Wiremu looked like a little puppy, so excited about what was happening. I was worried he might piddle himself. He didn’t. Well, I don’t think he did.
“That lady, she saw us, and she was aksing us who we were. She wanted to know who our dads were. I told her my dad was Pene. She ... she nearly cried! Din’t she?” He turned to his mates, his cousins, and they nodded furiously.
“So, then she aksed about Robert, and then about John, your dad.” He nodded his head at Mereana. “She dint know he died. She was really upset. So then she aksed us to go and get Chloe’s dad, but he wouldn’t come. He said ... What?” He turned to Chloe.
Chloe turned red. In a whisper she said, “Go to him.”
“Yeah, that. So we were taking her there, eh?”
“This is curiouser and curiouser!” Jess said. “There’s a real mystery here, and we need to find out what.”
“Brothers!” I said. “They were all brothers and she left them behind. You’re all real cousins. Not just distant cousins. And she’s your nana.”
As I said it, it all fell into place. And the look on the faces of the others was just classic. Wiremu looked horrified. Chloe was ecstatic. Mereana was astounded. Mereana was trying to get her head around it.
“So ... so, who was her husband, or whatever. Who was the father?” Mereana asked.
“That is the mystery we have to solve,” Jess said happily. “Who can we ask?”
“No, wait! I’m not ready for that yet. I need to get my head around it,” Mereana said. “Everything I thought I was is changed. Give me some time to think about it.”
“Me, too,” Wiremu muttered. “Come on, we’re going.” He and the boys sloped off towards the beach.
By unspoken mutual decision, we turned and walked towards Chloe’s place. Chloe clearly wanted to be close to Mereana, but Mereana had too much to think about to pay much attention. I walked up beside Chloe.
“Are you happy that Mereana is your real cousin?” I asked her quietly.
She turned to me with a big smile and nodded. “Yes,” she said in a whisper.
“You might need to give her some space to think about things. It’s a lot to take in. Who was your dad’s mother, or auntie, or whatever when he was little?”
Chloe looked at me but said nothing. Too hard to answer maybe.
Chapter 25
Chloe
Mereana was her cousin! Her real cousin. She couldn’t wait to get home and ask her father all about it. She knew who he had lived with when he was a boy, but it was too hard to explain to Keri. Her dad was going to be very upset. He had loved his mum. He talked about her all the time. Chloe wondered if he knew it wasn’t his real Mum. She didn’t think so. He never said. His mother had died years ago, and Chloe hadn’t really known her. There was a lot to unravel here.
At home the atmosphere was still tense. Her mum was reading with Lily in the lounge. Chloe could see them on the couch. She led the girls past the front door. Dad was still sitting by the vegetable garden. He looked up as they came around the side of the house.
“Where is she?” he asked hoarsely.
“Gone to have a talk with Nanny Anahera,” Mereana said.
He looked surprised. He got up from his chair and said, “I should go too. Got to face the music some time, I guess.”
“They wanted to have a talk together for a while, without us, but I think it would be alright if you were there,” Mereana said to him. “It is all about you. And my dad, and Wiremu’s dad.”
Chloe’s dad nodded. “Yes, so I believe. Right, I’ll go.”
The four girls went inside the house, and Chloe’s mum got up from reading with Lily. She headed into the kitchen and got a jug of iced water from the fridge. Without saying anything, she filled five glasses, put them on a tray with some biscuits and headed outside. From the lounge came the sound of Lily getting the karaoke machine going. They smiled at each other as Lily’s voice boomed out her favourite song yet again.
“She’s going to wear that track out!” Jess said.
At the outdoor table, Chloe’s mum put down the tray, and sat on the bench.
“Okay girls,” she said. “What do you know? I can see you know something.”
Chloe thought about telling her, but in front of the girls it was just too hard. She looked at Mereana. Mereana nodded and drew a deep breath.
