Page 89 of Kiwi Sin
What have we done?
37
NO TURNING BACK
Gabriel
At three o’clock the following afternoon, Drew’s front gate was swinging open once more, and I was steering the ute up the hill to the big white house made up of cubes. Jack met me at the door and, instead of saying hello, blurted out, “After we do Step Two on the project, can we play basketball?”
Hannah appeared behind him, holding Peter. “We need to offer Gabriel something to drink before you two head out to the shed,” she told Jack. “He looks hot.”
“Cheers,” I said, stepping inside and getting out of my work boots. Peter gave me a wide, gummy smile, and I said, “That tooth came in at last, eh, after all that trouble.” He had a second little square of white in the middle of his lower jaw, and he was losing the bald look, too, as his hair came in as flaxen curls like his mum’s. “Getting big,” I told him. “You’ll be crawling soon, I reckon.” He chuckled as if he couldn’t wait to break the bonds and make a mad dash for it, and I took hold of his dimpled hand with two fingers and a thumb and thought,This is going to be me, before too long.A rush of excitement at that, despite the limbo Oriana and I had been left in last night.
Some things, there are no easy answers to, not when you have less than two weeks to finish renovating a house and it already doesn’t feel like there are enough hours in the day. Especially if you lose any more of your crew, or your dad isn’t willing to lend a hand anymore, because you’ve infuriated and defied him. Most especially if the man who’s given you that opportunity,everyopportunity, is teetering into war with your dad, which will only hurt both of them, and it’s your fault. That was why I hadn’t pushed it harder last night, at least I hoped it was.
Drew was in the kitchen, and he stood up when I came in and clasped my hand. Hannah went for a glass of water, even though she was still holding Peter, and I said, “I’ll get it, if that’s all right,” and did. I’d started noticing how often women poured things for me to drink, and it felt a bit … symbolic, maybe.
Drew said, “You’re later than I expected. Busy day?”
“Yeh,” I said. “Put two coats of polyurethane on the cork floor in the kitchen. Only chance to do it, with all the cabinet hardware still to go on and the benchtops and backsplash to install. Worked on the ensuite bath some more in between.”
“Working seven days a week, then,” Drew said.
“Getting it done,” I said, and drained the glass. “Cheers on the win last night.”
“Thanks,” Drew said. “Preseason, that’s all, but we’ll take a win.”
“They won by two tries,” Jack said. “That’s heaps, so it means they’re much better than the other team, not just a little bit better, and it probably means they’ll have a good season, too.”
“Nah,” Drew said. “Just means we were better on the night. You can’t judge the season until you’ve played all the games.” He looked at me more closely. “Everything all right?”
I wanted to tell him, but I didn’t really have anything to tell, not yet. My season, too, had barely started. So I just said, “Ask me in two weeks, after the job’s done. Ready to give me a hand, Jack?”
I had more than a deadline now. Finishing the job would mean there was no reason anymore to hold off on addressing my parents’ wishes. And then it would be crossing the Rubicon.
No turning back.
* * *
Or maybe I’dalready crossed the Rubicon, because when I got to Gray’s on Monday morning, Uriel and Raphael were outside the gate, waiting for me. They followed me through and down the hill, and when we all got out, Raphael looked at Uriel, Uriel looked at Raphael, and neither of them spoke.
I said, “You’re early. That’s good. We can measure again for those benchtops to be sure and then cut the stone today. Moment of truth, eh.”
Uriel said, “Moment of truth is right, but not the way you’re thinking.” They both stared at me some more, and I said, “Let’s go inside.”
Dad had told them, then. Told them what, exactly? Neither of them looked happy, but why not? Oriana was nearly as old as Radiance and Glory, and Raphael and Uriel didn’t seem to have any problem being married totheirwives, even though those marriages had happened when the girls were barely sixteen. Besides, from what Priya had said yesterday, Uriel was veering even further off track than I was. So why?
Ask them and find out.I opened the door, went inside, and said, “We’re walking in socks in the kitchen until Friday, when that polyurethane’s cured. And let’s have it. What?”
Uriel said, “Just that Dad told us he’s going to be renting a house and we’ll all be moving in together, that’s all, because of whatever it is you’re being disobedient about, which I’m guessing is marrying Patience, or rather,notmarrying her. It’s pretty obvious that’s what he wants, and I don’t see you doing it. And that Patience told Priya what Glory and I told her about our plans, and Priya told Mum and Dad, which you must know, because you were there, and Gray denied Dad’s authority over his family, which set Dad off. Now he’s saying he’s not sure he can keep working for an ungodly man, which meanswearen’t going to be allowed to work for an ungodly man. That isn’t what I walked out of Mount Zion for, living with my entire family and having my dad tell my wife and me what we can wear and drink anddo. Why the hell won’t you just go on and marry Patience, so she stops stirring up trouble? That girl needs to be married, and she wants to do it with you, so why not do it and make it easy on all of us? She’s pretty enough for any man, and she’ll follow your lead except when she doesn’t. She’s looking for adventure, bro, and that’s the best kind of wife. Just marry her and have fun and be Peter Pious again outside of the bedroom and get Dad off our backs. What are you waiting for?”
“You’re the one who wants to kick over the traces, though, Uriel,” Raphael said. “Not Gabriel. I agree about not moving back with Dad and Mum, but you don’t want to be a builder anyway, so what does it matter to you whether we keep working for Gray? And I don’t like hearing you curse.” Uriel looked angry. Raphael just looked unhappy. He was the gentlest of us, and the happiest, too, normally. A bit like Oriana, though it was odd to think that a man could be like a woman.
“This job’s for losers, is why,” Uriel said. “Who’s the one with the big house? Wait, withthreebig houses? It’s not us, that’s certain. Valor says—”
I said, “How do you know what Valor says?” Sharply, because I was startled.
“Because I had a beer with him the other night at the pub,” Uriel said, “and he’s making good money selling farm equipment, with no experience needed except the kind we’ve got. All it takes is being able to talk. Upselling, it’s called, finding out what people want and then talking them into wanting even more. That’s how you make the big money.”
