Justice and Utu Read Free

some harrowing times that had changed their attitudes. Life was fragile, and you had to put in the hard yards to get through. Although Riki still looked the same — skinny, unkempt and carefree — he worked hard on fitness and self-defence. Now even education had crept onto his radar, to the utter astonishment of his teachers, friends and family.
    Mat, who had a mother who was a teacher so had no choice but to study hard, was halfway through the same exams, of course. They were going fine — Level 2 NCEA and he felt like he was aceing it. His parents weren’t having to nag him too much, and they’d about got over the fact that Art was his thing, and that he wasn’t going to be a lawyer like Dad.
    The front door opened, and a thin woman with red hair came out, carrying two glasses of real home-made lemonade.‘Back already, lads!’ Colleen O’Connor, Mat’s mother, trilled in her soft Irish accent. ‘That was quick.’
    â€˜That’s cos we’re super-athletes,’ Riki explained, taking a glass gratefully.
    Mat smiled up at his mother as he took his glass, and revelled in the first gloriously soothing mouthful dancing on his tongue. ‘Thanks, Mum.’
    â€˜My pleasure, love. Where’s Tama?’ Colleen asked. ‘We’ve got to go soon.’ Mum was down from her Taupo home to go with Dad to the funeral of a lawyer they had both known. She was staying in a hotel. Mum and Dad still seemed no closer to reconciliation, something her presence here at the former family home threw into sharp relief.
    Colleen looked down the driveway and gave a faint smile. ‘Ah, here he is. I better get another glass, then.’
    A broad shape staggered down the asphalt to collapse panting onto the lawn beside them. For a full half-minute Tama Douglas lay as if dead, except for the laborious rise and fall of his chest. ‘Am I still alive, or is this hell?’ he groaned.
    Riki snickered. ‘It’s Napier, Mr D. Heaven on Earth.’
    â€˜Can’t be Heaven if you two are here,’ Tama replied. ‘Must be Purgatory.’ He eyed Mat. ‘Why did I marry a skinny woman, so she could breed a greyhound for a son?’ He winked at Colleen, who raised a sceptical eyebrow.
    â€˜Yeah, you shoulda married a big lady,’ Riki said, ‘and then had some lard-arsed prop forward son that you could outrun.’
    â€˜Hey, I was a lard-arsed prop!’ Tama protested. ‘Don’t diss the front-row union!’
    â€˜I, for one, am grateful to be born just the way I am,’ Mat put in, looking at his mum.
    â€˜Wait ’til you’re being left behind by your own children, son — then you’ll understand,’ Tama told him. He looked at Colleen. ‘I suppose I’d better shower and get ready.’
    The two adults went inside. Riki looked at Mat. ‘Hey, bro, your mum and dad getting it on again?’
    Mat pulled a face and shook his head. ‘Nah. She’s just down for the funeral. This lawyer guy Dad knew dropped dead. He was like eighty or something and still working. Mum had met him at dinner parties and stuff so she came down.’
    â€˜Shame for your dad to lose a mate.’
    â€˜Royston Belsworth.’ Mat gave a wry grin. ‘Actually, Dad was terrified of him. He reckons Roy used to rip shreds off him in court. He was the chief prosecutor, and they came up against each other all the time. Dad said Roy could peel paint with his voice when he got worked up. He used to totally shit himself when he came up against him.’
    â€˜Sounds hilarious,’ Riki grinned. ‘Still, good that he’s going to the tangi, eh? You going?’
    Mat shook his head. ‘Nah. Dad says he can’t trust me at funerals after the last one.’
    Riki laughed aloud. They both knew exactly what Tama meant: the last funeral Mat had been to was his Nanny Wai’s tangi, and Mat had stolen a bone tiki