Into the River (16 page)

All the way out of Auckland, Rawinia pestered him with questions. He had no taste for it and tried to buy her off with one word answers. After a while Paikea joined in.

“What’s the matter, Te Arepa?”

“I dunno, just feel a bit nothing really.”

“I thought you would have been hanging out for this day, seeing your sister again, going home to Ra, Wiremu. Whareiti.”

“Yeah, well I was, but now it’s like I’m leaving the party. Missing out on the exciting stuff. Going back to …”

“Going back to the boring life?” She flashed him a grin.

“I didn’t say that, but I guess in a way it’s true.”

Rawinia had been listening, waiting for her chance to re-enter the conversation. “So now, you don’t want to talk about it.”

She was right, too. He didn’t want to talk about it. He needed to step clear now and ready himself to live in the other world. The world of Ra and Whareiti. The world where his name was Te Arepa and he had descended from a chiefly line.

True to form, once they hit the Coast road, Paikea let him drive. Once again he was able to pour himself into perfecting his gear changes, picking the line for the corners, making sure he was always in the power band. As they reached the outskirts of Whareiti, Paikea motioned him to turn off towards her cottage. Devon was surprised that there was no one there. He associated the place with Jinny, the van being Paikea’s domain.

“Where’s Jinny?”

“She’s back in the cancer ward.” It was Rawinia piping up from her mattress on the floor of the van.

Paikea took a breath and said, “They found it had spread to other parts of the body. That’s the thing with breast cancer; the
breast is just the start.”

Devon looked at Paikea’s face for any trace of emotion but there was none. A slight stress in her voice was the only telling sign. She disappeared into the house and came back with a couple of brown folders.

When they arrived home, Ra was at the door as soon as the van cleared the gateway: he must have been listening for it.

“Haere mai, Te Arepa, haere mai. The scholar returns.”

To Devon he seemed older, smaller, and more Maori than he remembered.

He came forward and hongied Devon and then pushed his shoulders back.

“You’ve got taller … and skinnier. And look at the hair. Don’t they cut your hair at that school?”

“No Ra, that sort of thing is our call.”

“On my notice board I have the letter from the headmaster. It’s all about your success. Your promotion. You must have worked hard for that. The whole whanau is proud of you, boy. We need scholars. They’re the new warriors.”

Devon wanted to say that he had not done this for Ra or for the whanau, that he had been proving something to himself.

“Come inside, come in and have a kai. I bet you’re hungry, Rawinia.” Then Ra looked at Paikea, who seemed eager to get back in the van. “You too Paikea, I insist. What’ve you got there? Claim papers?”

“Ae. They’re all you’ll be getting for a while.”

Ra turned to Devon. “Jinny’s been working on the claim.”

“A Waitangi claim? No one told me there was a claim.”

“Well, you’ve been busy at school and I’ve been busy here at Whareiti and Wellington. It’s a lot of work, looking at sale and purchase agreements, tracking down our old people. Paikea and Jinny have been helping. Jinny puts it all into good English, the sort of thing that a judge likes to read.”

They walked into the kitchen and Devon put his bag down in
his little bedroom.

“It’s about the land that runs along next to the Pokaiwhenua, all the way to the hills.”

On his bedroom walls were pictures of cars, and a couple of pennants. He noticed that Ra had pinned his Barwell’s “offer of place” letter there too. It seemed strange to have a room all to himself again, rather than just partitions and the chatter of boys floating around over his head.

He went back to the kitchen and joined the others as they sat down at the table.

Ra continued as though Devon had been in the room all the time. “It includes your old stamping ground, the so-called Goldsmith’s Bush. Remember that big tuna you and Wiremu caught there? Well, I guess there will be a few more coming out of there before long.”

“Jinny says it’s just the beginning; it’s got a long way to go.” Paikea’s words changed the tone.

“I know that, Moko. When you get to my age, you take the long view. I don’t expect anything to be sorted in my lifetime. This is for youse.” He indicated “the young folks”.

Ra had baked scones on the wood stove: cheese and date. Paikea made some tea, Rawinia fetched the big jam pot, and they all settled into a good feed.

