Bird North and Other Stories Read online

  ‘There’s a band on tonight.’ He’s turned to watch the cyclists, his stomach peeks around the side of the chair.

  ‘Yeah?’ I say.

  ‘From Timaru.’

  ‘Radio’s saying it’s thirty-three degrees,’ says the woman, ‘and they reckon it’s going to get hotter.’

  ‘Well,’ I say, raising my hand and going out onto the road. There is the sound of a car. It’s Evelyn. I stop and watch her come in. A black plastic shade is stuck to the back window. Driving helps the baby sleep.

  I go around the front of the car and quietly get into the front seat.

  ‘So?’ says Evelyn in her way.

  We’ve fixed mirrors to the back of the passenger seat so we can check our daughter. I go to shift the rear-vision mirror, but Evelyn grabs it. With her other hand she takes my wrist.

  ‘No,’ she says. And then, ‘You’ll break it.’

  But I keep at it and eventually she lets go. I look at our daughter. Every time we talk about a name an argument starts up.

  ‘New friends?’ says Evelyn eventually.

  They haven’t moved out there. The man says something. The woman’s mouth moves in return and she disappears inside. The man looks over at the car and, very deliberately, raises his empty glass.

  Soup

  The pools were like big steel sinks. Underground water came through vents in the bottom of each pool. The pool the brothers were in was warm and rectangular. The hot one was round. They held about the same amount of water. The plunge pool was also made of steel though it was smaller and deeper. More like a well, thought Ryan. He doubted he’d go in, but when he said that Dirk laughed. ‘Wait until we’ve tried the hot one,’ he said.

  Ryan had been staying with Dirk in Gisborne for the past three days. His relationship with Ann had collapsed. She’d said she didn’t understand him. She’d said other things too. Ryan called Dirk from a bus station in Auckland. ‘Stay as long as you need,’ Dirk said.

  It had rained every day since Ryan arrived. That morning had been no different.

  ‘Cabin fever,’ Dirk had said, looking around their small flat at the boxes and drawers overflowing with brand new nappies and undersized linen. ‘Let’s go down to the hot pools.’

  ‘I’ll do some baking,’ Michelle said.

  ‘You won’t come?’

  Michelle touched her tummy then smiled and put a hand on Dirk’s hip.

  ‘How will we dress a poached baby?’

  Dirk made a shallow bow. ‘It’s you and me then, Ryan.’

  Ryan nodded. He’d been at the dining table thinking about writing Ann a letter.

  The high, sloping roof over the pools was the shape of a sail. The changing sheds and a wall of cubby holes blocked one end and one side of the pools. The rest was fenced off. Through the fence there was a strip of grey sky and some bush. Dirk said that the stream that fed the plunge pool was down there as well. There were little spools of slime in the water. Dirk made scissors with his fingers and tried to snare them.

  ‘Like Mr Miyagi,’ he said, ‘trying to catch flies.’

  It had been their favourite movie when they were young, but Ryan gave up after one go and went back to thinking about Ann.

  Dirk’s cellphone beeped and vibrated pool-side. Michelle had made him put it in a glad-bag and she’d also given them some biscuits and fruit for the drive. Ryan’s cellphone was in Rotorua. The bus from Auckland had stopped there and Ryan had taken the phone into a public toilet. When Ann answered he put the phone into the urinal and started pissing. It made him feel better. But by the time the bus left Rotorua he was crying again.

  ‘Mum can’t wait to be a grandma,’ Dirk said, holding up the phone in the bag.

  They climbed out. Ryan pointed to the plunge pool and they went over to look. Ryan was reluctant.

  ‘It’ll be good for you,’ said Dirk. He had his arms crossed and they looked strong. Ryan compared them to his own that were thin and hairy and added another reason for Ann forcing him from their flat. Those thoughts disappeared when he dipped his foot into the plunge pool. ‘No bloody way,’ he said. But Dirk was between him and the other pools and Ryan knew his brother’s next move so he went cautiously down the stairs. The water stopped at his chest.

  ‘There you go,’ Dirk smiled, ‘now try the rest.’

  When Ryan came up he was huffing and shooting water out of his face. He looked at Dirk and smiled.

