The Fall

If you’ve arrived here please start at Chapter 1

Chapter 5

Aunt Nia

The meeting house is the main room of an old community hall that was once pride of place in the township before The Fall. Now it is elaborately decorated with carvings and a moulded plastic taniwha above the doorway it is where Amaia, the council of elders and community members meet to discuss things of importance. Or not. The day to day business can seem anything but important.

As Amaia approaches the meeting room she can hear a lot of discussion going on inside. This makes her even angrier than she already is. She bursts through the door. The room falls silent.

Around the table is Marcus, Panea, Toa and elders Mere, Lucy and Joe Whang. Rātū, as usual stands watching out the window. Aunt Nia sits at the opposite end of Amaia’s empty chair. Amaia is surprised to see her. She has huge respect for Aunt Nia. She was her midwife, her teacher and an ally in all situations in the past. Not that those situations we’re anywhere near as serious as a stranger arriving on the doorstep. In comparison, nothing much happened in The Valley.

The first settlers 145 years earlier had it the toughest. They had to establish a whole new beginning. It was well into the Autumn season when Amaia Nightwalker and her people discovered The Valley. It was an abandoned township of family homes, quarter-acre sections, beach bach’s (cottages) and wrecked fishing boats. There was a dairy and fish and chip shop close to the beach. A church and community hall that overlooked the town. Many graves were stretching out from the churchyard. A lot of the boats had been deliberately holed so no one could use them. A sign that the original people had packed up and left suddenly.

Gardens, which were paramount to survival were hard to establish at that time of year. They rebuilt boats out of several wrecked ones and survived on fish, hunted deer, pigs and goats.

The Valley is surrounded by bush covered hills where edible and medicinal plants were in abundance. There was enough flattish land to farm animals, chickens, pukeko and weka.

Planning for the future was new to the people. In the underground world, there was no future, just surviving one night to the next. The Valley gave them hope and opportunity. They even planned for how population growth would affect the natural resources and limited amount of farmable land. But the population didn’t grow for several generations. Life expectancy was short due to the continued chest infections and viruses for which they had no defence. For every child that was born, some more adults and children would die.

It wasn’t until a planned concerted effort to build population over the following generations that life looked brighter for the people of The Valley. Unions between couples were arranged so no one was too closely related. You could marry whoever you wanted to marry. But unions were solely for the growth of the population.

One of the many respected roles Aunt Nia had in the community was to arrange unions. She knew everyone’s whakapapa (genealogical lines). In three years, Amaia would step down from her role as Ariki and would be expected to have children. Amaia has so far avoided the topic. Firstly, she doesn’t like being told she has to do something. And marriage, unions or boys are the last things on her mind.

Amaia calms herself, trying not to show any emotion. She’s fooling no one.

"You told me we were to meet at ten."

Marcus clears his throat, "We thought we’d let you sleep in and..."

"Bullshit!" Amaia yells.

Aunt Nia smiles. "That’s disrespectful language Amaia. Now have your seat darling," she says looking at everyone around the table. "I’d bet you anything they didn’t want me here either but I wasn’t going to miss this."

"That’s not true Nia", Marcus says, "you are always welcome."

Aunt Nia usually didn’t take part in the day to day meetings as she saw them as well below her intellect and patients. Not that she was a snob or arrogant. She was right. The day to day happenings of The Valley was pretty much the same. Someone’s animal broke some else’s fence. Pigs broke out and wiped out gardens. Someone got drunk and was found in a house he shouldn’t have been in.

But today was different. A boy had suddenly turned up out of nowhere. A stranger who simply can not be a loner. This was important and her strong opinions are needed.

Amaia sits.

"Do worry", Aunt Nia continues, "I didn’t let them carry on without you." Everyone looks away a little ashamed.

"Aaron can not be blamed for yesterday. It was my fault," Amaia says quickly.

"How can that be Amaia?" Marcus asks.

"I told him we were eating Uncle Stan."

The room gasp. Aunt Nia laughs. "Why on earth would you say that?"

"I was joking. He obviously doesn’t have a sense of humour."

They all laugh at this, except Rātū. "Regardless, Stan’s whanau are insulted."

