The Shortcut Tuahiwi School

The Shortcut Tuahiwi School

Tukere brushed his black hair out of his Freckled face and fidgeted with his seatbelt. His eyes looked down at his school bag and he checked that he had remembered his homework. His mum was laughing at something on the radio but Tukere wasn’t listening. He had noticed that they were coming to a stop in the country road. The black and white cows from the dairy farm were mooing their way across the road. A scruffy farmer on his quad bike was herding the cows across the road into the next paddock. A pair of quick-footed farm dogs was helping to herd the cows by snapping at their heels and playfully barking.

Tukere smiled at their antics, he liked the look of them, much more than the look of the dogs that were fenced into the property beside them. Those dogs were snapping, jumping on top of each other, and barking viciously, gnashing their enormous jaws on the wire, trying desperately to escape and get their teeth into the cows, or maybe even Tukere. As the last cow waddled into the paddock, Tukere’s mum accelerated the car and they were off again.

A few summers ago, when Tukere was biking along his road, a dog had tried to take a bite out of him and ever since that day he had a fear of dogs especially those aggressive, big, nasty biting dogs. Like the ones in that property, the place they always passed on the trip to school in the morning. The house was a long way from the road and looked run down and small. It was crowded in by big trees and old run down shacks and farm buildings. The paddock out the front was overgrown and muddy because the dogs always seemed to be loose when he drove by.

He figured they were pig dogs only used for hunting. They seemed mean enough and strong enough to take down a massive boar in the bush.

As Tukere’s mum pulled up at the school gate 2 minutes later and he said goodbye he felt thankful that he always got a lift and didn’t have to try and get by that pack of monsters by himself without a car.

The next morning Tukere’s mum was crashing and clanging in the kitchen. Tukere wondered what the entire racket was about.

“What’s the matter, mum?” Tukere said in a concerned tone.

“Aue, taukuri e! I’ve gone and left the car door open last night. The battery’s dead! Now your uncle VJ is going to have to leg it over here and give my car a jump start!” she growled as she slammed the fridge door closed. Tukere smiled to himself. Mum could be so forgetful sometimes. As Tukere took a bite of his weetbix his mum checked her cell phone.

“Uncle VJ is going to be ages, so you’ll just have to walk to school this morning, sweetheart.”

At his mother’s words Tukere’s stomach curled into a fist. He felt like his weet bix was going to come back up.

“Can’t I just wait for Uncle VJ to get here?” he asked quickly?

“And be late for school? No way, son. Finish your breakfast and you’ll have heaps of time to get there.

As Tukere dawdled along the country road his mind was racing. How was he going to get past that pack of dogs? He couldn’t just cross the road, there was nothing to walk along and it was a 100km speed area. His heart was racing; he could feel it thumping like a stampede of horses trapped in his chest. He squinted at the house in the distance and the road. There was no way he could walk on the other side. His eye was caught by the morning sun shining on the roof of marae way off in the distance.

He felt an idea pop into his head. If he crossed through a paddock now and walked along behind the houses, he could jump over the marae fence and come out past the dogs and right next to school. It was the perfect plan and as Tukere jumped the fence into the paddock he felt his heart slow down and a smile creep onto his face.

The walk though the dewy grassy paddock soaked the bottoms of his pants with dew. It really was a nice shortcut, Tukere thought to himself happily. Apart from the wetness on his legs, which he didn’t really mind that much, he got to check out the river banks and see all the new born lambs on the opposite side of the paddock. As he strolled along behind all the fences of the properties he wondered if uncle VJ had got mums car started yet. There were lots of different kinds of farm fences, broken down wooden ones with little holes that he could through if he wanted, bared wiry fences and tall corrugated iron fences. Tukere was keeping a special look out for the fence he needed to jump which would put him safely in the marae and away from those menacing dogs.

After what seemed hardly any time at all, Tukere spotted the faded peeling dark brown paint of the marae’s boundary fence. He got a leg up and heaved himself over.

Tukere landed with a thump. He was really shocked because he was expecting to land in a large soft harakeke bush. He looked around confused. He could see old tyres and chewed up boots, abandoned corrugated iron and rolls of number 8 fence wire, rusty chains scattered about as well as an old broken down tractor and old split blue drums scattered around the back yard.

