The kids nodded enthusiastically but weren’t so keen when they saw the groups of old people in black waiting at the gate. A funeral was underway, with the callers crying to each other, ‘Aue te mamae me te aroha mo te kuia nei e!’
But Maggie Dawn looked sternly at the kids. ‘Now that we’re here we’ll pay our respects and then we’ll go.’ Noticing some lovely white flowers in a garden across the road, she gave Zoltan back his scissors. ‘Do something useful for a change,’ she hissed at him. Happily he and his sisters sped across the road. When they returned they had a lovely bouquet with them.
The children accompanied the visitors onto the marae and waited with bowed heads as the old ladies wept for the old, old lady lying in the polished box. One of these days Gran will be like that. Maggie Dawn pushed the thought away quickly — no, no, no.
They waited to pay their respects, and, when it was their turn, Maggie Dawn led them up to the grieving family and gave them the flowers. One of the women beamed and addressed the dead woman: ‘Anei, Hera, nga putiputi mo koe. Sarah, some flowers for you.’ Maggie Dawn was smothered in kisses and wet tears, and the younger children were slobbered over.
Then Maggie Dawn jerked her head to a side door where they made their escape. They sprinkled water over their heads before leaving the meeting house behind.
‘I’m very proud of you,’ Maggie Dawn told them.
‘We didn’t eat,’ said Zoltan, ‘and I’m really hungry.’
Well, they could go back to the food hall at the mall, but at that moment, Maggie Dawn saw that a wedding was taking place at the local Anglican chapel. The bride sparkled in the sun. Beside her was a handsome groom with white, white teeth. ‘There’s where we’ll get our feed, kids,’ she said.
But Roxanne Adorata, always one for making a fashion statement, said, ‘We’re not dressed for a wedding.’
Maggie Dawn remembered the Pakeha ladies who had been dropping off clothes. ‘No worries,’ she answered. Screaming and yelling, she chased the children back across the park. When they got to the bin, she upended Zoltan through the hole at the top of it; his legs kicked away as he slid inside. Next moment he started throwing things out.
‘Look at these clothes!’ Maggie Dawn said, shocked. ‘Some are really nice!’ Here was a cute button-up jacket for Zoltan, a pretty little jumper for Chantelle and what was this? A fake diamond tiara for Roxanne Adorata. And hey, a bonus: a purple silk scarf to take home for Gran.
The children raced back to the chapel where the wedding banquet was already starting. It was easy to slip in and, look, there was a table just for the little children! Seating them there, Maggie Dawn looked for an empty chair among the adults.
Ah, there was one.
Mrs Johnson, the woman next to Maggie Dawn, smiled at her, puzzled. This didn’t look like Mayoress Kelly. Not only that, but this teenage girl was Maori, surely, or perhaps a not very nice-looking Italian.
Oh dear. Maggie Dawn hadn’t realised that the wedding was full of Pakeha, not one Maori in sight.
‘Are you Joshua’s daughter?’ asked Mrs Johnson. ‘And are those charming little children your brothers and sisters?’
‘Kaore,’ Maggie Dawn replied. It meant no, but all that Mrs Johnson could tell was that it was foreign. Hmm, maybe Joshua’s daughter was from some other Mediterranean country.
The waiter came with a lovely plate of turkey. ‘Here we are then, dear,’ Mrs Johnson said, articulating carefully so that the poor girl could understand.
One more task to do before Maggie Dawn took the children home.
They skipped and ran all the way back to the mall. Into New World again to buy Gran’s scratch ticket and milk, bread, butter, sugar, bananas, corned beef and baked beans.
On the way out, Maggie Dawn saw Candace Reynolds chalking an addition to the sign at the malclass="underline"
AND NO SIZZERS.
‘I know it was you or your dirty little sisters or brother,’ she said.
Dirty? Maggie Dawn saw red. A person was innocent until they were proven guilty. Not only that, but where was Candace’s evidence?
She carefully put Zoltan’s scissors into one of the plastic bags of groceries. ‘Wait here,’ she said to the children. Sweeping past Candace, Maggie Dawn knocked on Ron Simpson’s office. When he appeared she pointed at the sign.
‘I don’t want to sound too autocratic,’ she began, ‘but taking everything into consideration I have to tell you that your staff person doesn’t know how to spell. Sizzers, puh-lease! What’s the use of a sign if people don’t understand what it says? Have a nice day.’
PARTY TIME ON PLEASANT DRIVE
Bloody hell,’ Maggie Dawn muttered.
She could hear the party from a block away. By the time she got to Mum’s house she could tell that arsehole Dave and his gang mates had taken over. The noise was horrendous, with the stereo up loud and people screaming and yelling and coming and going and giving the fingers to the neighbours.
Even Granite, the coward, had decided to call it a night and was huddled in his kennel.
‘Don’t take the kids in there, Maggie Dawn,’ one of the neighbours, Sally, called. ‘The fuckin’ animals have already had a coupla fights. The cops have been called. They’ll be here in a few minutes.’
‘The cops?’ Maggie Dawn asked, alarmed. If they found any illegal substances in the house, Evelyn could be charged. And if that happened …
‘Stay here, kids.’ Chantelle and Roxanne Adorata were clinging to each other, whimpering, and Zoltan was scissoring frantically.
Maggie Dawn barged inside.
‘Everybody out!’ she screamed. ‘Get the fuck out of my mum’s house.’
But they were so out of it, did they even hear the big black fatty as she tried to push them out any opening? Nah, they pushed back and it was her own fault if she fell down and cut her hand on glass, the stupid cunt.
Up the crowded staircase Maggie Dawn went, like a tank on the rampage.
‘Mum? Mum? Where are you?’
Not in the bedroom. There were four other people there and they looked like vampires sucking blood from each other. Nor in the kids’ bedrooms, trashed already, and stinking with smoke and booze. Trashing the house was bad enough, yes, but nobody trashed her brother’s and sisters’ rooms.
Maggie Dawn heard Evelyn screaming. Left shoulder down, she slammed the locked bathroom door apart and went through. Mum was sitting on the toilet, not screaming at all but laughing her head off, with white stuff all around her nose and mouth.
Oh, Mum.
Arsehole Dave was urinating all over her. He turned and looked at her. ‘You want some of my piss, too, bitch?’
That was it, she completely lost it.
He was smirking, thinking he’d put Maggie Dawn in her place, stuffing his cock back in his jeans and buttoning up his flies when she hit him. ‘You bastard,’ she hissed.
Quick as a flash Dave slammed her back. He pinned her to the wall with his right arm against her throat. ‘You like that, you little cunt?’ He was groping in his pockets for something. Some pills.
Maggie Dawn tried to keep her lips shut as he attempted to force some down her throat. ‘Come on, hon-ey, open up and belong to Daddy.’
Groggy and desperate for breath, Maggie Dawn tried to prise Dave’s arm away but he shoved a knee into her groin.
Maggie Dawn cast a frightened look at Evelyn: Mum, help me.
Dave’s face was right up against Maggie Dawn, his eyes red and wild, spittle spraying from his mouth. Frustrated that he couldn’t get Maggie Dawn to swallow, he put the pills back in his pocket and raised his fist. ‘You’ve been asking for this, bitch.’