The Moa Cave (3 page)

Their response was to giggle some more. Mandy whispered something to Hine and the pair broke into hysterical laughter.

‘What is it?’ He was becoming annoyed. He hated it when girls acted like this. ‘Tell me!’ He could feel the pressure rising within his nose. His eyes closed as he struggled to control himself.

Molly arrived to pick up his plate. ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘What do you two find so funny?’

Hine pointed at Tyler and again they roared with laughter.

‘Stop it!’ he yelled. ‘Stop it!’ His face was now bright red and his head was shaking.

Molly looked at him anxiously. ‘It’s okay, Tyler. I see what it is.’ She moved and fiddled with the sleeve of his sweatshirt for a moment. ‘It was just this.’ She held up a cardboard price tag. ‘You forgot to take the label off when you got up this morning.’

‘His mummy’s not here to dress him,’ said Mandy.

Tyler picked up the bone, threw back the chair and ran from the room. When he reached his bunk he started thumping the mattress with his fists, over and over again. It had been such a perfect morning and now it was ruined. Why did girls always have to do that? Why did they always have to wreck everything? It happened every, every, every time.

Then he dived into his pack searching for something. A moment later he pulled out a hand-sized plastic case: it was a Game Boy. He turned it on and twiddled with the buttons, almost unaware of what game it was. Yet it had the desired effect. Slowly he became absorbed with the make-believe world. His breathing slowed and bit by bit he returned to normal. Half an hour later he was ready to face reality again. Today they were visiting the petrified forest and no girl was going to wreck that for him.

It was midday before they were ready to leave. Alice messed about taking photos in and around the woolshed. Then she had to make yet another phone call—again without success.

They retraced the drive back to the main road. This time Tyler could see the lie of the land. The layers of rock he’d seen at the beach continued inland forming lines of parallel ridges with valleys between. The narrow road jumped from one valley to the next. Everywhere there were skeletons of trees. Some still had blackened trunks from the fires used to clear the bush. To Tyler it looked like photos of early New Zealand he had seen at school.

After a while he tired of the scenery and turned on his Game Boy. Immediately the power light glowed red, showing low batteries. No problem, he thought, I’ll use the car battery to charge them. The only thing was he’d have to ask Mandy to plug it in and she was sure to have something smart to say. He should have done it himself before they left.

He waited for a pause in the conversation. ‘Excuse me, Mandy. Could you plug this into the cigarette lighter?’ He held out a purple plastic device with a long transparent cable.

‘What’s this?’ asked Mandy. ‘Is it a water pistol?’

‘No it’s a power lead. Could you just plug it in, please?’

‘Why do you need it?’

‘To play a game.’

‘He’s got a
Playboy
,’ added Hine.

‘What?’ asked Mandy spinning around to see. ‘Tyler Matthews! What are you doing with a
Playboy
magazine?’

‘It’s not! It’s a Game Boy!’ shouted Tyler. ‘I just want to play a game.’

‘Aw, just a boring game. A
Playboy
would be much more interesting.’

‘What’s the game?’ interrupted Alice.

‘The Bones of Kilimanjaro.’

‘I could’ve guessed,’ put in Mandy. ‘More boring bones.’

‘What’s it about?’

‘Oh, you have to find an elephant’s graveyard so that you can get the ivory, which is worth a fortune. But there’s different things attacking you all the time. And there’s a curse on the bones, which you have to beat to win. It’s a really good game.’ Thankfully that stopped the questions and he started to play.

After some time Mandy said, ‘I think computer games are boring. I can’t see why boys play them all the time. It’s not like they’re real or anything.’

Alice turned and smiled. ‘Haven’t you noticed that boys are different to girls?’

Mandy ignored her. ‘I like those games they have on TV, like
Survival
. They’re okay.’

‘Maybe we should play a game like that,’ said Hine.

‘Yeah! That would be great,’ Mandy said, swivelling around to face the back. ‘We could play a dare game. Each of us has a turn to say a dare that the others have to do. We played that at camp this year. It was cool.’

‘What happens if somebody doesn’t do it?’

‘They lose a life. We all start with three lives.’

‘Do you have to do the dare yourself?’

‘Of course, the darer has to do it first. And if the others don’t, you gain a life.’

Hine thought for a moment. ‘What if you say a dare and don’t do it?’

‘You lose a life and the dare is cancelled. Are you going to play?’

‘Yep. I’m in. What about you, Tyler?’