  Dirk took a turn in the cold water and then they got into the hot pool. They talked about how their skin was tingling and then both made satisfied sounds and leaned back so only their faces broke the surface. It was nice for a moment, but then the hot buzzing underwater sound started Ryan thinking about Ann’s birthday at a Mexican restaurant the year before. He sat up like someone in the movies waking from a nightmare. Dirk watched Ryan for a while and then he too sat up. He told Ryan about the last time he and Michelle had been there. The track from the carpark climbed past the pools to a look-out with a view over Mahia, the peninsula, and Poverty Bay. They were not far from the look-out when they heard a clattering above them. It sounded as if something terrible was coming down the track.

  ‘My first thought was a bear,’ said Dirk. ‘I know that’s stupid, but it reminded me of that time in Canada. Next thing, this herd of goats are stampeding towards us. There were so many of them and going so fast it was like they’d been shot out of a goat-gun. I jumped, grabbed a branch, and hung like a monkey. Michelle just stood there and the goats charged down either side of her.’ Dirk looked at the phone in the plastic bag. ‘That was a few weeks before she got pregnant.’

  ‘Maybe they were magic goats,’ said Ryan.

  They heard voices and footsteps on the gravel track outside the pools. The doors into the changing sheds slammed and there was silence. Dirk was asking Ryan a question about a rugby game they’d watched on television the night before when the changing shed door opened and an enormous Maori man in a mustard coloured singlet and Stubbie shorts walked out of the shed and around the edge of the hot pool. He had a handful of clothes, a packet of chips, sachets of Raro, and a large empty plastic bottle. His fleshy ears were the length of a man’s hand.

  ‘Aotea?’ he called, looking back at the sheds.

  There was a response but no clear words and he left his gear in the cubby holes and stepped carefully down the stairs into the hot pool. The level of the pool went up. In the middle of the pool he made a shovel of his hands and doused his huge head and face with the hot water. He smiled. He didn’t have many teeth.

  ‘Good day for it,’ said Dirk.

  The large man was watching over the brothers’ heads. A tiny girl in a black and purple bathing suit darted out of the women’s changing shed. She had an armful of clothes and was running on the sides of her feet.

  ‘You want to come in here?’ said the large man.

  The girl shook her head and after dropping off her clothes and shoes went into the warm pool and submerged herself so that the water was at her chin.

  ‘Chips?’ said the large man.

  ‘No thanks,’ said the girl.

  ‘My niece,’ said the large man. ‘We’re always up here.’

  ‘It’s good here,’ said Dirk.

  Ryan nodded and pushed his hand through the water. Coils of slime spiralled and somersaulted.

  ‘Where are you from?’ said Dirk.

  ‘Mahia,’ said the large man. ‘I drive the school bus.’

  Dirk’s face was red and there was sweat on his forehead. He got onto the side of the pool leaving his legs in the water. In the other pool the little girl was going around with the water just below her eye level. There was a sign on the wall that said not to go under. WATERBORNE MENINGITIS, it said.

  ‘Where you fellas from?’ said the large man. He looked at Ryan but Dirk answered.

  ‘Gisborne, my brother’s from Auckland.’

  ‘Oh,’ said the large man. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ His laughter shook the fat over his body and ther
e were little waves across the pool. The brothers laughed. Dirk put his hand over his forehead and through his hair then stood up and walked to the plunge pool. When he was about to step in the large man said in a serious voice, ‘Wouldn’t go in there.’

  Dirk turned around. ‘Why not?’ he said, his smile fading.

  ‘Because of the Taniwha,’ said the little girl.

  The way a bird would talk, thought Ryan. She and the large man laughed.

  ‘Every time there’s a new person, eh Aotea?’

  The little girl was back to submarining around the pool. Her eyes smiled at the large man.

  Ryan and the large man watched Dirk in the cold water. He went under a few times and, like the large man had done, splashed the cold water over his face. Then he looked out to where the bush was being knocked around by the wind and rain.

  ‘He likes it here eh?’ said the large man.

  Ryan nodded. ‘He’s waiting to be a father.’ He pointed a dripping finger at the phone by the pool.

  Dirk came back to the hot pool. His skin was red. ‘Pfoar Jesus,’ he said, flicking water from his hair at Ryan.

  ‘Get out of it,’ said Ryan.