With a sickening jolt Tukere realised he wasn’t in the marae, in fact he wasn’t sure where he was. He had to get out of here, he tried to get back over the fence but it was far too high without anything to give him a good lift up. That’s when things went from bad to worse. Tukere heard the sound of yapping, barking and snarling before he saw the dogs. He flicked his head around like lightening and caught sight of the pack of dogs running like a runaway train towards him. He looked around desperately for a way out and saw a open-faced barn off to his left. He took off like the wind.

As Tukere got closer to the barn he saw a stack of square hay bales and he flew up these as fast as he could. The dogs were close behind, he knew because he could feel their hot breath on the back of his ankles as he climbed.

He had reached the top of the stack and he could new reach a heavy beam and he pulled with all his strength. His feet dangled like pieces of 2 minute noodles while the dogs leapt about below snarling and drooling at the mouth with excitement.

Tukere held on to the beam with his arms and legs looking down. His face was damp with sweat and red like a tomato. He could feel tears springing into his eyes and he couldn’t focus properly. Fear was taking him over and he was sure he would fall off and down into the gang dogs at any second.

Tukere couldn’t bear to look at the dogs, which were leaping and flinging themselves madly at him. He looked away out towards the fence. He couldn’t believe his bad luck. A huge shadow of a man was marching towards the barn.

“Oi!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “Get outta there! What do you think your doing in there!”

Tukere swallowed hard, not only was he trapped by viscous pig dogs, but now he was going to probably be arrested for trespassing on a farm.

“ Jack! Dylan! Sharlene! Get here now! Heel!” the farmer shouted, he whistled.

Tukere watched in amazement as the dogs spun around and ran over to the man. Only they weren’t running and snarling anymore, they were galloping and frolicking! Their tails were wagging and they happily sat down at the feet of the farmer, their tongues hanging out of their mouths like a fat pink sausages. The farmer looked up at Tukere and smiled.

What on earth are you doing up there, mate? That’s pretty dangerous!”

The farmer gently climbed up towards Tukere and helped him down. As they sat on the hay bales Tukere caught his breath and calmed down. The dogs sat in the sun where the farmer had left him. They didn’t look so scary right now, in fact they looked rather soppy, lying in the sun and giving each other friendly licks.

“I'm sorry, I thought this was the marae, I was walking to school.” Tukere explained with embarrassment. The farmer smiled an understanding smile and gave Tukere a nudge,

“This barns a pretty funny looking marae!” the farmer laughed, “Listen, why don’t you come inside, my granddaughter is having breakfast and there’s plenty to share.”

Tukere brushed the hay off his legs and nodded his head.

“I could use a drink of water after my run, that’s for sure.”

It turned out that the farmer’s granddaughter was in Tukere’s class at school and he was very surprised to see her.

“You were scared of my dogs?” she said in a surprised voice when Tukere had explained the whole story.

“They look pretty scary when they bark at cars and cows, but its only because you don’t know them personally. There’s nothing to be afraid of as long as you know what you’re dealing with. Come on, ill introduce you to the dogs.”

Nadine took Tukere out into the yard. The dogs were waiting outside.

“Put your hand out flat towards them and let them smell you so they know your friendly” Nadine smiled, holding out her hand to show him what to do. Tukere nervously put his hand towards the dogs, just like Nadine said; they sniffed and licked his hand curiously.

“You don’t have to be scared of dogs, as long as you get permission from the owner and you know they are safe. They are just trying to protect their patch that’s why they bark and growl. But you are safe here with me and grandad, and we always make sure they are safely behind a fence.” Nadine patted the dogs and picked up her schoolbag. “Come on Tukere, let’s go to school.” Tukere patted the dogs and started down the driveway with Nadine.

The rest of the walk to school was allot less stressful and much more fun. They stopped to say hi to the horses and cows in the paddock, they kicked stones into the drain as they walked and they enjoyed the sunshine while they talked about what they would do at school.

Tukere’s mum was waiting at the gate after school. She smiled and waved as he came through the fence.

“Hey honey! Sorry about this morning. Uncle VJ got the car sorted so I can give you a lift.” his mum smiled. Tukere chucked his bag in the back seat and closed the door behind it.

“Nah, I'm good mum. I think I’ll walk home with Nadine today. She knows some really cool stuff about animals, and we are going to walk her dogs later!” and with that Tukere happily ran back to meet up with Nadine who was waiting on the footpath.

Tukere called back over his shoulder to his mum with a laugh,

“I think I might start walking to school instead mum, and you can spend all that petrol money we’ll save on a spare car battery!”

Further information: rebecca@tuahiwi.school.nz, .