K Road by Ted Dawe

Author:Ted Dawe [Ted Dawe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781775530824
Publisher: Random House New Zealand
Published: 2012-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

‘Want a stick of weed, Flash?’ it was Wilson with Chey and Ronnie in tow. Flash took the obligatory toke and passed it back.

‘Gidday you two,’ he said ignoring Wilson. It didn’t pay to encourage him, he’d start expecting to be treated like an equal. And he wasn’t.

The two Te Panias had sure maoried up since their school days. There the tangata whenua stuff had to be sat on. They both greeted him with a hongi and their style of talk was now all South Auckland hip-hop. It was like a routine.

‘Hey, Flash, man, what’s the haps?’

‘We was arksing ’bout you las’ week, eh man. He he he he!’

‘There was this Fijian dude playing for counties. He had the wickedest side-step … made the Waikato team look like monkeys …’

‘Quick as, bro …’

‘Yeah anyway, Chey says that could have been you, man …’

‘The eight foot side-step at thirty ks …’

‘Other guy left standing not knowing where you is …’

‘Like you been abducted by aliens …’

‘Under the sticks …’

It took him a while to tune in. He’d forgotten how they slipped in and out of this rapid-fire tennis match of shared conversation. It was like it had been wired in at birth.

‘I gave all that stuff away after school. It’s surfing now. Surfing gets to the places other sports can’t reach.’

‘The bottom of the ocean?’

‘Collecting tuatuas with ya mouth, man …’

‘There are easier ways to travel, bro …’

‘The twelve foot tinny does it for us …’

‘Pulling snapper out of the Manukau …’

‘Getting us a feed …’

Ronnie was wearing this shiny new leather jacket with a gold scorpion pin in the collar. Flash reached over to touch it and then stopped short.

‘What’s this? You gang guys now?’

‘Yeah? Well, Ronnie maybe,’ said Chey out the corner of his mouth.

‘Scorpions ain’t a gang, man. We’re just a group with similar … ah interests, eh,’ he giggled.

‘He’s not the government grants committee, man,’ said Chey to Ronnie, and then he turned to Flash. ‘I just write the letters, get the funding. Me and Pearlie, my woman, are cultural consultants.’

‘What’s that involve?’

‘He travels to all the Pakeha schools and gives them their Maori medicine.’ They both exploded into giggles again.

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