The child points, smiles up at the light – ‘What’s that?’
‘Jupiter,’ the woman says, ‘a big dark planet.’
The child walks backwards – ‘Its following me…’
She laughs and points. ‘What’s that?’
‘The seven stars,’ the woman says, ‘Matariki.’
‘I want to touch them,’ the child says, ‘can I touch them?
‘Maybe,’ the woman says, ‘one day…one day.’
They look up.
‘See the moon,’ the woman says, ‘see Rona?’
‘Her bucket,’ the girl says.
‘Yes,’ the woman says, ‘her bucket…’
‘So when she spills the water in the bucket, it rains? Tell me.’
‘I’ve told you,’ the woman says, ‘I’ve told you a million times.’
‘Tell me again,’ she says.
‘Okay,’ says the woman, ‘One night Rona was out carrying her bucket of water when the moon went behind a cloud…’
‘And,’ the girl says, ‘Rona could not see where she was going and she tripped and the water spilled out of the bucket and went all oveer the ground and Rona was annoyed and she growled at the moon and then the moon…’
‘See?’ the woman says, ‘you know how it goes, you can tell yourself.’
‘I like it better when you tell me,’ says the girl.
Renée
Renée