  Dirk got into the water and onto his knees so that the water covered his shoulders. The large man’s feet were like clubs. They were making circling motions and above them the water on the surface was whirling around itself. Ryan started to feel too hot. He could feel the pulse in his neck. He went into the plunge pool and the pockets of his shorts puffed out to the side like ears. Ann had gone into the bathroom after she told him to leave. He’d tried to get the door open. ‘I’m not coming out,’ she’d said, ‘not until you go.’ He’d heard the bath plug tinkle on its chain and then the taps turn on.

  There were more footsteps on the path and then like the last time the shed’s doors slammed.

  Ryan thought about a bikini she’d worn last year. It was blue and white and after modelling it for him she’d held him close. ‘I can’t go around denying it,’ she’d whispered. ‘I am an Aucklander.’

  There was a pattering sound. Another little girl was skipping around the side of the pools. She was carrying a pink bag. Shoes and clothes were sticking out of it and when she got into the warm pool she put her arm around the other girl. She was followed by a man with a thin face and T-shirt tan lines.

  ‘Hey bro,’ said the large man.

  The thin-faced man threw a Pak ’n Save bag of clothes in the direction of the cubby holes. He put his hand on the large man’s shoulder as he got into the pool. He looked at Dirk and then Ryan who was still in the plunge pool.

  ‘You getting out of there sometime?’ said Dirk.

  Ryan’s legs and feet were going numb. He climbed out and sat next to his brother pushing against him with his shoulder.

  ‘Strewth,’ said Dirk, pushing back at Ryan and picking up the phone.

  ‘Check that out.’ The large man lifted his foot out of the water and pointed at the phone in the bag. ‘These fellas are from NASA.’

  The thin-faced man smiled. He had his arms on the side of the pool. The rest of him hung down. With his patchy beard he looked like Jesus.

  ‘Did you get that dog?’ said the large man.

  ‘Yesterday,’ said the thin-faced man.

  There was a gust of wind and the bush shook like something was coming through it. The thin-faced man’s plastic bag slid across the concrete. The girls in the pool swivelled to watch.

  ‘This guy’s a fisherman,’ said the large man.

  ‘Oh yeah,’ said Dirk. Dirk liked to fish. ‘Where do you do that?’

  ‘Out of Tolaga,’ said the fisherman. He sniffed at his fingertips and looked at Ryan. His eyes were a cold, washed-out blue.

  The large man started telling them about being a Maori Warden. ‘We do the pubs in Mahia during the week. In the weekends we come up your way.’

  ‘Do you enjoy it?’ said Dirk, then later, ‘Do you have any problems with the gangs?’

  ‘Nah, bro, I don’t like violence. Anyway, most of those guys are my cousins.’

  Ryan was taking his pulse under the water. It seemed fast but he didn’t have a watch. The girls were laughing quietly. It was still raining. I wonder what she’s doing right now, he thought.

  ‘Yeah, we do Gisborne on Friday and Saturday nights,’ said the large man. ‘The cops bought us a van, torches and walkie talkies, but they don’t pay for our KFC.’

  The brothers laughed. The fisherman smiled and looked over at the girls.

  The large man went into the middle of the pool and shovelled more water on his face. He turned with his back to the brothers. There were volcanic splotches on his shoulders and back. The fisherman shifted so he was hidden by the large man. ‘We got some more of those mushrooms,’ he said quietly. ‘We were off our heads. My sister ended up chasing the dogs round and round the fucking house. It got dark and she was still doing it.’

  ‘Jean?’ said the larger man.

  ‘No,’ said the fisherman. ‘Paula. No one knows where Jean is.’

  The large man turned around and sat beside the fisherman. The two men looked into the middle of the pool.

  There was the crunching sound of footsteps on the track outside and a woman talking. She sounded surprised at something.

  ‘What do you reckon?’ said Ryan.

  Dirk shrugged and stood up. ‘No rush is there? You got somewhere you need to be?’

  On the drive to the pools Dirk had turned down the stereo. ‘Like I said, Michelle and I are happy for you to stay as long as you like. And I know at the moment you probably don’t want to talk too much about it –’

  Ryan had started to say something but his brother kept talking.

  ‘All I’m saying is if you want to talk, then ... ’ He’d held his hand flat like he was waiting for money or congratulations. Ryan hadn’t known what to say. He’d looked at a cow in a paddock. Dirk had waited for a moment then glanced over.

