Tangi by Witi Ihimaera

Author:Witi Ihimaera [Ihimaera, Witi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781776953745
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Kia kaha, Rīpeka. I’m here, hush now.

My sister weeps on my shoulder. I could almost believe she is a little girl again, bringing her tears to me. Behind her in the shadows Hata waits, holding Kararaina, their baby. She is bundled in a blanket, and he raises it to protect her from the cold wind.

I hold RÄ«peka a little while longer. Then gently I break our embrace.

What will we do now, Brother? she asks. What will become of us?

We walk towards Hata. Ngā mihi, I say to him. How are you?

Kei te pai, he answers. He lifts baby Kararaina up for me to kiss. Say hello to Uncle, Bub.

Tama’s got a suitcase, Rīpeka tells Hata, as if he’s a chauffeur. Bring it to the car.

All my sisters have a bossy streak in them. In their world they are not my sisters; I am their brother. When we get to the vehicle, Hata puts Kararaina in her carrycot on the back seat and then hops into the front.

We can all fit, Rīpeka tells me, moving to the centre. She thinks I haven’t noticed she is pregnant with her second child. Be a bit of a squeeze, won’t it? I ask her.

It’s that Hata! she answers. He can’t keep his hands off my beautiful body.

I shut the door. As we wait for Hata, I put my arms around my sister. I wonder what she is doing, poking me and prodding me, until I realise she is trying to find the same configuration as Dad’s when he cradled her. I try my best approximation. From now on it will have to do.

Hata has got more sense than Dad when it snows, Rīpeka begins. We’ve finished lambing on Wauchop’s station, so we were home nice and cosy when Mum telephoned us. Hata heard me scream and came running. He tried to calm me down, I think he was scared for the baby I am carrying as much as me. We went to Waituhi straight away. I rushed from the car and saw the funeral director was there talking to Mum. Mere and Wiki had already arrived from their jobs in town too.

Mum said: We’re taking your father to the funeral parlour. But I wanted to see him before then. Where is he? I said to Mum. Nothing could stop me … I ran into the bedroom and … I don’t know what I did or what I said, only that I cried out his name and held him to me.

I hug my sister closer. She’s always been the one in the family to go into detail. In the past Mere, Wiki and I have often rolled our eyes, but, this afternoon, her kōrero is somehow comforting: I need to know. And Rīpeka’s right: although we might be afraid of death, what we really fear is seeing the person we love in their casket, isn’t it?

Hata arrives at the car with my suitcase, puts it in the boot and then comes to sit in the driver’s seat.

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