Tyler paused his game. ‘I dunno. How do you decide who wins?’

Mandy replied, ‘If you lose all your lives you drop out. The winner’s the last person left.’

Tyler shook his head. He really didn’t want to play.

‘Come on, Tyler,’ said Hine. ‘It won’t work if there’s only two of us.’

‘What about Alice?’ asked Tyler hopefully.

‘Count me out,’ said Alice quickly.

The two girls looked at Tyler. ‘Oh okay. I’ll play.’

‘Good,’ said Hine.

Alice said, ‘Just be careful that your dares are sensible. Things like this can get out of hand. We don’t want anybody hurt, do we?’

‘We won’t get hurt,’ said Mandy. ‘It’s only a game. And, I get first dare because I thought of it.’

‘I’m second,’ said Hine quickly.

Tyler smiled to himself. He didn’t mind going last. It was a stupid game anyway. He returned to The Bones of Kilimanjaro—that was what
he
called a real game.

For lunch they pulled into a store at Niagara, named after the famous falls in North America, though these were only a
metre high. While they made their purchases, the shop lady chattered about the district and what they should see. The waterfall was high on her list of must-sees; so were the dolphins in Porpoise Bay.

‘A man came in last weekend,’ she said, ‘and claimed he’d seen the dolphins, though it’s a little early in the season for them. Yet I suppose, with all this global warming and stuff, we can expect to see them for longer. That’ll be good as most of our visitors come just to see the dolphins. They’re the main attraction around here. Just follow the road to the coast. You can’t miss the bay.’

When they left the shop Tyler noticed a very dirty, black ute that was parked alongside the toilet next door. It had a roll bar with four lights mounted across the top, just like the one he’d seen in the middle of the night. He decided to take a closer look.

It was so dirty that it was impossible to read the number plates. He would have liked to have wiped them clean to get the number but figured the driver was around somewhere—it would be wise to be careful.

He walked casually past, giving the vehicle the once over. Everything was black: black paint, black cover over the back and black tinted windows. He moved closer to the side window. Along the back of the seat was a shape he felt he knew. He leant forward, cupping his eyes with his hands so he could see. Yes! He was right. It was a gun. Now he was certain: this was the vehicle that had killed the beast during the night.

‘What you looking at, boy?’

Tyler jumped. The voice had come from behind. He turned to be confronted by a tall, skinny man with a wispy beard.

‘Something there you’re interested in?’ The man’s eyes were shifting all over the place, only resting for a brief moment on Tyler.

‘Ah, um, I was just looking at the ute. I like them and wondered what model it was.’

‘You won’t see that by looking inside.’

Another man came out of the toilet. He was a huge, powerful man. ‘What’s up?’ he grunted.

‘This kid was staring into the cab,’ said the one with shifty eyes.

‘What’s he want to do that for?’ grunted the other, turning to Tyler.

‘I just like utes,’ repeated Tyler.

‘Yeah?’ said Grunty. ‘Well you can like somebody else’s. Get out of here.’

Tyler didn’t need to be told twice. He scampered back to the car with his heart pounding. The ute snarled into life behind him and roared off in a spray of gravel. Slowly Tyler calmed. Although the encounter had been scary, it had also been useful. He now knew the vehicle was a Falcon with two occupants—one called Shifty and the other Grunty. He had no doubts he’d be able to recognise them if needed, yet he hoped he would never have to see them again.

The shop lady was right: Porpoise Bay was easy to find. It was a sweeping arc of sand protected at one end by a headland and at the other by a rocky reef. The place was deserted—four kilometres of beach and not a single person. What surprised Tyler most was the small number of houses. A beach like this up north would have row after row of beach homes. Here there were only a few places, which Alice said the locals called cribs.

Long parallel waves broke on the beach washing up large pieces of seaweed called kelp. Tyler measured the length of
one at twenty-two of his strides. Some of the fronds were circular and whip-like—he impressed the girls by getting one to crack like a lion tamer.

Hine found a piece of flotsam shaped like a bird’s nest yet plainly some sort of growth from the sea. She put it on her head and danced around a bit.

‘Watch out for that crab,’ said Mandy. Hine squealed and threw the ‘hat’ to the sand. The others laughed.

‘Were you tricking me?’

‘No,’ said Mandy. ‘There’s something red in it.’ They moved closer. ‘There!’ It was a small red, heart-shaped shell, still with both halves joined together.

Tyler smiled knowingly. ‘Open it up.’

Immediately Hine became suspicious. ‘Why, what’s in it?’

