Page 48 of Catch a Kiwi
Delilah clicked her heels and saluted. “Jawohl, mein Herr.”
Roman smiled. So did Matiu. Lola said, “Pardon me. I understood that you’re a guest here. Or the cousin of a … guest.” That look was directed at me.
“Young people, eh,” Daniel said. “Not much respect these days, especially the Pakeha ones. No upbringing.”
“You’re right,” Delilah said. “I’m basically feral. Too bad for you.”
I didn’t say anything, because I couldn’t think of what to say and this wasn’t my house. I went and sat at the end of the table, beside Daniel. Defiantly, maybe. Delilah started making her tea, while Lola walked around her as if she weren’t there, posture stiff, and set two mugs down in front of Matiu and Daniel. “There,” she said. “Now that I’ve taken care of you, we can be cozy. Come sit by me, darling,” she told Roman, as if she lived here. “I may have thought it was a wee bit sad,” she confided in Matiu, putting her head on one side in a girlish way I’d never seen from an actual girl and taking a ladylike sip of her enormous glass of wine, “only to have the one child, but Roman’s done well enough for five. There’s this house, so modern and glamorous that it should be in a magazine, but Roman doesn’t understand publicity. And the house in Dunedin, of course, though that’s quite pokey, which is odd, as it’s the one he lives in most. The one in Auckland is better, all metal and glass, very chic. In Parnell, that is, with Sir John Key practically next door and a feature on the building in an architectural magazine. I did well with him, if I do say so myself. Gave him that push to succeed from a boy, and he has. He made his first million by the time he was twenty-two, can you imagine? Did you know that his newfirm, Zephyr, was named one of New Zealand’s Top 10 New Green Power Ventures? You won’t see it in him now, because he’s wearing those tatty shorts, but he’s normally beautifully dressed, too. I saw to that, of course. ‘First impressions are everything,’ I told him.”
She’d have gone on all night, I was sure, if Roman hadn’t cut through her recital of his mum-sponsored accomplishments with, “I give my mum an allowance, Daniel. Enough to buy clothes, food, all that. She doesn’t own her house, so she can’t mortgage it. She can’t sell her car, and she doesn’t have any capital.”
Daniel said, “What are you saying? That I’m here to sponge off your mum?”
“No,” Roman said. “I think you’re here to sponge off me, but you’ll take my mum if that’s all that’s going.”
Daniel said, “That’s always the way, isn’t it? Always the way. A man can’t get a break no matter how hard he works. My own son accusing me, just because I had a drink problem once, when all I’ve done is come to meet him with no thought of anything else. I was excited, and then I saw you and said, yeh, he’s a Te Mana, and was proud. Not much of one, you aren’t, treating your father like this.”
“Oh, I dunno,” Matiu said, his eyes sparkling as if there was nothing that didn’t amuse him. “I see some similarities.”
“Did Hemi talk to you?” Daniel demanded of Roman. “Fill your head with lies, just because I used to have a problem?”
“It’s an addiction,” Lola said, putting a comforting hand on Daniel’s. “It wasn’t a choice. You did your best, I’m sure. I can see how much you care about your family.”
Roman didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure he trusted himself to. He’d sat down beside me, though, straight across from Daniel. No wine and no tea, just his two hands on the table and his gaze fixed directly on the older man’s. I couldsee his chest rising and falling under the T-shirt, the temper he was trying to control, and I wanted to put my hand on his the way Lola’d done with Daniel, but I wasn’t sure if he’d welcome it.
Matiu said, “That it, then? Am I taking my swabs and driving home?”
“You go on, if you like,” Lola said. “You’ve been lovely. Daniel and I can stay and?—”
“No.” That was Roman.
“It’s late,” Lola said. “You can drive Daniel and me to the airport on the way to work on Monday morning. That’ll give us tomorrow to get acquainted.”
“No,” Roman said again. “I could say it’s because three of my bedrooms are in use already, and there’s no place for two more people?—”
“Three?” Lola said, her eyes sharp. “But—” Her gaze slid to me.
“Three,” Roman said.
“Mate,” Daniel said. “Have you looked at the girl? Maybe you’re not my son after all, if you’ve got somebody like that living with you and she’s not in your bed.”
“Oh, nice,” Delilah said. “You’re actually a jerk, you know that? Wow, Roman. I thought mymomwas bad, and she cooked meth!”
Roman stood up. Not fast. Slowly. Fists on the table, upper body leaning slightly forward, leveling a look on Daniel that I wouldn’t have wanted to face. It was honestly scary enough that I got a shiver down my back. “Get her name,” he said, his voice like ice, “out of your mouth.”
Two beats. Three. Nobody spoke. Matiu didn’t smile, and Delilah, sitting on Roman’s other side, peeked around him at me and mouthed, “Wow.” I had to agree.
Roman sat down again and said, his voice absolutely composed, “But my lack of beds wouldn’t even be the reason.I don’t need a father, and I’m not interested in your excuses for not being one. And I’m busy this weekend.”
“Darling,” Lola said. “For your mum?”
Matiu said, “A word.” And stood up.
Roman looked at him warily, then stood himself and said, “Come with me.” He added, after a minute, “You too, Summer.” More of a summons than a request, but I came. Curiosity. Support. Whichever.
Roman stalked down the hall, and Matiu and I trooped along behind him all the way through the semicircle of house to a room I’d been in only to mop it out and dry the baseboards. An enormous office, it was dominated by the L-shaped table set against two blank walls, with three monitors arranged around a work area, and a narrow conference table set closer to the far wall. That wall was made entirely of glass, as if you were perched amidst the green hills, native bush, and the tranquil sea below. At night, you saw nothing but blackness, pierced by the stars, and with the light on, you saw nothing but your own reflection.
Roman put his hand on the chair at the head of the table and told Matiu, “Sit down.”