“Her name is Heeni. She is Nanny Anahera’s sister. She’s got cancer, and she wants to see her children and grandchildren. My Dad was one of her boys, and your husband Robert. Wiremu is also one of her grandchildren, so his dad was adopted too. Or fostered, or whāngai. She’s having a talk to Nanny right now and your husband. He’s gone over there.”
Chloe’s mum chewed her lip as she thought. Then she raised her eyebrows, and said, “Well, nothing we can do. Do you girls want to stay here for a bit?”
“Is that alright? Nanny asked for us to stay away for a while.”
“That’s fine. Come on in, while we wait for news. There will be a big hui after this, I’m sure.”
“Do we want to hang around here, or can we go to the river?” Jess asked.
“You only want to see Tyrone!” Keri said to her.
“What if I do?”
Chloe looked at Mereana and they smiled a conspiratorial smile. Jess was going to be disappointed but no need to tell her yet.
“Okay,” Mereana said. “Let’s go for a walk. Chloe, ask your mum if you can come, and see if Lily can come too.”
Chloe dashed into the kitchen where Mum was trying to get Lily to eat some leftovers from the night before.
“I hate coleslaw!” Lily complained loudly.
“Yes,” Mum said. “I know, that’s why it’s leftover.”
“Mum,” Chloe interrupted. “Can Lily and I go to the wharf with Mereana and them? Just for a while.”
“How long?”
Mereana came into the room. “Just half an hour. We’ll walk around to the wharf and back again. And don’t worry. We’ll keep a close eye on Lily and we won’t let her near the water.”
“Alright. Half an hour. It’s nearly time for Lily to go to bed anyway.”
“Promise. We’ll be back by eight o’clock.”
“Okay. Lily! Your best behaviour please!”
“I will, I will. I always are.”
They headed away from the route to Nanny Anahera’s house, preferring to take the longer way around. Just in case. In the village a few people were waiting at the takeaway shop, Tyrone and the others included. The girls waved to them and carried on down to the wharf. They sat with their legs dangling over the side for a while, in the last of the evening sunlight. Lily kept up a non-stop conversation about anything and anyone, and the girls laughed at her antics. Then they slowly made their way back to Chloe’s house.
Chapter 26
Keri
We said goodbye to Chloe and Lily and walked back to Nanny’s house. I was disappointed we hadn’t had a chance to learn more about the town and the people, but the intrigue about Heeni coming back more than made up for it. At the gate we stopped to listen. It was quiet, so we headed inside. In the kitchen, however, the three of them were still sitting and talking. We backed out quickly, but not before Nanny saw us.
“Haere mai, girls, come in.”
We went cautiously into the room and leaned against the walls.
“E noho, sit, sit, come on, sit down here.”
I could see Jess didn’t want to be there, but she couldn’t exactly back out. We took the three empty seats at the table. I’d been in tense situations before, but never like this. This wasn’t even my family. But it was important to support Mereana.
“Mereana,” Nanny said. “This lady is your real grandmother. Your grandmother by birth. When she went away, she gave your dad to me to look after. Me and Koro couldn’t have children, so we said we’d look after him like a son until Heeni came back. Heeni didn’t want him to call us Mum and Dad, and I didn’t want Auntie, so I became Nana. We became Na
na and Koro. And after a while, when Heeni didn’t come back, he started to feel like he was our own mokopuna.”
She stopped to wipe her eyes. It’s strange to see an old lady crying. Heeni was crying too.
“Then Hoani – John – met your Mum and went away. I can’t blame him. There was nothing here for him. But I was upset. I thought he would be here for always. I didn’t talk to him much after that, but I always loved him.”
“Then you were born and the love all came flooding back. You came up here a few times when you were little. I forgot I wasn’t his real mother or nana. I forgot all about that. Then he died and Koro died. That’s when I died too. And now Heeni has come back and she wants to get to know you.”
Mereana got up and went to Nanny Anahera. She put her arms around her neck and her cheek against the old lady’s face and kissed her on the cheek.
