Dogside Story by Patricia Grace

Author:Patricia Grace
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742288161
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-10-24T16:00:00+00:00

After Atawhai had gone he realised he should’ve used the cellphone. Jase and Nan Tini were both back at the meeting and he needed to get hold of Jase before he left there, get him to go back to his place for some gear and his bank card. It meant he’d have to find someone home—one of the kids to go and dig Jase out of the meeting to answer the phone.

Later, when he knew Nan Tini was back at her flat, he’d ring her so she’d know he was coming and wouldn’t get a fright with him turning up there knocking in the dark.

Once they got Kid settled he’d be able to use the ward phone to make a couple of calls.

When he returned to the cubicle after ringing Jase, Kid was lying back against a pile of pillows, her black hair in loose strands against it. Black eyes, spider lashes above full cheeks which had some colour in them now. The dressed arm was hooked across in front of her.

What would make up for it?

But it wasn’t the time to talk, the spider legs tangled, separated, tangled and soon she was out to it. He sat down to wait by her until it was time to ring Tini, thinking how bullshit he was making out he had to live on his own to stop people doing things for him.

Bullshit, when he knew he really had people to turn to any time he wanted, places to stay anytime, TV to watch if he felt like it, Jase to run round after him.

Water? Fish? Physical life?

One-legged bullshit hero. But what had he done for her apart from nut off now and again about other people’s neglect, other people’s unwillingness? Now it was time to get real. Now he needed what he could’ve had long ago—something to fill the gap below the knee—because now he was going to fix up one of the front houses and needed two legs so he could do it. There were windows and weatherboards that needed replacing and rooms that needed painting. He’d get a car and use some of the bloody ACC money he had stashed away. Leaning forward he removed two pillows from behind Kid and let her head down. It had taken this to move him.

A baby in a cot in the corner with bandages over his head and ears was starting to cry and the mother was lifting him. Shadows were entering the room, lights were going on round the wards and it was almost evening visiting hour. He went to ring Tini.

‘Be back in the morning,’ he said to Paula at the desk when he’d finished.

‘Have fun, Rua.’

He made his way along one corridor and turned into the next, and at the other end of it, coming towards him, was Maina. There were voices coming from reception, a trolley ticking along, a monitor beeping. There because of Kid, because of him?

‘It’s Dad,’ she said. ‘We brought him into A & E this time yesterday.

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