Page 85 of Kiwi Gold
And, yes, she’d heard that. When I’d thought she was in herroom.What was I going to have to do, install soundproofing?
Baba looked at her, looked at me, looked at the bath. Then he looked at his watch and said, “I need to catch my flight. I’ll speak to you about this later.”
Now, later was here, because on the phone, Baba was saying, “Why would Lachlan be ringing you at ten o’clock at night?”
“Why areyouringing me at ten o’clock at night?” I thought that was a pretty smooth save, honestly. “Everything OK?”
He sounded like he very much wanted to pursue the original topic, which reminded me once again why I didnotwant to have to move back in with him or take his money, and would be maxing out my credit card instead. After a minute, though, he said, “I’d like you to work out a time to have a … a family meeting.”
“Oh.” I blinked. There were only two of us. That wasn’t so much a meeting as a chat. “Oh! You mean the girls as well?” Again, not really a meeting. More like Yasmin sitting in his lap and Amira filling him in on the important details of her life.
“Yes,” he said. “The girls. All of them. And their mother.”
I said, “Oh!” again, and felt a treacherous little dip in my belly. I’d just been thinking I wanted him to acknowledge them. Now I was changing my mind? “You mean family as in …”
“Yes. What else do I call it?” He sounded irritable. Also stuffy.
“Baba,” I said, “did you catch cold on the plane? Before your meeting as well. That’s a pity. Do you have cold tablets?”
“No,” he said. Gruffly. “Bumped my nose a bit, that’s all.”
“Bumped yournose?”
“Never mind. Not important. Right. Family … ah … sisters’ meeting. Half-sisters. Bio sisters. We need to do something. Barbecue, maybe. With the girls as well.”
“Oh,” I said. “All right. Uh … so you want me to invite the … Lachlan’s …” I trailed off again.
“This weekend, if possible,” he said. “With their kids and all. And Philippa, too. Ask her to come, please. I’m not having that worthless sod Peter, so don’t let them ask, but we need to get this out into the open. Too awkward as it is.”
I said slowly, “You realize that the girls—mygirls—don’t know anything about their …” And then couldn’t think how to finish that. “Aunts,” I finally said, because what other word was there? “Cousins.”
“Time to fix that, then,” he said. “It’s not as if they live in Nova Scotia. They’re in Dunedin, and if we don’t get this sorted, I’ll be running into them in the café, or in New World, and so will you. Too many of them, eh.”
“That’s what happens,” I said, “when you make quadruplets.” I was narky, somehow. Why, exactly?
He said, “Well, I did it, and it can’t be undone. So set something up, please.”
“Excuse me,” I said, in a way I never did to my father. “Why me?”
“Because I can’t, just now. Got this presentation and all. And the flight back.”
“I don’t even know their mobile numbers,” I said. “Their emails. Seems to me you could start a group text.”
“I told you,” he said. “That’s out of the question. Get their numbers from Lachlan, then. He’s your neighbor, isn’t he?”
“Uh … Baba. How do you know that? And you do sound terrible. Sure you don’t have a cold? Can you get somehabbat al-barakah?”Black seed oil, my mother’s remedy for almost anything.
“Never mind that,” he said, still sounding testy. “Next weekend, for preference, or the one after. We can do it at the house.”
“You meanyourhouse,” I said slowly. The stunningly modern house my mother had designed, full of angles and light.
“Yes,” he said. “Easier, if there are kids. We can do lunch in the garden. There’s a baby, I understand. Sort out some times that work for you and the girls, and suggest them.” And I wondered—which girls?Mine—my father’s granddaughters—or … Or, you know, my father’sothergranddaughters?
“Oh,” I said. “All right, then.”
“Thanks. You all right? Girls all right?” Abrupt, like always.
I wanted to say something. I did. I just had no idea of what to say. “Yes,” I said. “Of course.”
