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later. Nanny
     Flowers was livid when she heard about what happened.
    ‘You just keep her away from the meeting house,’
     Koro Apirana said. ‘That’s all I say. I’ve told you
     before. And her.’
    ‘My blame,’ Kahu wept. ‘Love
     Paka.’
    ‘You men ,’
     Nanny Flowers said. ‘I can show you where you
     come from.’
    ‘Enough,’ Koro Apirana said. He stormed out and
     that ended the argument.
    Later that night Kahu kept sobbing and sobbing. I guess we thought she
     was still grieving about being growled at, but we know better now. I heard Nanny Flowers
     going into Kahu’s bedroom and comforting her.
    ‘Shift over, Kahu,’ Nanny Flowers soothed.
     ‘Make a little space for your skinny Nanny. There, there.’
    ‘Love Paka.’
    ‘You can have him, Kahu,
     as soon as I get my divorce tomorrow. There, there.’ Nanny was really hurting with
     love for Kahu. ‘Don’t you worry, don’t you worry.
     You’ll fix him up, the old paka, when you get older.’
    In the hiss and roar of the suck of the surf upon the land I listened
     to Nanny Flowers. After a short while Kahu drifted off to sleep.
    ‘Yes,’ Nanny Flowers crooned, ‘go to
     sleep now. And if you don’t fix him,’ she whispered, ‘then my
     oath I will.’
    Hiss and roar. Ebb and flow.
    The next morning I sneaked in to give Kahu a special
     cuddle, just from me. When I opened the door she was gone. I looked in Koro Apirana and
     Nanny Flowers’ bedroom, but she wasn’t there either. Nanny Flowers had
     pushed Koro onto the floor and had spread herself over the whole bed to make sure he
     couldn’t get back in.
    Outside the sea was gentle and serene, as if the storm had never
     happened. In the clear air I heard a chittering, chattering sound from the beach. I saw Kahu
     far away, silhouetted on the sand. She was standing facing the sea and listened to voices in
     the surf. There , there , Kahu . There , there .
    Suddenly Kahu turned and saw me. She ran toward me like a seagull.
     ‘Uncle Rawiri!’
    I saw three silver shapes leaping into the dawn.

autumn

    season of the sounding whale

nine

    If you ask me the name of this house, I shall tell you. It is Te Kani.
     And the carved figure at the apex? It is Paikea, it is Paikea. Paikea swam, hei . The sea god swam, hei .
     The sea monster swam, hei . And Paikea, you landed at
     Ahuahu. You changed into Kahutia Te Rangi, aue . You gave
     your embrace to the daughter of Te Whironui, aue , who sat
     in the stern of the canoe. Aue , aue , and now you are a carved figurehead, old man.
    The sea trench, Hawaiki. The Place of the Gods. The Home of the
     Ancients. The whale herd hovered in the goldened sea like regal airships. Far above, the
     surface of the sea was afire with the sun’s plunge from day into night. Below
     lay the sea trench. The herd was waiting for the sign from their ancient leader that it
     should descend between the protective walls of the trench and flow with the thermal
     stream away from the island known as the Place of the Gods.
    But their leader was still mourning. Two weeks earlier the herd had
     been feeding in the Tuamotu Archipelago when suddenly a flash of bright light had
     scalded the sea and giant tidal soundwaves had exerted so much pressure that internal
     ear canals had bled. Seven young calves had died. The ancient whale remembered this
     occurrence happening before; screaming a lament of condemnation, he had led them away in
     front of the lethal tide that he knew would come. On that pellmell, headlong and
     mindless escape, he had noticed more cracks in the ocean floor, hairline fractures
     indicating serious damage below the crust of the earth. Now, some weeks later, the
     leader was still unsure about the radiation level in the sea trench. He was fearful of
     the contamination seeping from Moruroa. He was afraid of the genetic effects of the
     undersea radiation on the remaining herd and calves in this place which had once,
     ironically, been the womb of