“You will always be my nanny and you will always be Dad’s nana. Nothing can take that away. I won’t leave you, and I will visit you just as often as I can.”
Nanny Anahera cried even more, and hugged Mereana’s arms which were right around her now.
“I’d like to get to know Heeni too, because she is my tupuna wāhine. Maybe we can spend some time together over the next few days before we have to go back to Auckland.”
Heeni looked surprised, and pleased. She nodded.
“I’d like that,” she said quietly.
There was a small knock at the door just then and another man came in. It was Tama, Auntie Trina’s husband. I recognised him from the hui, and guessed he was Wiremu’s father. There were a lot of family secrets coming out here. I don’t know that some of the adults involved had joined the dots, but from the looks on their faces, the people they thought they were, with the parents they thought they had, those stories were slowly unravelling.
It was time to leave again.
As introductions were made, we slipped out of the kitchen and headed down to the beach.
It was a quiet little procession we made as we reached the sand dunes and filed along the sandy path to the beach. The lifeguards had all gone, it was nearly dark, but there were a lot of young people down there. There was a huge bonfire burning, but at least this time it was on the beach with a circle of rocks around it. Someone had music playing loudly and there was drink being passed around.
“Party time!” Jess squealed excitedly.
Over to the right we could see Tyrone and some of the other kids we’d seen earlier. Jess headed straight over to them, even though I’d noticed some of the girls looking daggers at us. We weren’t going to be hugely welcome there. Jess was oblivious. She only had eyes for Tyrone. Mereana and I walked some way behind.
“Some of those girls don’t like me too much,” Mereana said. “See that one with the white top on?”
“They’ve all got white tops on,” I pointed out.
“Oh, well the one with her hair in a ponytail right up high.”
“Yeah?”
“That’s Pani. She hates me. She told me last time I was here when I sang the waiata. She’s Wiremu’s sister. My cousin. She’s not going to be happy when she finds out the news about Heeni. I don’t really want to be here. I don’t feel safe.”
I looked at Mereana in surprise. She was a reserved person, but I didn’t think she would back away from a tough situation. In fact, I’d seen her getting positively feral when the situation required it.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m here. And we don’t have to stay long if you don’t want to.”
We followed Jess. Pani was talking to another girl as we approached the group. Jess had already started flirting with Tyrone. Pani turned around and saw us. Her eyes grew wide with anger.
“Hey!” she yelled at Mereana. “You better get out of here, or you’ll be sorry. We don’t want you here.”
She made her way over to where we were standing and, hands on hips, she glared at Mereana and got right up in her face. Mereana flinched and took a step back. That only made Pani bolder.
“You think you can just come up here from the city and take over. You don’t know tiko! Just because you can sing a song and say some Maori words. Just because you got brown skin and black hair. Just because you got a Maori name. You’re just a pretend Māori. Plastic!”
Pani moved back and spat at Mereana. It landed on her face. Tears sprang to Mereana’s eyes, but she didn’t wipe it off.
“I’m not trying to take anything away from you, Pani,” she said quietly. “I’m just trying to learn about where my dad came from. And it looks like we may be more closely related than we thought. I’m happy to be your cousin, and I’m happy to be going home too.”
Pani narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?” she asked.
At that moment Wiremu can racing across the sand towards us. Mereana took the opportunity to wipe her face.
“Pani, Pani, you got to come! Dad wants you!”
“I’m not listening to you, Wiremu! You’re always trying to trick me.”
“No, it’s true. It’s about that lady what came to town. She’s our dad’s real mum!”
Pani laughed. A short barking laugh of disbelief.
“Don’t you be stupid, you little tiko-bum!”
“It’s true, Pani,” Mereana said.
“What’s it got to do with you?” Pani asked hotly.
“She’s my real nana too. You and me are first cousins.”
Pani gasped. “I don’t believe you.”
