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Te Ao Hou, 1971, Page 42

continued from page 23 from one pot to the other. He told me that he came from Ruatoria and never went to school. He made Ruatoria sound a grand place, and his eyes sparkled as he remembered the times when he had been a little boy. Some of his stories were funny and made me laugh. Uncle would laugh too, and Tamihana would have to say, ‘E pa! Keep still ay? or else we'll have to swim back.’ I didn't like that idea, because the shore was so far away and I could only swim twenty-five yards at the Macrae Baths. But Uncle kept on: about how he had ridden a horse into the picture theatre, how all the girls had run after him but Nanny had been the fastest, on and on, tale after tale. ‘Boy, you're a real bag of wind!’ Tamihana said, when Uncle started on about his exploits on the football field. But Uncle took no notice of him because I was a good audience. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘If it wasn't for me getting two tries and drop-kicking a goal in the last five minutes, East Coast would have been haddit! Naturally, I saved the game, that's what everybody said. They said I would have got in the All Blacks easy!’ Tamihana winked at me. He pointed to Uncle and whispered, ‘He's porangi, coz.’ Then he jostled his father and said, ‘Hey! You'd better wake up!’ Uncle got offended and swore at him. But Tamihana just swore back. I wished I could swear; I tried, but the word came out hushed and embarrassed and hid itself in a dark corner. The bottom of the boat was becoming quite filled with the seeething bodies of crayfish, and I was quite astonished to realise that it was afternoon. It must have been afternoon, because Uncle Pita told me that there were only a few pots to go. I was hungry too, my tummy grumbling that it hadn't had lunch. We reached the last pot and were spilling the crayfish into the

boat when I noticed a stirring in the water, a grey fin slicing towards us. A shark! I yelled. I was petrified, and sat down quickly. Uncle laughed and rocked the boat and I was almost crying because I was scared we'd tip over. ‘Don't tease him. Dad,’ Tamihana said. He came and sat down by me and told me not to be afraid. We warched the fin circling the boat, the grey shadow gliding through the water. The shark was huge, longer than the boat, at least it seemed longer to my small eyes. Uncle Pita threw some fish to it, some of the fish that we had also caught in the pots. The shark rolled over and went ‘gulp, gulp’ and the water swirled. ‘That shark is our friend,’ Uncle began. ‘He looks after us and he's very old and very tapu. Nobody around here ever dare to kill him. He protects us.’ I was surprised and still afraid. The shark came to the side of the boat and began to scratch against it. ‘Itchy ay, e hoa?’ Uncle whispered to it. Then he put his hand over the side of the boat and caressed the fin. ‘He always comes to us about this time,’ Uncle continued. ‘And every time I feed him. I been feeding him for a long time, very tapu, very sacred. Don't know how old he is, a thousand years perhaps. Many Pakeha try to get him, but he's too sly. Aren't you, my friend?’ Uncle put his hand down again. Then the shark seemed to disappear, slicing out to the sea, magically fading so that I wondered whether I had dreamed it all. ‘You ask your Nanny about the shark,’ Uncle confided. ‘When she was a small girl she almost drowned in the river mouth. All she remembers is crying for help and then going under. Then next thing, she's lying on the sand. She looked up and she saw that shark going away. That shark is sacred and helps our people. You only have to call him if you're in trouble and he'll come. Nanny didn't believe it until it happened to her, and now she won't let anyone harm that shark. So you just remember, mokopuna, if ever you're in trouble in the sea, you pray very hard and call him and he'll come. He'll come…” I asked Nanny about the shark when we got home. Her eyes glistened and she told me that everything that Uncle had said was true. ‘It's not lies,’ she said. ‘The Pakeha think so, but he's blind.’ I was glad that I was Maori. And that night, I dreamed that I was riding astride that shark rushing happily through the glistening water, laughing…. The sun shone bright again the next day, the laughing lights fleeing away from the wind, across the sea. ‘Can't catch us! Can't catch us!’ they seemed to whisper and skittered across the waves again, leaving sparkling footprints behind. I had woken early, and we had had porridge for breakfast followed by a big mug of cocoa. ‘Eat up, mokopunas,’ Nanny had said when we had looked dismal and were reluctantly stirring our porridge. ‘It'll make you big and strong,’ she said. We had never liked porridge, but when we tried Nanny's porridge, we even licked the plates because it was so good. Nanny had just chuckled to herself, ‘Beauty ay, good ay?’ and the other children had chuckled with her. After breakfast, I had gone with Albert to pick up the groceries from the mail box. The groceries came every Tuesday and Thursday along with the mail. Then I'd watched Nanny and Grace making Maori bread in the kitchen. Nanny had big strong arms and she pummelled and prodded the dough to make it firm. She gave Kara and Pare a piece of dough each, and they made gingerbread men, brown and puffed, smiling with the crooked lips which my sisters had given them. Kara wouldn't eat hers; she said she'd show hers to Mum as proof that she could cook. So Pare said she'd leave hers for Mum as well, but she'd just have a taste, just a wee taste mind you, but ended up eating her gingerbread man. She started to cry then, so Nanny said she could make another, perhaps the next day. Now, here I was, lying in the tall grass at the top of the cliff, watching the clouds scudding past. Far below, I could hear the small piping screams of the other children, playing on the sand. I had been playing with them too, but sneaked off to be alone for a while. I always went off alone when I was happy. Then I could talk to myself and indulge in my fantasies with nobody to shake their heads and cluck ‘Tsk, tsk.’ I won't tell you what I dreamed about, because daydreams are like wishes: if you confide them they break into little pieces and won't come true. And I so wanted my dreams to come true! I crossed my fingers

and even my toes and I looked up at the sky and let my words grow wings and flutter away… I heard voices calling, soft and far away. ‘Cousin, where are you coz?’ Then giggles rippled round me and whispered words said, ‘Sssh!’ ‘Ssssh!’ So I closed my eyes pretending I had not heard them coming. ‘We've found you! We've found you!’ the voices screamed. ‘What are you doing here?’ Kara asked. ‘Come on! We're going to have a ride on the horses!’ She grabbed my hand, and we ran down the hill, chasing the sun as it rippled over the fields. ‘There they are!’ Albert pointed. Far away, grazing near a small cluster of trees, were three old horses. We scrambled over the fence and ran toward them. The horses looked up, startled, pricking up their ears and whinnying anxiously to each other. ‘Don't frighten them,’ Sid whispered urgently. ‘Don't frighten them!’ We divided into groups. Each group surrounded a horse. Closer and closer we circled. ‘How we going to catch them?’ I asked Sid. ‘Just jump on,’ he answered. ‘It's easy.’ I wasn't so sure. We drew nearer to the horses. ‘Easy, boy, easy,’ Albert whispered to the one we were after. ‘Easy, boy.’ His words were liquid and cunningly kind. He put his hand on the horses's mane. The horse quivered and shied away. But it was too late, for in a trice, Albert had leapt onto its back. He gave a yodel and kicked the horse with his bare feet. Away the horse went, drumming across the paddock. I watched with admiration; my cousin was clever! By now, the other two horses had also been mounted. Sid was on one and Grace on the other, grasping hold of the manes and flying quickly in pursuit of Albert. We ran after them and Grace looked back at us, her hair streaming and her dress hitched into her pants. ‘Heiaho. Heiaho!’ she screamed. At the other end of the paddock, we bustled round the horses, trying to get the first ride. ‘Let me ride too!’ Pare yelled. ‘I want to ride the horthy too!’ So Grace leant down and pulled her up behind her. Away they went, thrumming across the grass, Pare's little bottom bouncing up and down as she clung tightly to Grace. ‘Come on,’ Albert said. ‘Let's get after them. We'll show that Grace!’ I tried to jump on behind him but the horse was too big. So Albert gave me his arm and hoisted me on. He kicked the horse in the flanks and away it went. I closed my eyes because I was scared. Kara, Pare and I had never ridden on a horse before and it was harder than it looked, especially without a saddle. It was very bumpy and the horse was so slippery! ‘Hang on, coz,’ Albert yelled when he felt me slipping off. ‘Hang on!’ He kicked the horse faster still and we were almost at the fence! Surely we would crash, or maybe we would jump! I held on tight and screwed up all my fears, but just before we reached the fence, the horse staggered to a stop. But I'm sure my heart jumped over, because I felt all empty inside. ‘You all right?’ Albert asked. I nodded. ‘Good ay?’ I nodded again. Grace jiggled her horse over to us and we sat watching the others coming towards us. Kara was riding behind Sid and no matter how hard he was kicking the horse, it just ambled along in its own sweet time. ‘You porangi thing!’ Sid was yelling. ‘Come on, gallop, you porangi thing!’ But the horse just kept ambling along, disdaining any encouragement. The other kids were trying to make the horse go faster, too. But no luck. When Sid got to us, he said, ‘Let's swop horses.’ Grace shook her head and so did Albert. ‘You can keep your tutae horse,’ Grace said. And Albert said, ‘It's not the horse, it's the driver!’ We all laughed then, and Sid got wild. He hopped back on again. ‘I'll fix you!’ he said. He slapped the horse. ‘Ana to kai!’ he said, but the horse just kept standing there. Sid got off again. He picked up a stick and you know what? He chased that horse around the paddock all afternoon, yelling out to it, ‘You stink horse, you porangi, you hoha thing!’ When the day began to wane, we thought we'd better go home. Grace had to do the potatoes and Sid had some wood to cut. But we were too lazy to walk all the way back. Poor horses! Having to carry the 13 of us! But we were very small, and somehow, we managed to put six on our horse: Albert, Kepa, Sally, Hone, Pare and myself. I was in the middle with Pare. We got

to the beach and Grace said ‘Come on, we'll have a race!’ So off we went, trotting down the sand. The horses couldn't go very fast because they were very tired, Sid's horse was playing up again, and we left them a long way behind. But our horse and the one Grace was riding were neck and neck just about all the way. It was an exciting race! We grinned at each other and all kicked our legs to make the horses go faster. But Grace was cunning. She cut in front of us and then made her horse gallop. We tried to make our horse gallop too, but it was haddit. So we just ambled along, listening to Grace and the others skiting and yelling in victory. We thought they'd win. But then, Kopua started sliding off the tail and he grabbed Kara and Kara grabbed Whiti and Whiti grabbed Kararaina and Kararaina grabbed Grace, and next thing you know, there was only the horse galloping along the beach with nobody on it! We gave a shout of glee and just to make our victory better, yelled out to the kids lying in a jumbled heap on the sand, ‘Ana! Good ay?’ We sailed past and heard Grace screaming at the others, blaming each of them. But they wouldn't have any of that. They started blaming each other, saying, ‘It was your fault!’ ‘No, it was your fault, you pulled me off!’ ‘It was him, he pulled first!’ And poor Kopua got a slap over the head. When we reached the house, we dismounted and waited for the others to catch up. ‘We won!’ Pare yelled. But Grace wouldn't give in. She said, ‘No you didn't! Our horse got here first!’ — which was true, but it wasn't fair. So a squabble started and would have developed into a war if Nanny hadn't come out and yelled ‘Who told you kids you could ride Mr Hewitt's horses! He'll shoot you kids one day!’ But Nanny didn't growl Kara, Pare and me; how were we to know that those horses didn't belong to Nanny? After tea, Nanny said that we all had to take a bath because we were dirty. My cousins groaned, because that meant having to boil up the water in a copper and then ferry the water by bucket to the bath. I had forgotten that Nanny didn't get hot water out of taps like we did at home, so when Sid told me, I groaned too. It seemed hard work, just to have a bath. But Nanny said she wasn't going to take dirty kids to town next day, And town was such a magic word, that we immediately said we'd have a bath. So while the girls were doing the dishes, I went with the boys to the wash house, where we filled the copper and lit the fire. Then, when the water was boiling, we all stood in a row and swung buckets down the line to the bath. When the bath was full, we got undressed, but Nanny yelled out, ‘Hey! You fullas just let the girls go first because you make the water too dirty with your patio feet!’ And the girls yelled, ‘Yes! We don't want Albert's kutus floating in our water!’ So we had to put our clothes on again and wait until the girls had finished. But they took so long that the water was cold. So Nanny told the girls that they just had to boil up some water for us and they moaned. But Nanny said, ‘Well, if you girls want to stay in the bath all the time to be beautiful, that's your fault.’ And Albert yelled out: ‘Ana to kai!’ Albert was very cheeky. But Grace got her own back, because when the first bucket came, she poured the water all over him and it was freezing. I had never taken a bath with other people before. None of us had, not even Kara and Pare who didn't even bathe together at home. At home, you had to knock on the door before you went into the bathroom, even if Pare was in the bath. I had gone in once, and Pare had screamed and tried to hide herself with a small flannel. And she was only four! But at Nanny's place, my cousins always bathed together, because it saved having to heat too much water. At first I was embarrassed about sitting in the bath with Sid, Albert and Kopua. I was right in the middle, as usual and they were rude! Sometimes, they'd say ‘Where's the soap,’ and pretend to hunt for it in the water and pull my you-know-what. ‘Eee!’ they would giggle. ‘Eee!’ Then they would splash each other, but I got the worst of it, being in the middle. It was fun, though, having a bath together, because my cousins were such hardcases. But when I got out and dressed myself, I looked at the water and it was very dirty. I wondered if Albert really had kutus. Nanny said that we had to go to bed

early that night, so we did. But we didn't go to sleep right away, because the argument about who had won the horse race started up again and we ended having a pillow fight. Even when we were settling down to sleep, Kopua and Albert kept on calling to each other… ‘we won’… ‘you didn't’… ‘we won’… ‘you didn't’… ‘we won’… ‘you didn't’… and next morning, they were still at it. We had to hurry and do lots of things that morning, because Nanny said we wouldn't be going until all the work was done. So the girls hurried and cleaned the pots and swept the house, and I helped Sid bring in the wood. Then, when Nanny was satisfied, she said, ‘Go and get dressed.’ There's something happy about going to town. It must be more so for people who live in the country, especially as far out as my cousins did. But their town only had a few shops and only one picture theatre too! That's what Albert told me, and he was very envious that our town had three theatres which showed films every day. My cousins liked films, especially Hopalong Cassidy or Audie Murphy with lots of bang bang in them. They hated kissing films. We dressed ourselves quickly, and you could tell that Kara, Pare and I were townies because we had neater clothes. So just to make scores even, I took off my shoes and didn't wear my best jersey. But I still looked different: I suppose that I was more shiny. I wished I wasn't. ‘Hurry up, Nanny!’ Kara yelled, when we were ready. ‘Hurry up. Uncle!’ We joined our cousins and raced up the cliff and clustered round the truck, playing games. Nanny and Uncle trundled after us, Nanny in her best dress and hat, and Uncle still putting on his shirt. We clambered on the back tray, and Uncle started the truck. Oogoo, oogoo it coughed. Oogoo, oogoo! We slowly chugged our way down the path and turned onto the main road. Uncle's truck was very old, but it was a good truck! Nanny said it was better than walking, even if it only went slow. But my cousins must have been ashamed, because they would yell out to Uncle, ‘Put your foot down, e pa!’ and make rude comments about the truck. I suppose trucks have feelings like horses, because we broke down twice and had to get out to push it to make it start again. Even Nanny! And once, the engine began to boil, so we had to stop at a creek and put some water in the radiator. But that didn't stop my cousins yelling out to the truck. The truck didn't take any notice. ‘Wait your hurry!’ it replied huffily. Oogoo! Oogoo! On the way, my cousins pointed out places of interest: the farms, an old Maori pa decaying in the wind, a church, the spot where a car had crashed the year before. Then we played a game about who had the most white horses on his side of the road. That was fun! Sometimes a flash car would pass us, and if the people looked too smart, we made faces and wiggled our behinds at them. Nanny told us to sit down and not be porangi. When we arrived at Ruatoria, Uncle parked the truck in front of a big building which Sid informed me was the pub. He asked me if I liked beer and I said I hadn't had any. He didn't believe me. We clustered round Nanny. holding out our hands, and she gave us some money. Five shillings! Each! Kara and I couldn't believe our eyes, and we certainly believed Nanny when she moaned, ‘Boy! You kids are driving me broke!’ She wasn't talking to us though, but to her children, who thought that five shillings wasn't enough. Even Uncle had to hold out his hand for some money. He got more than us, though. But he moaned too, and Nanny said to him, ‘That's all you're getting for your beer.’ So Uncle shook his head, muttered to himself in Maori and shuffled away. We went with Nanny for a while, following her from shop to shop as she bought the stores; some more kai, some material from the haberdashers, and some pots. Grace wanted a new pair of shoes, a pair with stiletto heels. ‘What for?’ Nanny asked. ‘You already got enough,’ But Grace insisted, so we went to the shoe shop and watched Grace parade up and down, wobbling from side to side. The man said, ‘Would you like them wrapped up?’ but Grace said she'd wear them. She walked out the door while Nanny was paying for the shoes, and we never saw her again until that night. ‘She's gone to see her fella,’ Sid informed me. ‘She's hot on him!’ We giggled. Afterwards, Nanny told us to carry the packages to the truck. When we got back,

