“How will I learn these things?Everything is different.Your clothes, your food, and the way you live.Since you fished me from the sea, many things have astonished me.In my time, we walked or paddled ourwakaaround the coast.We hunted or grew our food.It did not come in those things you call packets.”
Nyree scowled.“You’ll also need money.I’d give you some, but Ari stole most of what I’d saved.”
“What is money?”
“The same as the coins you mentioned that the sailors gave your brother.When we want something—maybe food or clothing or to travel on a ship or airplane, we must pay money for the goods.”
“It is like trading our surplus goods for something else from another tribe?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Nyree said.“I understand how disorientating my world must seem to you, but you’ll find some things are the same.We use machines and computers to do tasks that once might have taken days or months to complete, which means we have more leisure time to do things we enjoy.I go walking or take photos.”Nyree patted Tawera’s forearm and lifted her fingers from his skin as quickly as she’d placed them there.
Tawera sucked in an audible breath while Nyree fought the need to wrap her arms around him to experience the sensation again.She’d tingled, and it had been like a sharp slap—the foreign rush in her blood and the physical surge of desire.When she risked a glance at him, he seemed equally shocked.She backed up and forced herself to calm.
Tonight, she’d write an email to Manu and pray he’d get back to her with answers because she had no idea of what to do with this handsome taniwha ghost.
6
Modern Exploration
The next morning.
“WhatwillIdowhile you do this work thing?”Tawera asked while Nyree was staring at something she’d called a tablet.
“I’m uncertain if other people see you.You seemed more solid last night, but this morning you’ve faded again.I have no idea what this means because you don’t have problems picking up items or eating.”
Tawera held up his almost transparent arm and said what they were both pondering.“Will I fade away until no one can see me?Not even you?”
Nyree shrugged and placed her tablet on a shelf.“I’d hoped my friend would’ve emailed by now.A few messages have come through, so the connection is working.Why don’t you come with me?I can show you around, and you can explore on your own while I’m working.”
“I would enjoy that.”He hadn’t wanted to stay cooped up inside, not after years of nothingness and defined boundaries.Now was the perfect time to indulge his senses in a way he hadn’t for hundreds of years.
“You should try to shift to your taniwha and explore the island, but don’t go too crazy.Okay?”
Eagerness pulsed in him.Excitement at the freedom after confinement inside his stone prison.“I could do that?Shift?”
“Yes, except you won’t be able to leave the island until we figure out how to get you home, but you can explore and watch the other people who visit.You have time to decide on the next step.The summer season ends in March, which is when we all leave.If you’re invisible, a cruise ship or a supply vessel might be the best way for you to travel home.”
Tawera frowned, not understanding most of Nyree’s conversation.“I hope I learn fast.”
“You will,” she said with a smile.“Do you want breakfast?”
“My stomach is empty.”
“Okay then.This is breakfast cereal, and I usually have toast as well.”
They worked together to make breakfast, with Nyree showing him how to work the toasting machine and serve the cereal.He watched closely and copied her actions, smelling the white rice bubbles.A scent didn’t jump out at him, but the toast excited him more when Nyree spread something called crunchy peanut butter on the top.
He’d dreamed about what he might do once he broke the curse, but eating toast and cereal or spending time with a beautiful woman had never entered his mind.It had never occurred to him he might miss hundreds of years, and everyone he’d known would have long ago died.Aroha… A twinge of pain worked through him at her loss.He’d wondered about her often and prayed she’d had a happy life.Thinking of her now and knowing she was long dead, his feelings toward her were more bittersweet, a mourning for the young girl he’d held in his arms.The long-ago memories.Thoughts of his brother, however, made him burn with anger.Tawera burned to understand how his brother had structured this curse.Had he known a stranger might break it?
“Why are you scowling like a warrior about to go into battle?”
“Even now, I’m shocked by my brother’s actions.I considered us friends.We trod different paths, and our father ignored us both.Rawiri had no reason to resent me.”
“Your fiancée,” she reminded him.
“I wonder what happened to her.I hope she was happy.”
“That was one of the questions I asked Manu.”