She whirled around and followed Wiremu across the sand. A couple of her friends went with her. The rest of the group gathered around us. Penny and Jasmine were part of the crowd. Tyrone had sat down on the sand and was watching some boys who were playing a game of touch. The ball bounced close to Jess and Tyrone picked it up and threw it back to the players. Jess sat down beside him and was thanking him for saving her from the ball.
“Ugh,” I muttered.
“Is it true?” Penny was asking Mereana. “About that lady?”
Mereana nodded. “I think so,” she said. “Pani’s dad, Chloe’s dad and my dad are all brothers.”
“Who’s Chloe?” Penny asked.
“You know, that dumb red-haired chick,” Jasmine told her.
“She might be red-haired but she’s not dumb,” I said. “She just finds it hard to talk to people.”
“Well I reckon that’s dumb,” Penny said. “What’s so hard about talking?”
“About the same as Jess’s chances with Tyrone,” I muttered to Mereana.
She turned and grinned at me. Penny and Jasmine giggled.
“Don’t worry about Pani,” Jasmine said to Mereana. “She just always wants to be the boss of everything. Come on, we got some beers. You want some?”
Mereana and I shook our heads. I wasn’t going to drink something in this crowd. It didn’t feel too safe. Tyrone took a can and offered one to Jess. Jess took it and swallowed a big gulp.
“Come on Jess, let’s go,” I said to her.
“No way! Party’s only just getting started.”
“Jess, it’s not safe here. These people are all older than us. Let’s go.”
“No, I’m staying here. Tyrone will look after me.” She looked at him. He nodded.
I turned to Mereana.
“Do you trust him to look after her?” I asked. I wasn’t happy about leaving her here, but Jess was hard to move when she’d made her mind up.
“Yeah, he’ll look after her,” Jasmine said. “It’s not like he’s going to do anything.”
Penny and Jasmine giggled.
“Alright, well, we’re going. And don’t blame us if you get caught in the middle of a fight.”
We walked away, back up the beach and along the track towards Nanny Anahera’s place.
There were still people at the house, so Mereana and I sat outside and waited until they had all gone, and until the last lights went out. Mereana wasn’t ready to talk to her nanny yet.
Jess came home a couple of hours later. She was a little drunk
, and a lot upset. We turned on the light so she could see what she was doing.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she muttered.
She got ready for bed and without saying anything else to us, climbed under the covers and went to sleep.
Jess slept late the next day. Mereana and I helped Nanny with some chores around the house and garden. When Jess finally got up she was very irritable. Before I had even opened my mouth to ask how she was, she turned to me with a snarl.
“You must have thought it was really funny, not telling me about Tyrone! I thought you were my friend! Instead you drag me up here to this shitty place! Why’d you have to do that? It’s backwards, it’s got nothing going for it! You told me it was a beach place, a resort town! I would have been better off back in Auckland. In fact, that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll get Sonny to take me back to the bus stop and I’ll go back by myself!”
I felt a hot pulse in my chest, and I was just about to blow my stack at her. But Mereana came up behind me. She put her hand on my arm.
“I’m sorry,” she said to Jess. “That’s probably mostly my fault. I love this place, so I suppose I do make it better in my own mind. I should have told you about Tyrone, I just didn’t realise how important it was to you. Did anything happen?”
Jess shook her head, shamefaced. “No, he did look after me. He wouldn’t let me have anything else to drink, and he kept all the others away who were getting too close, and when the fight started, he said we had to go home. That’s when he told me. I felt so stupid.”
Jess started to cry. I’d never seen her do that. We sat on the back steps and put our arms around her. After a bit, Jess stop crying, laughed a bit, and said, “Teach me to be such a snob, to be so prideful, like my nana says. Come on, we’re going to do something today. An adventure. Let’s go, or I’ll start getting depressed.”
Chapter 27
Chloe
Chloe’s father came home quite late. He and her mum had sat up late, talking. Chloe could hear the murmur but not what they were saying. It went on for a long time. Each time Chloe woke, they were still talking. Chloe finally fell into a deep sleep and woke when the sun shone in her window. The house was quiet. Even Lily was still asleep.
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