she said to the boys, ‘You kids better have your hair cut, ay?’ We all disappeared. We wandered round together for a while, but then began to split up. The girls went their own ways, and we went ours. I stayed with Sid and Hone, because we were about the same ages. George went to the billiard rooms. He lit a smoke and he looked tough in his jeans and carefully combed hair. Later on, we saw him with a freckled Pakeha girl and they were holding hands! At the milk bar, we had a fizzy drink. Then Sid and Hone took me on a tour round the town. It wasn't very big, but there were a lot of people walking about, and my cousins seemed to know every one of them. ‘That's Auntie Miro, that's Nanny Tawhi, that's Miss Jacobs our teacher, that's cissy George, that's Hera Heta and is she a hakuri thing!’ Some of the people were fat, some of them thin, but mostly fat and dressed rough, except for the Pakehas, who had shoes on and their singlets tucked in. We walked past the pub and saw Uncle drinking flat out. He must have been very thirsty. Sid went in to ask for some money, but he said, ‘Kids not allowed in here!’ There were lots of people in there, and more were arriving every minute, stumbling through the door as if they hadn't had a drink in months. Nanny even joined them with some other korouas. We went back to the shops and looked at the counters, stopping every now and then to talk to some of Sid or Hone's friends and finding out what they were doing in the holidays. I was too shy to speak, but Sid and Hone seemed proud of me. ‘This is our cousin,’ they would say. ‘He comes from Gisborne and his father's got a beaut Holden.’ ‘Aaa!’ their friends would gasp, and look at me as if I was a somebody. I wasn't though, and our Holden wasn't that flash. After the shops closed at five o'clock, Sid, Hone and I went back to the truck. The girls were already there and they asked, ‘How much money you fullas got left?’ They had 4s. 7d. and we had a florin, so we pooled our money and bought some fish and chips. Kararaina shared out the chips, ‘One for you, one for you, one for you,’ until we had an equal pile. There were some chips left over, and my cousins offered them to us. But Kara and I didn't accept, so the extra chips were given to Pare, who was the smallest. Afterwards, we dug in our pockets just to make sure that we hadn't missed a halfpenny or a threepence. But no, there was no money left. At six o'clock, the pub closed and a stream of people spilled from the door. Some of them were really ‘rotten’ as Sid put it, weaving and swaying as if they'd just finished turning round and round and round and were still dizzy. Some of them were singing songs, rude songs, and clutching each other for support. An old lady even did a hula on the pavement. The people made for their cars and trucks, piling into them along with their crates and flagons. Nanny came out with Uncle. ‘Stand up, man,’ Nanny was saying, and she called out to us to help her put Uncle in the truck. ‘How you, mokopunas?’ Uncle slurred, ‘how you?’ Uncle was very heavy and he smelt funny. Some other people were with him, and they piled on the back too, taking swigs from a bottle. A big shiny barrel was thrown among us and the truck shook like anything. ‘Go and get Tamihana,’ Nanny told Albert. ‘I'm not letting any of these boozers drive me round.’ ‘Where we going, Mum?’ Kararaina asked. ‘To Auntie Puti's.’ Tamihana came and hopped in the driver's seat. We took off and the truck must have been going very fast because it swayed round the bends and instead of saying Oogoo! Oogoo! it went Ooooo! Nanny told Tamihana to slow down as we weren't having a race, but he said, ‘Who's driving this truck, me or you?’ When we arrived at Auntie Puti's place, there were already lots of people there. A guitar was playing and people were singing. ‘They're having a party,’ Sid told me. We helped Uncle off the back and he swayed inside. Uncle must have been very popular because there was a great roar of greetings, ‘Gidday Pita! Where you been? Where's your glass?’ Auntie Puti came out and she looked very nice. Nanny said, ‘These are Julia's kids,’ and Auntie looked at us and went ‘Aaaaa!’