‘Open it up. It won’t hurt you.’

Carefully she prised the two halves apart and looked inside. ‘Oh look. It’s beautiful. Look, Mandy.’ Mandy was equally impressed and so was Alice. Inside the shell was a glassy frame, looking very much like a jewel resting in a case.

‘I’m going to keep this,’ said Hine. She turned to Tyler. ‘How did you know it was there?’

‘It’s a brachiopod. They’re a very ancient animal. They are perfectly symmetrical and have this internal skeleton. They’re very important in palaeontology.’ He fished in his trousers. ‘Here’s a fossil one I picked up this morning.’ The grey lump had been polished by the jiggling in his pocket and now had a smooth, glossy surface. It too was beautiful in its own way.

They found the dolphins on their way back to the car, or maybe the dolphins found them. They were playing just where the waves were breaking, zooming along inside the bulge of
water. Tyler had seen dolphins before, yet these ones looked different—they were so small. Alice said they were Hector’s dolphins, the smallest and rarest in the world.

After watching them for some time Mandy said, ‘I know what my first dare is.’ She paused dramatically. ‘We’re going to swim with the dolphins.’

‘It’ll be freezing,’ said Hine.

‘We don’t have togs,’ pleaded Tyler.

Alice laughed at them. ‘Go on. You’ve all got a change of clothes. And we have to wait for the tide before we go to Curio Bay.’

Ten minutes later, three very cold-looking kids crept down to the sea. They had shed their winter woollies, keeping only the bare essentials. Hine and Tyler stood back waiting for Mandy to start the dare; both secretly hoped she would chicken out.

Mandy tiptoed into the water. ‘Ow!’ she squealed. ‘It’s freezing.’

‘You made the dare,’ said Hine. ‘You’ve got to do it first.’

Mandy turned to them with a pleading look; the others just smiled. Then she took a deep breath and ran screaming into the water plunging into the nearest wave. A moment later she emerged waving her arms triumphantly.

Tyler and Hine looked at each other. ‘C’mon,’ said Hine. ‘That seems to be the best way to do it.’ Together they raced to the water yelling their heads off. Soon they had joined Mandy in the surf and the three of them crouched in the water, surprised that it wasn’t as cold as they had thought it would be.

Then something magical happened. As soon as they calmed they found themselves surrounded by dolphins. There must have been about ten of them, yet it was difficult to tell because of their quick movement in and out of the waves. To begin with, they never got close enough to touch, yet they plainly
wanted to play. One, bolder than the others, swam in a circle spraying them with water from its breathing hole.

Before entering the water Alice had reminded them that the dolphins were wild animals and to treat them carefully: ‘Just stay still and enjoy.’ They did. However it was impossible to think of them as dangerous things. Their smiling faces and playful antics were so like kids having fun. There was no doubting the intelligence of the beautiful creatures.

Bit by bit they got used to the humans and approached closer. Soon the bold one was close enough to touch. It floated gently by, peering at them out of one eye. Above the eye was a scar that looked like an eyebrow, giving the creature the comical look of a clown. Mandy reached out her hand and touched it. The dolphin slowed until it was barely moving. Hine touched and then Tyler. For a moment all three were joined by the thrill of holding such a lovely animal.

Sadly, it was all over too soon. The dolphin flicked its tail and rejoined the others. That was the signal for them all to leave. One moment they were swimming around and the next they were heading out to sea. It was disappointing, yet they left behind three youngsters with memories that would last for the rest of their lives.

The tide was about half out when they changed into dry clothes and drove the short distance to Curio Bay, home of the petrified forest. The bay was filled with a flat, rocky platform between a cliff and the crashing waves. At one end was a large split in the rocks where the waves rushed in, spilling onto a pebbly beach.

From the car park, wooden steps led to the rocks with a viewing platform partway down. There were signs identifying the features of the fossil forest. The fallen logs could be clearly seen, lying at different angles. The stumps were not so obvious, but a map showed where they were.

Tyler stared in wonder. This forest had been growing in Jurassic times. Probably dinosaurs had stomped through it. Who knows what caused the trees to fall. Yet Tyler could imagine a huge battle between giant dinosaurs breaking the trees and anything else that got in the way. Maybe, somewhere beneath where he stood were the remains of those animals.

It was a scene he wanted for his website. From his pocket he fished out his Game Boy. Mandy saw it and said, ‘You’re not still playing that game?’

