1. Once upon a time

Once upon a time on a Sunday morning under the Pacific sky, one autumn day in Motueka. It had been raining for three solid days, a well tempered rain, small drops, big drops, clouds dragging upon the ground their load of water. It smelt of mushrooms. Apples and mushrooms.

Liyan was lounging on the small school desk stuck between a wardrobe and two bunk beds on the right as you come in. On the other side of the soom, same setting. On the other school desk, a comb and a hair brush, a tooth brush, a bottle of shower and shampoo liquid marked 'Tahiti'. On the inside of the door, a piece of red motley tahitian mateial.

Liyan was finding herself in this universe by chance. Or was it destiney? A doll with round eyes and the face of a clown, with a ridiculous yellow pointed hat on, she had only just woken up to her existence. In High Street Motueka the other day the papershop was full of people. She was there with other dolls cramped up in a plastic bowl with a sign saying $2.95.

- "Hello you!" she had heard as a hand grabbed her out of the bowl.

Then, in a paper bag on the rack of a bicycle, she had slowly come to the diea that a world existed. Because someone had talked to her. Because she was no longer without a name. Because she was on this bicycle going somewhere.

Elle's kingdom was much bigger than the dolls bowl at the papershop. Liyan felt comfortable. That's where she had just been born in this six square meter room, numbered 1 in the row with four others. Examining her, Elle had said that she had been made in China. But that didn't mean much really as she had round eyes. She had also said that she looked like another doll of her acquaintance called Zoubelle. This Zoubelle must be a distant relative. Very distant eve, as she apparently lived in Europe.

Right across under the window between the two sets of bunk beds, a mattress on the floor was used as a lounge by Elle who used to flop on it when she came back from micking apples. Liyan didn't didn't know much of Elle except that she used to leave every morning on a bicycle and come back in the afternoon, tired but looking contented. She used to come back whistling away from having a shower, with wet untidy hair, a towel on her shoulder and a piece of tahitian material round her body. She used to flop then on the mattress under the window and knit for a while without saying anything.

- "Are you knitting?" Liyan had thrown in to make a conversation.
- "I am. It's for that girlfriend where I stayed. As for me I don't want to wear a jumper. We will leave for the tropics again as soon as the apple picking season is over."

And out of the blue she had added:
- "You Liyan, you're coming with me to Polynesia. Later we will go to China and see where you were made."