We had to press noses then, because that's the way they kiss in Ruatoria. Auntie Puti had a soft nose. She took us inside and we were scared, because the people looked very ferocious and had red eyes. But Auntie told us not to take any notice of those rotten boozers and kicked everyone out of the kitchen, telling them to take their stinking beer with them. Then she made a kai for us and we ate it all, because we were very hungry. Afterward, we helped Auntie with the dishes and she asked us how our mother was. Mum and Auntie Puti had gone to school together; they weren't closely related but they had been very good friends. Auntie had a big family too, nine children, and she yelled out to them to come and meet their bones. So we bashfully said ‘Hello.’ Then Uncle came in and told Nanny to come and join them in the front room. Nanny went and Auntie went with her, ‘just to make sure those boozers didn't break anything,’ she said. We went ouside and played for a while, until it got too dark. ‘How long will we be here?’ Kara asked. ‘They'll be going all night,’ Sid answered. ‘They always do when they have a party.’ ‘Oh.’ Kara whispered. We sat on the verandah, listening to the music and the singing, and watching the people coming in and out. I don't think Auntie had a toilet at her place. And those people had the runs all the time! We were very tired, and Pare was falling off to sleep. But when Nanny came out and gave us some money and said, ‘You kids, go to the pictures ay?’ we jumped up and were wide awake. ‘See you later, Nanny!’ we yelled, and ran down the road. And guess what — Nanny had given us two whole pounds! I'd never seen so much money! There were lots of people at the pictures, mostly young like us. We got some lollies and our tickets and then rushed down to the front. It was strange at that theatre, because they didn't have nice seats, just rows of forms. And the people brought their own blankets and wrapped them round their legs because of the draught. You were allowed to eat fish and chips too! And even allowed to throw paper and things. It was exciting and what with all the commotion going on, I was quite prepared to see someone galloping a horse down the aisle. My cousins looked round, shouting greetings to their mates and going and talking to them. Of course, Pare, Kara and I were dragged along too. ‘These are our cousins,’ Sid would say. ‘They got a beaut car!’ On our travels among the people, we came across Grace. She was sitting at the back with her boyfriend and he was kissing her! And she had funny marks on her neck. ‘Eeeee! Grace!’ Albert yelled. ‘Eeee! Grace!’ The picture started and everybody began to whistle and bang their feet. The shorts were three cartoons and something about growing wheat in America. Everybody booed because it was too long. Half-time came and went and the lights dimmed for the main feature. A cowboy film! It was exciting, even if the picture broke down about three times. But the main actor was good. Quick on the gun, because at the big showdown, it only took him one bullet to kill three men! At least, it was marvellous for my cousins. I didn't tell them that the film had jumped. But it was still an exciting film, and the whole theatre rocked with yells and screams and whistles. Sometimes, somebody would run up to the screen to try to help the goodie if he was in trouble. Then everybody would yell, ‘Sit down!’… ‘Get off!’ and throw things at him. But that only made matters worse, because then the kids would scramble up there too, just in case somebody had thrown some lollies. Then you couldn't see the action at all. Once, even Kara ran up there and when she came back, she had a mintie and let me have a suck. After the film, we piled out and got some fish and chips. We saw Grace at the shop too, but she pretended she didn't see us. She was sitting carefully, swinging her feet so that everybody could see her new shoes. Some of her mates were with her, and even though she had a boyfriend, she winked at another fulla — I saw her! George was there too, with his girlfriend, and she smiled at us. Sid said she was a prefect at school and her father was rich. We hung around the fish shop for a while and then we started home to Auntie's place, reenacting the action of the film. ‘Wasn't that beaut when he shot those men?…. And that time when… The party was in full swing, the house shaking with activity. Pare started to get

sleepy because it was way after twelve, so I asked Sid what time we were going home. He looked at me and said, ‘We never go home on Friday nights!’ ‘Where do you sleep, then?’ I asked. He motioned to the truck, ‘We brung some blankets,’ he added. Sid explained that Nanny and Uncle liked going to parties during the weekends. And the parties that were held never stopped until Sunday! Even the party tonight had started on Wednesday when everybody got paid and it wouldn't stop till the beer ran out. I was really surprised. ‘Sometimes.’ Sid told me, ‘It goes on for a whole week.’ We put Pare to bed, then played Cowboys and Indians. But one by one the Indians got tired and threw away their arrows and crept onto the back of the truck. In the end, there was only me and Sid, and you can't play Cowboys and Indians with only two people. So we climbed into the truck too, pulling the blankets round us. There were about fifteen of us, all in a row, the girls already asleep. Grace wasn't there, nor Tamihana nor George. For a while, we lay awake talking to one another, but it had been a long day and we soon went to sleep. The last sound I heard was that guitar still plunking bravely and those boozy voices singing a party song. And you know what? When I woke up the next morning, that guitar was still going! As Sid had predicted, the party continued all Saturday. Sometimes we went into the house to pinch a piece of bread, and sometimes a drunken man would give us money to buy some kai. Nanny came out every now and then to drag us into the house to meet new arrivals. ‘Julia's kids,’ she would say and they would whisper to each other, ‘Aaaa!’ Then we'd have to press noses all over again. We tried to remember the names of all the people we met, but it got too much for us. Mum had so many friends and relations! But we did remember some of the people and how they knew Mum. For instance, there was Uncle Claude who brought Mum up for a few years, but she was always running home to her own mother. I would have too, because Uncle Claude talked very loud. Then there was Auntie Haraina who was only a half-sister because she had a different father. I couldn't understand that. But most interesting of all was a man who was very boozed