I heard laughter and heaved my aching body in an effort to run, but my left foot caught in vines and I fell against the sharp stones. I felt warm blood dripping down my face. I was terrified.

Then I felt a blow on my head. My stomach heaved and I vomited. I turned and lifted my bloodied face painfully to see who had hit me.

He was standing there, pointing a gun at me. I saw flashes of light as I passed out.

‘Kalo, what is going on down there?’ a harsh voice boomed.

‘That girl who ran off is dead,’ a voice close to me answered. ‘We shot her through the mouth as she jumped over the cliff.’

‘How do you know, she’s dead?’

‘Look she’s lying in her pool of blood.’

‘Come up then. Her father’s being interrogated. Leave her to the bush animals to finish her off.’

Slowly I came to my senses and felt something on my face.  I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn’t.  I tried again, but my eyes did not respond.

I felt a presence.

It was of goodness, of light … and butterflies.

I felt comforted.

I tried opening my eyes again, but they remained shut involuntarily.

So I lay there and tried to piece together what had happened.

I remembered telling my mother just before dawn, that I could smell something peculiar, but she hushed me and told me to sleep. I never slept.

They were what I will call crawlers. They wanted my father, but we were all caught. I saw six of them as we were woken from our bed of reed mats by the butts of their guns.

They struck my father with their guns and tied him to the awning post. The crawler with the ugliest haircut pointed an M16 at him while two other crawlers punched and kicked him.

Another crawler pointed a gun at my brothers and male cousins and told them to lie on the floor with their hands on their heads. The females screamed and sobbed and a dwarfish crawler told them to shut up or he would use the gun on them. My mother cussed and wept the loudest.

Being an eleven year old bush explorer, I wasn’t scared of the jungle. As I stood watching the crawlers harass my family I felt as disgusted. The men smelt of a terrible body odour, they had lice-infested hair, unkempt beards and frayed clothes that clung to their skin.

Their feet were bare and their fingers skinny and dirty. Their mouth and teeth were like tar, a bad tobacco and betel nut habit.

They appeared demonic and inhuman.

I didn’t mean to desert my family. I meant to distract them so my daddy could do something. I saw the chance and ran like the wind.

I felt cold water on my face and wondered if the skinny crawler had come back to finish me off. My arms and legs were held by some kind of force. I felt a presence of light and butterflies. I felt protected and guided.

I was not afraid. But I felt furtive. I lay still and waited.

I could hear the leaves rustling and felt the cool breeze on my face and heard a musical whispering.

Whatever surrounded me now was soothing.

‘We shouldn’t,’ a sweet high whisper.

‘We should, she needs help,’ a sweet deep whisper.

Without a second thought, I called out hoarsely. ‘Water!’

‘I told you, she needs water,’ high whisper said.

The cold water was poured into my open mouth. Oh, how precious it tasted. Cool and refreshing. I swallowed until my thirst was quenched.

‘We want to help you,’ said deep whisper.

‘Yes,’ I sobbed, without thinking, without asking, without any barrier.

‘But we will not allow you to open your eyes,’ sweet voice whispered.

‘Yes.’

I was a child. I knew if I was left here, I would die or be eaten by the wild boars.

‘We will take you, but you must sleep,’ deep voice told me. ‘Drink this.’

I took a sip. It was a kind of creamy sap and the liquid trickled slowly down my throat.

When I came back to consciousness, my waking felt protected. The air was light and precious, the bed I lay on was soft and smelt of fresh lavender. But most of all I heard the music. It was weird.

‘Sit up and eat your fruit,’ sweet voice whispered.

I sat up and felt great. I was well and new. My body was alive and happy.

I touched my head and felt that my fuzzy afro hair was neatly combed.

Then I felt my face. There was no blood, my face was clean.

I touched my clothes.

I was wearing a soft light dress, which felt cool and pressed.

I felt my legs and feet. I had sandals on my feet.

‘Where am I?’I asked no one in particular.

‘Eat your fruit from the bowl and you will be well,’ sweet voice whispered.

She took my right hand and placed something in the palm. It felt hard and smooth. Maybe an apple. I lifted it to my mouth and bit. It was crunchy and delicious.

I ate heartily and realised there was no core or seeds. I wiped my mouth and felt another fruit being placed in my right palm. It had a rough surface.

‘Eat it, Kiana. It will help make new blood,’ sweet voice whispered.

I munched into it and light watery juice ran down my fingers. It was delicious.

‘That’s enough of the fruit,’ sweet voice whispered. ‘You can drink this now.’

A straw was placed in my mouth and I sucked on it. What came out of the straw cleansed my throat and gave me strength and renewal.

‘Sleep, Kiana. When you wake up you will be well.’

‘Please, I want to see you. Can you open my eyes?’ I asked.

‘You are not ready to be here. Sleep and you will be well.’

When I awoke, I flicked my eyes around.

The sun was high and the breeze was cool. I was lying at the bottom of the cliff. I saw I had my brown shorts on. I touched my face, hair, body; there were no signs of wounds. I looked at my legs and hands and saw that they were clean.

I stood up and felt great.

I looked down and saw that I was lying on the grass.

I was confused.

I walked to the creek bank and saw the familiar ferns tt we picked and cooked for evening meals. I kept walking and came to the track we followed from our bush camp to fetch drinking water from the spring.

I walked to our bush camp, stopping a few metres away.

I saw my mother, sisters and cousins peeling kaukau and scrapping coconut. I saw other relatives camping further along the cliff.

I walked on and my sister Lavinia saw me and started screaming.

‘Aiiiiyaaa, mama, tewel blo Kiana yia, sanap lo hap stap’.  (Mama, Kiana’s ghost is standing there.)

There was much chaos, I still cannot get it into my head that things happened so fast.

My father’s brother came and lifted me into his arms and everyone crowded around me and wept.

They put me on the old plastic chair and gave me a plate of kaukau and bush vegetables.

‘Kiana, please, say something. It’s been a week since you were gone and now you are back,’ my uncle Nari wept and told me.

‘Mama, I am not hungry,’ I said in a soft voice.

I looked at my sisters, cousins, aunties, uncles and did not see my father and my brothers, nor three of my male cousins.

‘Uncle Nari, where is Papa, Lari, Kimri, Simon and Kamo,’ I asked looking around.

‘They were taken by the crawlers last week on Sunday morning. Remember you ran into the jungle and jumped over the cliff,’ said Uncle Nari.

I remembered, but it was just this morning I was just down there.

‘Where were you all this time?’ mama asked me.

I looked confused and just sat there.

‘Where were you, my daughter,’ mama asked again.

I didn’t know how to explain what had happened to me to my mother and my relative. It was really confusing to me then.

‘Uncle Nari came looking for you at the cliff and saw nothing. No signs of struggle, no blood,’ mama said and wept.

‘The ugly crawler said you were dying in your own pool of blood. Uncle came straight away, when he heard the guns but the crawlers were already gone with your father,’ she sobbed.

‘I came down and looked everywhere. I saw nothing. We didn’t have any idea.’

‘I searched for three days walking up the creek and then walking down all the way to the river Pirasi where this creek ends. I saw no tracks. I am a hunter and I know how to track. But, my daughter, I couldn’t find you.’

‘I don’t know,’ I told my uncle and mother.

The image of that experience has never left me. I still hear , see, taste and feel it.

I often wonder where I was taken to, how she knew my name and why she said I was not ready.

I am now forty years old and I long to return, but I don’t know where that whispering musical place is.