up to the window and looked out. Those kids, they were having such a good time … Then she heard a buzzing sound, and saw a cicada alight on the window sill. Its wings blurred and reflected the light like a rainbow. Breathlessly she watched it, afraid that it would fly away. But the wings folded and the cicada began to chirrup. For a while she listened to it, and she began to remember her home at Te Karaka, Mum and Dad, and Rangi … And she reached out and enclosed the cicada in her cupped hands, and lifted it to her ear. For a moment it was silent. Then it began to chirrup again. She listened to it for a long time, and then she opened her hands. But the cicada did not try to fly away. “You're a long way from home, kihikihi,” she whispered to the cicada, calling it by its Maori name. “You're a long, long way from anywhere …” She lifted it toward the open window. “Fly away, kihikihi, fly far away,” she whispered. “Fly home…. This place is too lonely for you …” And she blew softly on the cicada until its wings unfolded and blurred, and she felt herself lifting away with it as it flew up into the sky.

Beans by Patricia Grace Every Saturday morning in the winter term I bike into town to play rugby. Winter's a great time. We live three miles out of town and the way in is mostly uphill, so I need to get a good early start to be in town by nine. On the way in I don't get a chance to look around me or notice things very much because the going is fairly hard. Now and again where it gets a bit steep I have to stand up on the pedals and really tread hard. But it's great getting off to footy on a Saturday morning with my towel and change on the carrier, and pushing hard to get there by nine. It's great. By the time I get to the grounds I'm really puffing and I know my face is about the colour of the club house roof. Phew. But I'm ready to go on though. I can't wait to get on the field and get stuck into the game of footy; I really go for it. I watch that ball and chase it all over the place. Where the ball goes I go. I tackle, handle, kick, run, everything. I do everything I can think of and I feel good. Sometimes it's cold and muddy and when I get thrown