Sado by Mikaela Nyman

Author:Mikaela Nyman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Victoria University Press
Published: 2020-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

12

The townhouse comes with a fridge, a stove, three single beds, an oversized white faux-leather couch, a coffee table and a square dining table with five chairs.

Reimon purses her mouth as she inspects the sheer amount of clothing, old toys, books and kitchenware two people of relatively modest means can amass. Pedro huffs over a pile of Tarn’s discarded shoes and turns his back on Cathryn so she can’t see him rolling his eyes.

‘Can you stop doing that?’ Cathryn throws a pillow at him when she finds him pointing Reimon towards the bin. The pillow lands on the piles of damaged goods, mainly papers and books, that have to be packed into cardboard boxes and shifted to the new place.

A tower of boxes, so many things. She should have discarded or recycled half of it, but the thought of having to sort out her own mess at the same time as dealing with the chaos around them was overwhelming. There’s nothing she can do now. It will have to be packed, carted and unpacked. Every now and then she reminds Reimon that they’re not moving far: it’s not necessary to wrap every item as if it’s about to be sent across the world.

‘A man came to our village to tell us we need to shift. We’re going to be evicted, the whole village,’ Reimon tells her over a cup of milky, sweet tea at lunchtime.

‘Who is he, telling you to shift?’

‘The supermarket has bought the land taswe, hemi talem, we need to move.’

‘Truia? You’re not even near the supermarket. How long have you lived there now?’

‘Twenty-three years.’

‘Then he can’t just come and tell a whole village to shift. Did he give a date?’

‘We’re collecting money for a lawyer. We’ll fight them.’

Reimon’s calm is admirable; Cathryn nevertheless fears for the outcome of this saga. Eviction is a word seldom used in jest. Despite having a name and a chief, and housing two hundred people, her village is no more than an informal settlement and lacks proper village status. The question is whether they settled legally or illegally in the first place.

‘Let me know how it goes,’ she says, pouring Reimon another cup, ‘and if there’s anything I can do.’

Reimon smiles and drinks her tea. ‘Our chief knows a lawyer. We just have to collect the money. We’re not going to be pushed off our land,’ she says with great dignity. Carefully she brushes down her yellow island dress before rising to do a final sweep out and mop the floors. Indicating she won’t be retiring any time soon.

Exhausted, Pedro and Cathryn curl up on the white faux-leather couch in the late afternoon, limbs entangled, surrounded by cardboard boxes, piles of bed linen and stacks of books.

‘What a mess.’ Cathryn sighs, but it’s a satisfied sigh.

‘It’s a good place. You’re safe, you’re dry.’ Pedro pulls her close.

‘Tarn will have his own room and he’ll be back tomorrow.’ She wraps her arms around Pedro and kisses him. ‘Couldn’t have done it without you and Reimon.

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