After Paikea had gone and Rawinia had been prevailed upon to go to bed, Ra sat in the sitting room poring over the papers in the folder. Devon was restless. He had brought a bunch of books home but didn’t feel like reading them. Nearly six weeks stretched out before him and he had no idea how he was going to spend the time.

“So you must be getting used to the school now, Te Arepa. Fitting into their kaupapa, eh?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Using your own name yet?”

“No. I’m Devon there, Ra, I told you. Maori things are sneered
at.”

“Not by everyone.”

“No. But it doesn’t have to be everyone. It still puts me in the losers’ camp. I’m there with the chinks, the Indians, the nerds, the fags.” He wondered for a moment if Ra would know what the last two were. “It’s different here in Whareiti. I can’t really explain it … it’s just something I have to do.”

He looked at Ra. He could tell he was disappointed.

“I know it’s not good. I’m proud of what I am, but I keep it to myself. Otherwise I would be defending it every day. It would be all that I am. I’m not ready for that. Remember what you told me: the fundamental principle, the bottom line, is always that the tangata whenua dictates.”

Ra nodded; he seemed pleased that at least Devon had remembered this.

“Well, at Barwell’s the tangata whenua are the boys in my house. They have their own kawa and kaupapa. Their own ways of doing everything. Those are the rules I have to fit into.”

“And if you act too Maori you get bullied? That’s what you’re saying?” Ra seemed serious.

“It’s not the bullying. I can handle that.”

“Then what is it?”

“You become a loner. A no-mates. No one talks to you, except the teachers. No one sticks up for you. I’ve seen it.”

Ra seemed to accept this explanation and Devon was relieved. He knew that it must seem like he was a coward to Ra, but he wasn’t, he was a survivor.

“The boy who saved the tribe.”

The words lay between them like a challenge.

“What?”

“You heard.”

“I know what you said … I don’t know what you mean.”

“Te Arepa: the boy who saved the tribe. That’s what I mean. Maybe the time has come, Te Arepa. The end of a long cycle. A
hundred years, a hundred and fifty.”

Devon said nothing; he waited for Ra to continue.

“It’s not the Ngapuhi this time. Not waka taua pulling into the bay. Now it’s talks that we’re not part of. Deals made behind closed doors. No blood. No death … just slowly it all slips away, our land, our culture, our mana maori …”

“What’s this got to do …”

Ra held up his hand to stop him. “The fact you can’t use your name … that’s part of it.”

He went off to bed. Devon was left to the creaking solitude of the old house.

For the next week or so he found it difficult to fill the time. There was a trip to the Mc Gregors’, who now seemed to have semi-adopted Rawinia. After a couple of weeks Wiremu reappeared; he had been staying with his grandparents in Lower Hutt. Wiremu was into rugby now; that and a cultural group that went around beating other groups in competitions. The gap between him and Devon seemed to have widened.

At Christmas everyone went to the marae. It was a relief to be amongst a bigger group again. Devon was feeling the weight of Ra’s eyes and his unanswered questions, but here amongst the music and feasting he could forget about all the things he was holding at arm’s length. He was introduced to people — distant relatives he had never heard of — as “the scholar”. It was embarrassing at first, but then he got used to it. In a way it explained his difference.

Paikea was there with Jinny, who had lost a lot of weight and whose red head-scarf seemed to drain her face of colour. They came over to see him as he sat on the long stool in the whare kai.

“Paikea tells me you’re in the A class now.”

He nodded, a little tired of talking about it.

“What’s it like?”

“I’m not actually in there yet. One of my room-mates is. I’ll get
to sit with him. He’s super brainy.”

“What’s his name?”

“Steph.”

“Have you made other friends?”

“Two others, I guess. It’s hard to make friends there. Everyone’s real tight.”

“Paikea tells me you’re a driver.”

He nodded his head. “I love driving.”

“Maybe you can be a courier one day.” Jinny joked.

Paikea glanced towards Ra. “I don’t think so. His grandfather has got him marked for bigger things.”

Later that evening Paikea’s remark came back to him again and again. He was marked for bigger things. So, it was not about him, it was about Ra. What Ra wanted. About taking over when Ra had gone. He thought about the life Ra lived. No money. This little house. Always travelling to Wellington and attending hearings. Being the one who was guardian for the whole iwi, while other people went on and lived their lives. It wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t what he was going to become.