  ‘Okay,’ said Ryan. ‘Yeah, thanks.’

  Dirk had cranked up the music.

  ‘I got hangi waiting for me when I get home,’ said the large man. ‘Pork, kumara, spuds, chicken.’ He counted the ends of his fingers.

  ‘Parsnip, pumpkin,’ said the girl from the pool.

  ‘Parsnip, parsnip, parsnip,’ said the other girl.

  There was a noise from the changing sheds. ‘Oh,’ a man said, ‘my sock.’

  ‘But KFC,’ said the large man. ‘We get a bucket before work and another one when we finish. The boss complains that we stink out the van. Clean out them fucking chicken bones.’ The large man pointed his finger forward and back and wobbled his head side to side. One of his longer teeth got between his lips. One girl and then the other put their hands near their armpits and flapped at the water.

  They all laughed.

  A man with skin like chalk came through the door of the changing sheds. He had black-rimmed glasses like the newsreaders wear. His hair was neat and his red shorts looked brand new. There was a criss-crossing black tattoo on his upper arm. An accountant, thought Ryan.

  ‘Which is the hot one?’ he said, looking at the men in the pool.

  ‘That one,’ said the large man, pointing at where Dirk was getting out of the plunge pool.

  ‘This one’s the warm one – that one’s the hot one – that one’s the cold one,’ sang the girls. The lighter skinned girl bit into a Cookie-time biscuit. Crumbs from it fell in the pool.

  The accountant got into the warm pool. The girls went to the side opposite and twirled each other’s hair. There was the noise of a door closing.

  ‘Andrew, Andrew,’ said a young Asian woman, ‘where do I put my clothes?’ Her black hair was a wavy mane down her back. She was wearing a bikini top and her short white shorts fitted her well. The men in the bath watched as she crossed to where Andrew was sitting.

  ‘In there?’ she said, looking at the cubby holes. ‘What about lockers?’

  The fisherman had pulled himself upright. In profile
he was handsome and reptilian. Ryan expected a flickering tongue to lap around his mouth.

  Dirk’s phone rang and shifted about on the wet concrete.

  ‘Incoming,’ said the large man. He made the sound of a bomb falling and exploding. Dirk answered the phone. Andrew wet his hand and spiked up his hair. The girls were holding the side of the pool and giggling as the large man made more bombs. The fisherman stared as the Asian girl stepped carefully into the pool. Ryan looked at his brother.

  ‘She’s making a chocolate cake,’ Dirk said, holding his hand over the end of the phone.

  The large man got out of the hot pool. The singlet hung around his knees and his breasts were like bags of milk. He went down the steps into the plunge pool. ‘Aah,’ he said. The water dripped off his chin and nose. He submerged himself and then stood up. He made a blowing sound. ‘Aah,’ he said. He was a like a statue in the rain.

  ‘We want Raro,’ sung the girls.

  The large man nodded. He got out of the pool and went away with some cigarettes, the plastic bottle, and the sachets.

  Andrew was out of the warm water and by the hot pool. He put his foot into the hot water and looked over at the Asian woman. ‘Way hotter,’ he said. But she wasn’t watching. She was making popping sounds with her finger on the inside of her cheek. The girls were laughing and so was the fisherman. He had one leg up on the side of the pool.

  ‘She can’t find the cocoa,’ said Dirk.

  Nobody said anything for a while. The Asian woman was turning her hair into a ball on top of her head. Ryan could hear the taps going in the changing room. The large man came out. He cradled the bottle like it was a baby and was rocking the orange fluid back and forward. He gave the bottle to the girl who had come with the fisherman.

  ‘Don’t drink it all,’ he said, ‘save some for me and your dad.’ He got back into the hot pool. ‘Cold out there,’ he said.

  The fisherman opened his eyes. ‘Cold as a penguin’s snatch,’ he said slowly.

  Ryan was on the side of the pool looking at the hair on his legs. It was moving this way and that.

  There was an animal sound from the trees. It was like someone filing a road sign. The two girls said something to each other in excited voices and then ran to the fence and held it like there were zoo animals. Dirk turned around, shifting the cellphone away so he didn’t drip onto it. Andrew stood up.