Across the Globe [COMPLETE]

Or Is It Just Fantasy?

19TH OF JULY

Samantha

“Okay, so… what happened?” I ask as I look between Tane and Rongo. The two brothers are standing side by side almost against the opposite wall, as if needing to put some distance between us. Rongo almost looks scared, concerned.

They share a lot of similarities, but Rongo’s eyes are hazel instead of green, and unlike Tane, who’s built like a lean athlete, he’s built more like a rugby player. Rongo’s as tall as Tane, but he walks around with his shoulders slightly slouched, like he’s trying to make himself look smaller. Which considering his size, is basically impossible, but it makes him look adorable in a weird way. He looks like the older brother every girl would want to have looking after her.

“What happened in the forest was last night, not even 24 hours ago,” Tane says after a moment, and then he seems to scan my face for a reaction. 

There are so many questions in my brain, that the effect is the same as if my brain was blank. It makes my head hurt, so I rub a hand against my temple. I look at Em, and she nods a little, letting me know that what Tane is saying is true.

"Where are we, exactly?" I ask. I know there's more important questions to ask, but a part of me still wants to delay the moment of finding the truth, unsure I'll be able to handle it. 

"We're in the marae at the Whakarewarewa village," Em says.

"You could say we asked for a favour to stay here for a little while," Rongo adds. 

"Do you know the people that live here?" I ask, a little confused. 

"No." This time Tane is the one to answer. "But they know us," he adds. 

That doesn't make much sense, but as I look down, the more persistent question escapes my lips without my consent. 

“How?” I ask looking at my palms, and I can tell everybody knows I’m referring to my injuries.

Rongo is looking at me, same as Em, but Tane’s eyes are on the floor. Since I woke back up, he’s been distant and weird, which has been making me a little nervous. 

“Tane,” I say as commanding as I can, and he looks up at me, his green eyes piercing into my soul. “How am I healed?” I ask, being fully aware of how weird and stupid my question sounds. 

But everything’s been so unnatural in the past few days, first with the weird memories about the accident coming back to me, and then with the storm in the woods, that I don’t think the answer is going to surprise me anymore. I’m pretty much convinced now that those flashbacks are actually from the accident I had with my father, and together with that, little memories of my dad’s face have been blurrily showing in my mind too. A wide smile surrounded by a bushy beard. His lips moving along as he sang me a song in the car. His huge hands cradling me as he told me bedtime stories.  

“I don’t know where to start,” Tane says with a frustrated look on his face.

“Why don’t we start from the beginning?” Rongo suggests before I can say anything. The brothers share a look, and Rongo nods after a moment as Tane looks back down to the floor. He looks at me through his lashes though, his head still slightly tilted down.

“Have you heard about the story of the origin of the Universe, according to Maori legends?” Rongo asks us.

I share a confused look with Em, and she replies before I do.

“What does that have to do with anything?” 

I think about what I know about the story, which is barely what Emma told me while we were walking around the woods in Wai-O-Tapu, and I try to understand how that story might have anything to do with what happened to me. I draw a blank.