First published in The Great Outdoors 2019
Tai and Luke are streaking down the hill on their bikes toward the river. Tai edges past Luke, bending low over his handle bars, his black hair pushed back and his towel flapping like a cape off his back. He holds his lead and holds his nerve, not braking till he hits the fine line of not crashing across River Road at the bottom of the hill.
They stop off at the dairy and they’re sitting at the picnic table in the morning sun. Tai’s eating a meat pie and drinking a can of Coke. Luke’s just having a Coke. He’s already had breakfast at home. It’s a fine day and a very fine start to the school holidays. No more school for six weeks. The only thing Tai would miss was kapa haka, doing the school haka and practising the taiaha and the waiata and moteatea: Waikato Te Awa, Rangitapu, E Kore Au E Ngaro.
Tai and Luke go the river for a swim and stash their bikes out of sight in the flax with their clothes. Then they climb a big willow tree on the bank, just up far enough to get the rope swing where they’d hooked it up on a branch last time. This was where they launched themselves on the swing out over a deep pool in the river. The other end of the rope was tied to a high branch of an even bigger tree overhanging the river. It was Tai who had brought the rope and climbed out onto that branch. It was a hard climb, but no sweat for The Phantom. That was Tai’s secret identity. Well, it used to be secret. Maybe it was time for a new identity, maybe The Commando or The Ninja. So it was Tai’s swing and known only to a select few. Tai and Luke had bunked school a couple of times to come here for a swim but now it was holidays they could go whenever they felt like it.
Tai grabs the rope and he’s about to jump when he sees the girls coming down the track. He tells Luke to sit tight and keep quiet. He climbs a little higher to get a better look. It’s Naina, Bella and Katie, three of their classmates. It was Naina who narked on him for tagging the library block. It got back from her parents to his parents and he got smacked over at home for it. He wouldn’t be tagging his trademark Phantom insignia around town anymore.But the worst was he had to clean it off. It got back to school and old Williamson made him wear a high vis vest and clean off the graffiti during school time while everyone was around, walking past and giving him a hard time, like Jordan Nahu saying, “Hey, it’s the phantom wanker.” The humiliation of it. That was a new word he’d learned. Humiliation. You could feel shame all by yourself but when it was public it was humiliating. He’d tried to be staunch and brazen it out, saying “Some people just got no appreciation of art,” and with the rags and solvent, made a show of rubbing the penis he had drawn on the wall.
When Naina walked past he shouted, “Hey Naina, what’s the time? It’s naina clock, time to be a nark. Yeah, there’s the bitch that narked on me.” He wanted to say “the ugly bitch” but that wouldn’t work. It was obvious she was really pretty. Naina, the snooty bitch. She was no better than Tai as a student but she was a bit of a star when it came to sports and kapa haka. First in the cross country, a winger on the girls’ rugby team and the best swimmer in the junior school. Naina’s nickname, Naina Clock, was kind of funny but he needed to think of something better, something worse. Luke had a nickname too, Look Away, because of his wonky eye that was always looking away when he looked at you. Tai had made the mistake of practising his Phantom insignia in art class. He didn’t think anyone else had seen it. The nosy bitch!
So Tai and Luke are hiding up this tree when the girls come down to the river bank and change into their togs. Tai’s eyes are fastened on Naina. The T shirt comes off over her head revealing the swelling, perky boobs and the dark, pointy nipples, just as he had pictured them so often outlined under her blouse. They had definitely grown since the start of the year. Shorts and panties off. The little black bush below her belly. Oops, stiffy coming on again. The cold water will take care of that. Tai’s dick was really getting a mind of its own lately. Even once sitting in class it started stirring and growing. He had to think of something bad. Pāngarau. Equations. Mind over matter. What’s the matter? Nothing. Kore. He hated maths. Numbers, equations, multiplication, addition, distraction, derision.
Meanwhile back in the bush, the girls have got their togs on. Show’s over. Tai shouts, “Hey hey, Look Away, what’s the time?” and Luke responds with, “It’s naina clock.”
The girls cover themselves with their towels and look around. They can’t see the boys but they know who it is. Bella shouts, “Piss off, you perverts!”
Tai swoops out of the tree, hooting with laughter and drops into the river. Luke grabs the rope on the backswing. The girls swim in the pool just out of range and edge further away when the boys start bombing, dropping off the swing, hugging their knees. They compete, as always, to make the biggest splash. Then it’s acrobatics, doing back flips off the rope. Tai knows the girls are watching. Then the competition becomes who can swing the furthest out into the river.
Luke shouts, “I beat your mark,” and then Tai, “No you didn’t. What mark? Where’s your mark in the water, anyway?”
Bella calls out, “Ha, I could do better than that.”
“No you couldn’t,” Tai shouts, “cos you won’t be using the swing. No girls allowed, and definitely no narks.”
On Tai’s next turn he says, “It’s all in the timing,” and he swings out holding onto the rope with one hand till he’s nearly at end of the arc. He does get a bit of extra distance, right out into the current. He bobs to the surface, treading water, flicks his hair off his face and presses the water from his eyes. He has to swim back against the current. But his legs aren’t working properly. They’re cramping painfully and he’s struggling as the swirling current pulls him downstream, further out and under. He’s choking, breathless, weakening. With his head under the water, he hears singing, chanting:
Waikato te awa, katohia, katohia, he wai māu, katohia he wai māu,
ka eke ki te puaha o Waikato te awa.
River weed brushes his legs, reaches out, grabs at his ankles.
He piko, he taniwha, he piko, he taniwha.
Kia tūpato rā, kei tahuri koe i ngā aukaha o Waikato.
He’s reduced to dog paddling to keep his head above water.
Luke shouts, “Hey, Tai, you all right?”
No answer. Luke runs along the bank downstream to get ahead of Tai and dives in. As he’s swimming out to him, he sees Naina swimming down with the current and she catches up with Tai. She struggles to get hold of him because he’s desperately grabbing onto her, and she punches him in the face. Luke swims alongside. He can do no better than let Naina do the rescue.
Tai stops struggling, but mentally he struggles with the weakness and humiliation of being rescued by a girl, by Naina, and the thrill of her arm around him. Her free arm grabs the water with powerful strokes across the current. Tai’s on his back, still getting carried downstream but Naina’s towing him, closer to the bank till they get to where it’s shallow enough for Naina and Luke to drag him onto the muddy bank. Tai is on his hands and knees, like a dog, vomiting and coughing. Naina is panting. Nobody speaks. Tai crawls back into the water and washes his face. He gets his breath back and regains his legs and a bit of composure. Then he stands up and says, “Yeah, I’m all right. So yous girls wanna have a go on this swing or not?”
Glossary of Māori terms
kapa haka traditional Māori performing arts
haka traditional Māori war dance
taiaha a staff used in Māori martial arts
waiata songs
moteatea chants
Pāngarau mathematics
kore nothingness
Rangi tapu sacred sky or sacred day
E Kore Au E Ngaro I’m Not Lost
Waikato te awa, katohia, katohia, he wai māu, katohia he wai māu, ka eke ki te puaha o Waikato te awa.
The Waikato River. When you have plucked the water and taken it to the river mouth, this is Waikato.
He piko, he taniwha, he piko, he taniwha. Kia tūpato rā, kei tahuri koe i ngā aukaha o Waikato.
At every bend a taniwha. Be careful, lest you are overturned by the strong current of the Waikato.
taniwha a river monster or spirit which could also be a guardian, or alternatively, a great chief