Tyler just smiled and reached into his other pocket pulling out a flat piece with a lens. Carefully he removed a part of the Game Boy and plugged in the lens.

‘Is it a camera?’ asked Hine. Tyler nodded.

‘Hey!’ squealed Mandy. ‘You really are Inspector Gadget.’ She posed like a model against the rail. ‘I say, Gadget, how about a photo of me?’

‘No thanks, Mandy! I don’t want to break it.’ Mandy poked her tongue at him. ‘Anyway,’ he continued. ‘I don’t waste time photographing people.’

With the lens aimed at the forest he viewed the image on the screen. The others moved behind to see too. ‘It’s a bit dim,’ commented Hine.

‘I know, but you get used to it. Anyway it comes up good when you download to a computer.’ He took five photos, knowing he could delete any he didn’t want.

They then moved onto the rocks where Tyler took some close-ups of fallen trees. Meanwhile Alice had gone back to the top of the cliff to use her cellphone. The two girls had moved over to the split in the rock platform. Hine waved him over.

‘Have a look down there,’ she said.

The channel was deep and full of kelp waving in the surging water; it looked like a mass of sea serpents waiting around for a meal. A wave moved in and then, without warning, a powerful jet of water squirted from a hole opposite to where he stood. Instantly he was soaked.

The girls cracked up, jumping around squealing and laughing. Tyler felt his anger rise, yet he couldn’t let them see it. He rushed away across the rock platform, only to stumble on a fossil log. That caused even more hysteria.

They had done it again. He had been so looking forward to visiting this place and now it was ruined. Why did they have to do that? For a while he’d thought that Hine was different. Now he knew she was just the same as all the others.

As soon as they got back Alice asked Molly about any phone calls.

‘Sorry, dear,’ replied Molly. ‘There’s been nothing.’

Alice showed her cellphone. ‘I can’t get a signal anywhere,’ she said anxiously. ‘I’ve been trying all day. Do you know where I can try? I want to check my text messages.’

‘Who are you with?’ asked Bill.

‘TotalCom.’

‘Ah! Then that’s a bit tricky. Their coverage is pathetic around here. You can get it in one or two spots, so they tell me.’

Molly added, ‘I’ve heard the guests say it’s okay at Jacks Bay. You’ll be over there tomorrow. Can it wait until then?’

‘I s’pose it’ll have to,’ she said unhappily.

Molly looked at her. ‘Why don’t you stay here and help me get dinner? Bill can take the kids to see the penguins by himself. Then we can have a good chat about things.’

The penguin hide was not far from the end of the road, hidden amongst some flax bushes. They had a good view of the beach that Tyler had explored that morning, where the yellow-eyed penguins would come ashore just before dark.

Bill said it was okay to talk quietly. The girls sat at one end of the wooden bench whispering and sometimes giggling. Tyler sat well clear of them, thinking about the cave and when he could get there next. He glanced in the direction of the cliffs. There were animals climbing amongst the craggy rocks above the cave entrance.

He turned to Bill. ‘Are they goats?’

‘Yep. There’s about twenty of them up on that bluff. I do a bit of a cull every now and then. There’s an Indian community in Dunedin that buy the meat. Goats are good to have in a place like that where the cattle won’t feed. They eat anything and don’t take any looking after.’

‘Do they ever fall down?’

‘No way. They’re the most sure-footed animal there is.’

‘What about falling into caves?’

‘There are no caves; not around here. There’s a few sea caves further up the coast where the water eats into the cliff, but you can’t get into them. You’ll see one of those tomorrow at Jacks Bay. It’s quite something.’

So, thought Tyler, there are no caves around here. He smiled to himself. Then what was that I was in this morning? It surprised him to think that Bill didn’t know about it—the entrance wasn’t all that hard to find. Yet maybe nobody knew about it. Perhaps in the future it would become known as Tylers Cave and be shown in the tourist guides and things.

His thinking was broken by a nudge from Bill who was pointing to the beach. Two creatures were waddling out of the water. When they reached the sand they leaned forward, moving faster until they looked just like workers leaning into the wind as they rushed home after a hard day’s work.

As he watched, another bird came out of the water, then another. The tide was now fully out and the penguins’ trip up the beach took a couple of minutes. At one stage there were six of them in view. Altogether they counted eleven. Bill was pleased. He said that meant there were probably eleven pairs nesting on the beach, the biggest number for years.

