Luminous by Alice Tawhai

Author:Alice Tawhai
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781869694609
Publisher: Huia (NZ) Ltd
Published: 2007-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Dragon Who Cries Frozen Tears

BECAUSE HE WAS THE YOUNGEST son, and because it was tradition, his name changed to the number of his year every time he had a birthday. This year, he was known as Twelve. It wasn’t the name on his passport, and it had caused trouble coming through Customs. Some of the teachers at his school still called him Eleven, because that had been his name last year, and they didn’t understand.

The year that he was Eight had been the best, because it was a lucky number, and his father had taken him up to the mountain snow to be blessed in front of the dark pink Winter camellia flowers. There had been lots of gifts and food, and his mother had hugged him and cried when he came back home to her.

When Twelve went to school, his brother Shem, who went to the high school around the corner, dropped him off. Shem was only fifteen, so he had no license, but he had a shiny black car with dark-tinted windows. ‘Get out fast,’ he said to Twelve, who had stopped fiddling with his cards and was playing with the beautiful bluey-silver liquid crystal display screen on his handheld Z Game. ‘Get out before any girls see you.’ Twelve couldn’t wait till his father got him his own car, and he could drive himself to school. Dual shock speed, automatic phase-through cornering.

‘My teacher wants to meet my parents for report evening,’ said Twelve. ‘I’ve got a note. Do you think that our father would come if I rang him?’

Shem laughed. ‘What, and waste all those hours on an aeroplane when he’s got business at home? Hardly. That’s what we’ve got Mei for. You can tell your teacher that she’s your mother.’

‘Mei only speaks a little bit of English,’ said Twelve.

‘Good,’ said Shem. ‘Your teacher won’t be able to get nosey. Mei will just say “Good boy. He good boy.” And that’s all she’ll say.’

At school, all the boys in Twelve’s class had invitations to Kane’s birthday. All except Twelve. They spoke in excited whispers and went silent when he came near. They sat apart from him so that they could talk about it. Envelopes stuck out from their back pockets.

When Twelve was in the toilets, he heard Kane talking to someone over by the basins. ‘You should invite Twelve,’ said the other boy. ‘You’d probably get heaps of Dragon Raider cards from him for a present.’

‘Yeah,’ said Kane, ‘but I’m not allowed to. My mum says Asians cause all the crime, and my dad says that the country’s too full already.’

No one had noticed when Eleven turned Twelve. He had to tell Mei that his name was new. Two months later, a parcel arrived. When he opened it, he found a satellite-capable digital mobile communicator with titanium-cased graphics from his father. A note stuck to the box said that Customs had removed the cardamom and poppyseed cake that his mother had sent him.

After school, Shem picked him up, and they went to the Asian Noodle House.

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