Page 25 of Kiwi Sin
“It’s the odometer,” Harmony said. “It tells you how many kilometers you’ve driven since the ute was new. It’s an offense to turn the dial back so it looks like you’ve done fewer kilometers. You might do that if you wanted to sell it, because people would rather buy one that hasn’t been used so hard. It must happen, because they put it in the driver’s handbook.”
“Oh,” Patience said, with approximately nil interest. “What’s this?” She reached all the way across me this time, and I tried to squeeze back against the seat but couldn’t avoid her brushing against me. Her cheeks turned pink, at least the one ten centimeters from me did, and I thought,She doesn’t know what she’s doing.She was dressed fairly modestly still, but she’d had her hair cut and was wearing it down, like Harmony, and she was also wearing lipstick, I suspected. Betwixt and between, maybe with her family telling her one thing and her body and spirit driving her in another direction. I knew that feeling.
Wait until she discovered the public library and found the porn books.
“Sorry,” I said, and turned the key to shut the engine down. “I think they’re about to start lunch.”
* * *
Oriana
The lamb dish was brilliant. Deep with flavor, thanks to the wine, and the meat so tender it nearly fell apart in your mouth. My potatoes were as good as always, too, but I was having trouble eating them.
I wasn’t sitting at the benchtop today, ready to jump up and get anything needed from the kitchen. I was on the floor with my back against the wall instead, because there were no more seats. Gabriel was sitting on a stool at the benchtop with Daisy and Gray beside him, and Patience, Glory’s sister, was standing halfway into the kitchen with her plate beside Gabriel’s. Daisy and Gray were having a conversation, Patience was listening, and Gabriel wasn’t. He had his head down and was eating.
He'd taken Patience out to see his ute earlier, though, and she was still with him. I wanted to see it, too, to ask him about it, to let him know, somehow, that I thought he’d done well to get it, and to hear how he’d fixed it, but how could I do it now without it being obvious that I wanted to talk to him? Or, worse, seeming like I was in some sort of competition with Patience?
That was what I was thinking when Frankie suddenly said, from the couch where she was sitting with Radiance and Glory and Chelsea, all of them squashed up together, “You all realize what’s wrong with this seating arrangement, right?” When the others didn’t seem to hear, she picked up her glass from the coffee table, rapped her spoon against it, and said, “May I say something, please?”
This time, they heard, because everybody stared at her.
Frankie said, “There are only two women eating at a table or benchtop here: Aunt Constance and Daisy. Six men eating with someplace to set their plates, and six women standing up, or on the couch with their plates in their laps, or sitting on the floor. And the one on the floor is thecook.”
“Yes,” Uncle Aaron said. “And?” Raphael and Uriel, at the table with him, stopped chewing and stared at each other, and Dorian, who was sitting at the table, froze. As for me, I could hardly breathe. Frankie’s tone was sharp, and I’d never heard a woman defying a man like this in my life. Especially not heruncle.
“That’s not the way it works Outside,” Frankie said. “If anything,womenare the ones sitting in the best spots, especially pregnant women, and here’s Glory, eight months pregnant, on a too-soft couch with her plate in her lap.”
Glory, like me, sat frozen, not sure where to look or what to say.
“People come to New Zealand from other countries and keep their customs,” Uncle Aaron finally said into the silence. “No reason we can’t do the same.”
Chelsea said, “Frankie’s absolutely right. I’m surprised you sat at the table, Dorian, and left me here. What was your mindset when you did that? I understand peer pressure, but youleftMount Zion.”
“It may be good for you to have a word here with your sister, Daisy,” Aunt Constance said calmly. I didn’t know how she could be calm. I couldn’t even eat anymore, the atmosphere had got so tense.
“What would I add?” Daisy was as cool as ever. “Seems to me that Frankie’s doing well enough expressing her opinion, and I happen to agree with it.”
“Gray?” Uncle Aaron asked. “You’re the man of this house. If you think something shouldn’t be said, you’re well within your rights to cut it off.”
Gray stood up. Not fast, and not slowly. Perfectly, the way Gray always did. He said, “Frankie’s right, and I’ve been rude. Glory? Can I offer you a seat?”
“Oh.” She didn’t know where to look, it was clear. “No. I’m fine. Thank you.”
“I insist,” he said, and now, she looked truly miserable.
Daisy said, “I have a better seat for you here as well, Radiance, as you’re my guest.”
Gabriel said, “Yes.” It was a bit loud, and now, everybody was staring athim.He said, “This isn’t our home, and Frankie’s right. Raphael and Uriel, get up and bring your plates.”
It was a voice I’d never heard, and his younger brothers sat stunned for a minute and then, as he kept staring at them, did it. Uncle Aaron opened his mouth, then closed it again. Gabriel had a touch of color in his cheeks, but he said, “Radiance and Glory? Your seats are at the table. Help your wife up, Uriel.”
Uncle Aaron said, “You’re not in charge here, son,” andeverybodyfroze, the women half-up off the couch. All but Chelsea, who’d stood as soon as it had all started and was now changing places with Dorian. He, for his part, had jumped up like a scalded cat the moment she’d started talking.
Gray said, “If anyone’s in charge, I reckon it’s Daisy and me.” Calmly again, because Gray was always calm. “And Gabriel’s right. I’m exerting the privilege of a host and switching up the seating. And if you lot will rattle your dags doing it, I’ll be grateful. Oriana’s outdone herself today on this lamb and these potatoes, and I’d like to get back to eating all of it.”
That was praise for my cooking, but Gray always did that, because he was polite that way, and he’d also told me that if you praised somebody for doing what you liked, they tended to do more of it. Diplomacy, not war. Nobody else, though, looked like my cooking was uppermost on their mind. I wasn’t sure who looked more uncomfortable, in fact: the men, sitting on the low couch with their elbows banging into each other and their knees practically up to their ears, or the women, eating silently at the table, heads down.
To my surprise, Patience was the first one to say anything, once she’d swung around on the revolving stool Gabriel had vacated and was facing the others. What she said was, “I think Gabriel’s right,” which was bold of her, but then, she wasn’t living with her parents anymore. “Isn’t the whole point that we want to change? Why do you know so much about being Outside, though, Gabriel? Is it because you’re not living with anybody else from Mount Zion?”
