I remember the very first time I laid eyes on the old whare, I hated it. It wasn't because of the way it looked, all rotting and crumbling. No. There was heaps more to it than that. I think it was the vibesmainly. Unwelcoming. Hostile. And I'd picked up on them the moment our car left the highway and rolled onto the rain-scarred metal road that led us up here.
I'm like that, you see. Spooky. Like my greatgrandfather, Kaitangata. He was a tohunga, Mum says -- a kind of 'witch doctor'. He was wise, powerful, and he could heal the sick and soothe the dying. He knew of things that happened long before his time; and things that were about to happen, even before they did.
And, yep, I've got to admit, that does sound a lot like me, all right.
