Friday in Summer

He was right. I didn’t like it, and Janice hated it.

Hamish stayed on the far side of the rock, and told us that the only way to get past the obstruction was to go underwater; to submerge ourselves.

‘Can’t we climb over?’ Janice asked. We both looked up, then back at each other. In the silence I thought I heard the sound of stones moving behind us. ‘I’ll go first then.’ She said. I walked with her through the swift-moving water until we reached the sump-hole. In the dimness she smiled at me before she went resolutely ahead. Her disappearance was just as sudden as Hamish’s had been.

I looked back at Jasper, his eyes were unreadable. It was dragged out of him: Can you carry me? I laughed at him, then walked back towards the bare rock. As I lifted him up, I heard a voice yelling behind us, but the words were indistinct. I wasted no more time, but forced my way to the sump-hole. I knew it wasn’t necessary, but I held my breath as I went over the edge.

I had forgotten, of course, that we would hear her voice once our heads were under the water. I opened my eyes in surprise and found Jasper looking back at me through the crystal clear water. The Valley spoke: When what was stolen is returned, you will free us from each other. My first children grow weary of time. They want to welcome their children to this place. This is your task.

I kicked against the pull of the water being forced past the rock. A good way past it, the force reduced and looking upwards through the water, I could see more light. I had thought I would find the floor of the hole but there was no bottom. Jasper freed himself from my arms immediately we were through the passage. He swam for the surface and was clear of the water before my head broke the water. I now could see that we had emerged into a small pool which was fed by a spring at the end of the cave. Janice and Hamish were standing facing each other in the light dappling through from a hole in the roof. They were standing very close and Hamish had his fist around the stone of Janice’s necklace in his hand. Jasper sat beside Janice.

‘This is what was stolen?’ Hamish tugged none too gently at the necklace.

Janice replied. Her voice was even and steady. Her hands were by her side and she looked as though she had banished all emotion from her voice, face, stance. ‘The Valley took me back to witness it. There were two men and a dog at the mouth of the cave. The men were dressed much as we are, but the taller of the men had a flowing wild beard. Ina from the Village was leading them out of the cave. The tall man and the dog went up the bank outside the cave entrance talking with her, but the blonde man knelt down in the water and picked up two stones. He put them in his mouth.’

By this stage I was standing on the other side of Janice from Jasper, close to her shoulder. I could see the smouldering anger in Hamish’s eyes.

‘The Valley said that she hadn’t realised he’d figured out a way to take things from here to the outside. She didn’t think anyone would want to. The trouble didn’t start until the man went back to the Overland though. Ina led them back to the gateway here.’ She indicated the spring. ‘The dog went first, then Ina and the tall man waited while the thief…’

‘Don’t call him that!’ Hamish burst out. He let go of the necklace and pushed Janice away, into me.

She lifted her head and accused him: ‘Your ancestor, Hamish, returned to our world with something from here. He didn’t take it openly. He didn’t ask for it. He stole it. And that had immediate implications for the people here. Ina knew as soon as he had gone. There was a fundamental change in her as soon as he had gone. She … she aged. When I first saw her she looked see-through, like she was floating above the earth. The men were definitely more solid. When that one had gone, she lost that ephemeral look.’

Janice pulled back the emotion she was investing in the story. ‘The man left behind called something like: “I’ll gae after him.” But she stopped him. She said that travel was now impossible through that gateway until at least one of the stones was returned to the Valley. They collected the clothes from the portal then went back through the cave.’ Janice looked with affection at Jasper. ‘The dog was a lot like you Jasper. The coat was longer, and the markings different, but he was a border collie.’

Jasper whined That was my dam. She was Friday.

Janice nodded her head and looked back at Hamish. She had finished her story. We all waited for Hamish to respond.

He was quiet. Even when he spoke, he was quiet. ‘How did you get one then?’

‘I don’t know. The Valley said she could not see into our world.’

Jasper barked, I saw Rhodes’ wife with the stone at her throat. Mossman’s daughter had the other.

While the other two gathered their wits I asked: “How can you know Jasper? You’re ten years old.’

In this place I share my dam’s memory. Rhodes took Friday after McKenzie was charged. Said that the dog was recompense for the theft of his sheep. Mossman wasn’t even accused of the theft of the sheep, even though he was as much a sheep thief as the master.

It took all of us a while to separate out the parts of what Jasper had said. I saw Hamish understanding his history and Janice accepting some of the ancestral guilt her family shared. In the quiet, we could all hear the man bellowing from the other side of the stone on the edge of the sump hole. With more expletives than I care to commit to paper, he was threatening to do dire things to us and our families.

Jasper growled: We must go and retrieve the stone from your place, Mossman. The final gateway, the one used by the first children of the Valley, is here at the spring.

Hamish began to object at being called by the thief’s name, but we all heard the loud splash from the other side of the rock. He turned his back on us and walked purposefully towards the spring. Jasper joined him. First Hamish disappeared in a flash of light, then Jasper followed. ‘No clothes, Janice. He’s traversed out.’

Although this was good news, a more immediate problem arrived as Coles’s head emerged from the pool.

He yelled at us: ‘It will not finish in this generation.’ and began climbing out of the water.

Janice and I looked at each other, then in unspoken agreement, edged towards opposite sides of the spring so Coles could not get both of us.

Then it was dark. The light had gone and we were alone.

Article from the Timaru Herald, October 28 1865

James McKenzie was brought up on remand from Thursday last, charged with stealing posts and rails from the Waimate Bush, the property of Messrs R. & G. Rhodes. Prisoner pleaded guilty to the charge and the Resident Magistrate, B. Woollcombe, sentenced him to three months imprisonment, with hard labour. The accused’s father-in-law, John Mossman, was sentenced previously to two months imprisonment for receiving the posts and rails.