When Bill said it was time to go, Tyler asked if he could stay a while longer. He wanted to go to the cave, though he didn’t say that. Bill said it was okay as long as he was back within half an hour. Then to Tyler’s dismay the girls decided
they wanted to stay too. He almost changed his mind; instead, he marched out onto the beach heading for the cliffs, hoping they would get the message and leave him alone.

They didn’t: they rushed to catch up to him.

‘Is this where you went this morning?’ asked Hine.

‘Did you see any penguins?’ asked Mandy.

‘Was the fossil in those cliffs?’

‘Did you cross that stream there?’

‘Where was the dead bull?’

‘Yeah, where did you bury the guts?’

He tried to ignore them. Yet even when they stopped asking questions they kept walking alongside. He decided to abandon the visit to the cave. He wasn’t ready to share it with anyone yet, and certainly not with the girls. They would just spoil it for him. He would get up early and return in the morning.

When they reached the stream, Tyler decided he might as well show them where he got the fossil brachiopod. They had just crossed it when they heard the roar of a vehicle coming down the road. Tyler turned to see a ute drive onto the sand. It was ablaze with lights. There was no doubting that it was Shifty and Grunty’s vehicle.

Tyler hoped they would head the other way, but it was not his lucky day. The ute came along the beach swerving from side to side, spewing plumes of sand from the skidding tyres. Then it stopped swerving and moved forward as if the driver had spotted something.

‘Look there!’ yelled Hine pointing to the other side of the stream. A small penguin had just hauled itself out of the water. It was the one from the cave returning from the day’s fishing. It looked so tiny and exposed.

‘Oh no!’ screamed Mandy. ‘They’re going to run it down.’

Without thinking, Tyler sprinted across the stream towards
the penguin. The bird stopped and looked directly at him. Then it was framed by the spotlights and froze in panic. Tyler ran past it until he was between it and the ute. Now they would have to turn away or they would hit him.

But the ute made no change of direction. It kept roaring towards him as if he hadn’t been seen. He screamed at the driver to stop. Still there was no response. Now he had to save himself. With all his strength he threw his body sideways, crashing onto the hard sand. The ute screamed past in a rush of wind and sand. He heard a cackle of laughter, and then it was gone.

Somehow it had missed. When he looked up he saw that it had turned at the last minute and was now powering its way back up the beach. He turned to look for the penguin. The only thing he could see was a lump on the sand beside the tyre tracks. He scrambled forward hoping it was not what he thought it was, yet knowing that it was.

The bird was totally limp. He got out his torch to examine it.

‘Is it all right?’ asked Mandy as the girls arrived.

‘Are
you
all right?’ asked Hine.

‘I’m okay, but the penguin isn’t.’ There was no blood on it, but no sign of life either. He picked it up, cradling it in his arms. The thing was so tiny—it was not surprising that it was easily damaged.

‘Is it dead?’ asked Hine.

‘I think so.’ He pointed the torch to the ground so the girls couldn’t see his face. He didn’t want them to see his crying.

‘What are you going to do with it?’

‘Take it back and show the police,’ he said angrily. ‘I want those two caught.’ He started walking towards the shore.

Hine said, ‘You think they’re the ones that shot the bull, don’t you?’

‘Yes. And forced us off the road. They’re animals and have to be…’

All of a sudden he was struggling to hold a squirming bird. The flippers were wiggling strongly and the open beak was much too close to his face. Quickly he leaned over so that it could escape onto the sand. It lay there for a moment, before shaking itself and slowly limping off up the beach. Mandy clapped and Hine cheered. Tyler took the opportunity to wipe his eyes while they weren’t looking.

‘Do you think it’s got a nest somewhere?’ asked Hine.

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘it’ll have a burrow somewhere. But it’s best if we leave it alone. It’ll be okay now.’

‘You were very brave,’ said Mandy. ‘They would have killed it if it hadn’t been for you.’

Yes, he thought, they would have. But he didn’t feel brave. He felt sick. How could people behave like that? What caused them to do things like that? He shook his head. He could never understand them. Never in a billion years.

Much more than the half hour had passed before they got back to the woolshed. Hine had issued her dare: they had to walk through the cattle paddock in the dark. The journey had been slow. All light from the sun had gone and the moon had not yet risen. They could hear the beasts—snorting, thumping and chewing—but could not see them. Then they heard the plop, plop, plop sound of one emptying its bowels. Hine started giggling and soon they were all laughing. It was a happy group of kids who finally sat down for dinner. Even Alice looked happier, though she still clutched her cellphone as if her life depended on it.