think one lollipop stick is going to change the school into a shopping mall.’ His eyes lit up. ‘And even if it did, that would be an improvement.’
He tossed the cellophane wrapper onto the ground and piled leaves over it. I watched him dismally, wondering if we were fated to spend the rest of our lives in this place and wishing I had paid more attention in class when we studied early New Zealand. I wouldn’t know how to find edible berries and I had a horrible feeling that birds and fish would be a major part of what was available for food. I was wondering whether I would ever be hungry enough to eat a bird raw, even supposing I could catch one, when there was a rustling in the bush. Eddie stepped back smartly.
‘It’s okay,’ I said, sounding braver than I felt. ‘We didn’t have any large or dangerous animals in New Zealand years ago. Actually we still don’t unless you count pigs and I don’t think they are dangerous.’ I stood up and walked over to Eddie.
‘I don’t know about that. It sounds fairly large to me,’ Eddie whimpered.
He was right. The rustling noise grew louder and as we watched in horror an enormous bird came crashing though the undergrowth and into the clearing.
‘It’s a dinosaur,’ I moaned.
‘No, it’s not. It’s a moa,’ gasped Eddie.
I didn’t care what it was. I have never liked birds at the best of times and this one was enormous. It was far too big for my liking, and as it turned its head towards us with interest I grabbed Eddie by the hand and ran. I could hear Eddie calling, ‘It’s only a moa. Stop running, Poppy. It’s only chasing us because we are running. It won’t hurt us.’ But I didn’t care. I was beyond reason and I ran through the bush as fast as I could, dragging Eddie along behind me. Leaves slapped at my face and arms and vines and tree roots tried to trip my feet. We came to the fallen log and scrambled over it, heedless of grazed arms and legs. I was too terrified to turn and see if the moa was following us, and concentrated on pulling Eddie grimly onwards. We burst though the trees into a clearing and I paused to catch my breath.
‘I’ve got a stitch in my side,’ Eddie gasped.
‘Shh,’ I whispered desperately. ‘Be quiet. It will hear you.’
I was too late. With a rustle of feathers the moa ran into the clearing behind us. I began to scream and waved the bunch of thyme in the air. The moa took a step closer, looking at me with interest and I screamed louder. There was a sudden shimmer and a crack in the air opened. With great presence of mind, I grabbed Eddie and pulled him through it, as I sniffed the thyme and thrust the bunch in his face. The air immediately turned cold as we saw a narrow doorway in front of us. Eddie giggled rather hysterically.
‘That was the right sound, anyway.’