A few weeks later, Wiremu showed up early in the morning. Devon hadn’t seen him for a while. It was as if they both knew that their old relationship had gone and the new one had yet to form.

“Yo, Rep. Howsit?”

“Kay. What are you doing up so early?”

“My cousin Tania’s come to stay. She’s got this baby. Jeez, babies make a lot of noise. Once that kid’s awake, there’s no sleep for anyone.”

“I remember Tania. She’s got a baby? Can’t have. She’s only about seventeen.”

“No man, sixteen. I reckon my uncle sent her here to get her out of the way. They argue all the time.”

“You told me she was the wild one. Always in trouble at school.”

“Yeah, she ran away a bit but she’s not running now she’s got a baby to carry around.”

“True. I’ll come over. Say hi. Let me wake up first. Since I’ve been on holiday I try to sleep in later and later. I can go past ten now, but my aim is twelve. That’s the time to face the world.”

Later that day he dropped around. The house was quiet in the morning because Devon made sure he got up after Ra had gone out for the day. He found it difficult to even look at Ra now without feeling the weight of his expectations.

When he got to Wiremu’s, Tania was in the bathroom washing her hair. The baby was in the doorway in a play-pen and Wiremu was crouching down playing with it, wiggling his fingers through the bars. Tania emerged just wearing a bra and camouflage trousers. Devon found it hard to keep his eyes on her face.

“So, Te Arepa. All grown up and citified too, I bet.”

“Hi, Tania.” He wanted to come back at her with a witty reply about how grown up she was too, but for the moment he found words difficult.

Tania walked over and leaned against the doorway. She folded her arms and looked down at Devon; there was something mocking about her confidence. Devon was sure that she would put on the T-shirt that lay ready on the back of a chair but she didn’t. Her breasts were large and she seemed proud to show them off. The rest of her was so lean, almost boyish. Her hair was wet and knotted up on top of her head. There was something crazy and fearless about her.

“How long are you down for, Tania?”

“Till they get sick of me, I reckon, or sick of Eru.” She leaned over and tickled the back of the baby’s neck and he squirmed excitedly. “How about you?”

“For the holidays. It’s weird being back, a bit like I stepped out of a party and everything’s happening in another room.”

“Tell me about it. I reckon I’ll shoot through soon. There’s been a screw-up with my DPB so I’m high and dry, but when that money comes through, you won’t see us for dust.”

She reached forward and grabbed Wiremu by the arm.

“Well, come on Wiremu, I promised your mother I’d do your hair today, get rid of that dandruff. Take off your shirt.”

Wiremu complied, a little self-conscious at first, and then enjoying his display.

“We’re all topless around here. Te Arepa, you should take your shirt off too, and I’ll do you next.”

For the next five minutes or so Tania worked Wiremu’s head in the bathroom sink, occasionally plunging it deep into the suds.

“Trying to drown me!” he bubbled.

“Right, you’re done, go and sit out on the step. Next, please.”

Devon moved through and stood next to her. It was a small bathroom and her breasts brushed against his bare chest as she cleared away the suds and fallen hair, then refilled the sink.

“Ready for me to do you, Te Arepa?”

There was a flash in her eye which startled Devon, but the next moment she was plunging his head into the warm water. She leaned over him, working the water through his hair and stroking behind his ears and up his neck. He could feel the soft bulk of her breasts pushing on his back and could smell the fresh, sharp smell of her deodorant. Neither of them said anything other than short instructions for a while.

“Up a bit.”

“That’s better.”

“Feel nice?”

“Good smell, huh. Head up now, Te Arepa, I’m putting the shampoo on. Forward.”

He found himself looking straight into her cleavage and holding her hip with one hand to steady himself as she worked the lather in. At this point he could tell for sure he was on the path to arousal. He felt panic but then gave in to it. No number of Latin
declensions or thoughts of people he hated was going to stop this happening. There was no way of telling whether she had noticed. To look down would give it away. He gazed closely at the smile on Tania’s lips as she kept working up the lather on his head. There was a knowingness there, a teasing, playful power she had over him. Without thinking, he rested both hands on her bare waist, then moments later pulled her in close and kissed her on the mouth. Anything to get rid of that mocking smile.