Page 71 of Catch a Kiwi
That made three people gone, which left me standing there with the envelope in my hand, together with Summer, Delilah, Priya, Gray, and the youngest girl, who hovered in the background and finally said, “I can start the sauce, Summer, if you like.”
“Oh, right,” Summer said, looking distracted. “The sauce. Let’s do that.”
I ended up sitting at a breakfast bar with Gray, Priya, and Delilah, who first made her announcement about her non-hemorrhoid donut and then sat on it. Gray didn’t react much, but then, Gray was clearly used to teenage girls. He opened two beers, handed me one, and sat relaxed with the old Labrador at his feet while the youngest girl, Dove, chopped onions and Summer defrosted mince and opened cans of tomatoes. I finally said, “You’ve got enough happening here, Summer, so I’ll give you this and go as soon as Esther’s back.” Conscious of my audience, and determined not to be put off by it. I set the envelope on the benchtop. “Credit card for you and Delilah for all that shopping and beauty and so forth. Esther’s looked up the best shops and will text the info to you, like she said. She also has some questions about the kind of job you’re looking for.”
Summer said, “What?”
“Best researcher I know,” I said. “If there’s a software engineer job out there, she’ll find it for you.”
“I didn’t ask—” she said.
“I know you didn’t,” I said. “No skin off my nose. Esther’s doing it, not me.”
Summer looked irresolute, as if she were wondering whether this compromised her independence, but finished breaking up the half-frozen block of mince, shoved it back in the microwave and started it up again, then washed her hands, dried them on a tea towel, and picked up the envelope. She looked up at me once she’d opened it, and as usual, I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
“You put it in a card,” she said.
“Esther bought the card,” I said.
“Oh.” She smiled. “Not a surprise. But a credit card? Roman …”
“It’s got four thousand on it,” I said, conscious of Gray’s gaze on me and thinking,Not your business, mate.“Enough for what you’ll need to come help me on Saturday.”
“Right,” she said. “I’m not going to protest, but I’ll give it back to you after we’re done, because your idea of the necessary grandeur of my presentation way outstrips mine. Fourthousand?Roman …”
“I know,” I said, unable to keep from smiling. “You’re not for sale.”
“Too bad I love that you did this,” she said, still weighing the greeting card in her hand. “It’s so sweet.”
“It’s not sweet,” I said. “It’s practical.” I told Gray, “Summer and Delilah are going up to Katikati with me at the weekend to meet my so-called family. Long story.”
Delilah said, “Summer’s going to pretend to be Roman’s girlfriend up there. Which I don’t get the point of, but never mind, nobody ever asks me. So we need rich-guy-girlfriend clothes. Well, Summer does, and I need cute-cousin-tagging-along clothes. Good thing Summer knows how to be a rich-bitch WAG. That’s what she used to be,” she told Gray. “That means a wife or girlfriend of a pro athlete.”
“I heard,” Gray said.
“He knows what it means,” I said, “as he was an All Black.”
Summer had gone back for the mince and turned on the cooker under a pan. Now, she dumped in the meat together with the onions and garlic Dove gave her, stirred it as the mixture began to sizzle in appetizing fashion, and said, “Perfect. If you have a couple of carrots, grate them for me, will you? And if you have capsicums or celery or mushrooms, chop those fine, too.”
Dove nodded, and Delilah said, “OK, I’ll bite. What’s an All Black?”
“The national rugby team,” Summer said. “Really? You were?” She looked at me. “You’d better not be one, too. I refuse to believe …”
“That the universe is capable of that much random irony?” Delilah said.
“Who, me?” I said. “Nah. Just a regular bloke.”
“Yeah, right,” Delilah said. “A regular bloke with three houses and a swimming pool.”
“Gray has three houses, too,” Priya said. “I thought everybody Outside must have more than one house, until I realized most people only have one.”
“What a coincidence,” Delilah said. “And Outside where? Here, Dove, let me help you. Standing up feels better anyway.” She abandoned her donut and started rinsing veg, which was progress from waiting for Summer to take care of everything and then complaining about it.
I wished Summer would read my card. I hadn’t wanted to write in it, but I wanted to see what she’d say when she did. How she’d look. Since it wasn’t happening, I said, “Outside of the cult. Mount Zion is an, ah …” I looked at Gray. “Not sure how to describe it.”
“Bloody awful,” he said, taking a sip of his beer. “Religious cult. Extreme Christianity. Messianic leader. No birthcontrol. Closed community, although that’s changing.” He paused. “Abuse of women and kids. Very nearly imprisonment. You have some of those in the States, I think. Mormon, or something.”
Summer stopped stirring, and the mince sizzled and spat. “Plural marriage?”