"I’m sorry. I’ll go see them. But what shall we do with Aaron?"

There is silence.

"Put him in the fields. He has to contribute and earn some respect," Marcus says.

"They’ll mistreat him," Amaia says. "Maybe leave him in the cells for now. It’s for his own safety."

"You’re all missing an important fact here," Rātū cuts in. "There is no way that boy could be a loner. Even if he was abandoned as a child, 15, 16 years ago, however old he is. He had parents. Or someone, people or a community that he belonged to."

For the first time, Amaia realises this has to be true. And it makes her a bit anxious.

"He’s a tough kid like he’s been trained," Ratu continues, "There could be an army of them."

The room erupts into full dialogue, with everyone having their say. Amaia looks to Aunt Nia. If anyone has an answer it will be her. Nia calmly waits, looking around the table at everyone. One by one each person stops talking and faces her. That is the way she handles things. With patience and poise.

"If there is an army out looking for their boy, how friendly do you think they’ll be if he’s locked in a cell like an animal?" She stands and moves to the window. Several boats are coming in from the morning fish and people wait on the shore to greet them and help unload the catch.

"Put him in Stans fields. He can earn himself some respect with the family." She looks to Amaia. "Find out as much as you can about where he’s from. We need to know if there are things that he’s keeping to himself. If he is a threat. Any kind of clue." Ratu is indignant. "You want Amaia to get information from him? She shouldn’t go anywhere near him!"

"I just don’t believe anyone would purposely harm someone else," Amaia says. Rātū scoffs.

Aunt Nia continues. "If there are people looking for him we can’t assume they want to wage war. But we can’t assume they’ll be friendly either. We need to set the patrols in the hills. Maximum security. And if anyone comes we welcome them in peace. This could be the most significant thing that has happened to us. But I advise caution."

Everyone agrees. They're all little worried too. Aunt Nia looks at Amaia. "Whether he’s friend or foe, we could still use him."

"What do mean?" Amaia asks.

"Breeding. We could do with some new blood in The Valley." She smiles as she watches Amaia’s face turn red with rage. "Oh fuck no!" Amaia shouts hitting the table.

"That’s insulting language Amaia," Aunt Nia says calmly.

"What you’re saying is insulting language to me," Amaia gasps in disbelief. "Oh my god, yuk!" She looks at everyone for some moral support. She doesn’t get any as they start to talk amongst themselves. Amaia slaps her hand on the table again, making everyone jump.

"Ok moving on to other business," she says. "Firstly, don’t call a meeting then start without me." She looks at them waiting for a reaction. An excuse. She doesn’t get one.

Marcus clears his throat. "There is something else."

"What Marcus?"

"Perenara is still missing."

"Since when?" Amaia asks. She looks to Panea.

"Since we found Aaron."

"Have you searched for him?"

"You know how good he is at covering his tracks. And why would he do that anyway? That is a training skill, he wasn't training anyone."

"He may have gone over to the Plains," Amaia doubts this even as she says it.

"By himself, without telling anyone?" Rātū says.

Everyone has doubts about that too. This worries Amaia.

"Perenara has disappeared before," Aunt Nia says. "Remember when he went looking for computer parts? Was gone for more than a week and came back with car parts. Totally useless too us," she laughs.

"He made weights for the fishing nets,"Panea reminds them. "If anything has happened to Perenara because of this kid." She is pained at the thought. They all fall silent. This news concerns Aunt Nia. "Panea, keep an eye on him." Panea nods in agreeing. Aunt Nia looks to Amaia, "You should stay away at least until we know what we’re dealing with."

Amaia looks at her hands. She still finds it unbelievable that Aaron could be a threat. She’s determined to get know him and if there are any doubts about him, she would know and deal with it.

"Amaia?"

"Yes Nia, I’ll keep my distance."

Aunt Nia can read anyone like a book. And she knows Amaia isn’t quite being honest about that.

"Put him in Stan's fields, he can do the rocks, then we'll see what he's made of."

Everyone is silent. They've never had to deal with anything like this. There are more community matters to discuss. No one is in the mood. Marcus closes the meeting.