A New Kind of Zeal
Page 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: Aroha
Rau stood on the steps of St Peter’s – and then moved into the graveyard alongside.
Joshua’s grave was still empty. The soil was starting to slip into the empty coffin. Soon the coffin would be full – soon the grave site would have no worth.
Rau considered it. What was the message to bring, now? What the message had always been. The witness of Joshua alive again; the witness of Christ alive again. There was no grave to visit – no tomb to visit. There was the record, in the living witnesses – and, in time, a written record, for generations to come.
“Do you love me, Rau?”
“Ae, my precious Master,” Rau whispered. “Aroha!”
“Then take care of my Iwi.” And Joshua stretched his arms out to embrace all of Aotearoa.
Rau considered the Land of the Long White Cloud, and he smiled. This was his land! This was his home. This was his calling: all coming together as one.
“E te whanau,” he said, “we are the body of Christ!”
And he moved himself forward, away from the grave, and out through the gate.
Parliament was before him. The Army still marched inside the gates.
“One day some men will kill you because of me.”
Was he ready to take the risk? Was he ready to pay the price? Here he had run away! Here he had denied Joshua!
“Breathe deep,” John had said to him. “God’s Spirit is the Breath of Life!”
The hongi! The breath of God.
“He gave his breath away,” Rau murmured in the direction of the guards. “He gives us his breath today.”
Rau took in a deep breath – and then he moved forward.
“Kia ora!” he called out to the guards. “Kei te pehea koe?”
Some of the soldiers glanced at each other, but others responded.
“Kei te pai,” they said.
“You fellas ever have time off?”
“Ae,” some said.
“Well, how ’bout we catch up over some kai later?” He had their attention now. “I’ll just be over here, see, on the other side of the gate? Boy have I got some news to tell you!”
He smiled, and moved to set himself up outside the gate, near where Joshua had died. The guards were watching, and Rau was pretty sure a camera or two wouldn’t be too far behind.
“Ariki,” Rau murmured to God. “My life is in your hands.”
Across the intersection, on the other side of the place where Joshua had died, Tristan stood on the steps of St Peter’s. He looked at Rau, standing at the iron gate – he smiled.
“Not wearing a dog collar now,” he said quietly. “We’ve both come quite a way from Kerikeri, my friend.”
Now he lifted his voice out to him.
“Hey, you – joker!” he called out, and Rau turned to him. “I hear you’ve got some news to tell!”
“Got that right, mate!” Rau called back. “Where’s your whanau?”
Tristan grinned at him. “You are my whanau, mate!”
“Then what are you doing over there?”
Tristan hesitated, glancing at the Army. Go along for the ride? Still go along, and risk death? Joshua had moved on, but Rau was now standing up to the mark: taking his place! Taking the lead.
Tristan’s father appeared alongside him, now – his whanau! His other family.
Mark was smiling quietly, looking at Rau.
“Here or there?” Tristan asked him. “What would you say?”
“For me, the answer is here,” Mark said, gesturing to the church. “For you, the answer is different.”
“Does it have to be one or the other?”
“No – it can be both.”
“Both?”
“You belong to both whanau, Tristan: both worlds.”
Tristan gazed at him, and tilted his head. For nine years he had lost his first family – now he had gained them again: father and sister! Yet there was another whanau drawing him now: another family.
Rau’s eyes were on him – his face was lit.
“Come on, boy!” he said. “Want a ride? How about that fishing?”
“Where are you headed?”
“Dunno – I’m not driving! Let’s find out together!”
Tristan broke into a wide smile. “Okay!” he said. “I’m in!”
And he strode down the steps of the church, across the street, and joined Rau on the other side.
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Next in the Trilogy:
A New Kind of Zeal 2: The Price of Redemption