The Tooth Read Free Page A

need to have a serious talk. With that thought in mind, I turned and headed back to the Smithsons’ house.
    Mits was up when I got back, having breakfast with his mother.
    ‘Ah, Tiny,’ he said, ‘I’ve been waiting for you. Grab something to eat and come through to my room.’ He then disappeared.
    Mrs Smithson gave a chuckle. ‘You’ve got him all worked up over something. I’ve never seen him up this early on a Saturday morning.’ I glanced at the clock and saw that it wasn’t yet eight.
    In the bedroom, Mits was sitting on his bed surrounded by books. ‘Right,’ he said as soon as I entered, ‘take a look at these.’
    They were all books on dragons, and each was open at a drawing that showed a dragon’s tooth.
    ‘OK,’ he started, ‘let’s see if we can identify this tooth of yours. I want you to look at each of these in turn and tell me which one is the closest.’
    ‘Mits,’ I said, patiently, ‘it’s not like any of them.’
    ‘You haven’t looked closely.’
    ‘That’s because it won’t be there. Looking at dragon’s teeth isn’t going to help.’
    ‘So what do you think would help?’ he asked, showing the first signs of anger.
    I turned to him and smiled. ‘How about we go and stay at Pounamu Station with Nanna and Grandad, and find the thing? That’s what I think will help.’
    His face brightened. ‘Yeah! When?’
    ‘What are you doing during the holidays?’
    He smiled. ‘Oh, I thought I might stay at Pounamu Station and go hunting for teeth.’
    ‘On one condition,’ I added. ‘You’re not to mention dragons or any of that stuff anywhere near my grandparents. You’ll just spook them out and we’ll end up getting nowhere. Right?’
    ‘Right,’ he laughed, making a zipping action across hismouth. ‘You will never hear the D-word when I am with them.’ I laughed too, even though I doubted he could keep that promise.
    I always delayed my return home on Saturday so that Dad could have some privacy. The idea was that if he wanted to bring somebody home after his night out he could, without me disturbing them. There never had been anybody. He’d had a few dates, but nothing had ever come of them. I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to find another partner or not. Yet it did worry me that his life never seemed to change. It was like time had stopped for him eight years ago.
    He was doing the vacuuming when I got back home, which meant he’d decided it was time for a clean-up. This happened about once every three weeks and ended with us going out for lunch. That suited me fine, because there were things I had to discuss with him.
    We finished about one o’clock and then headed the short distance into Ahuriri. Until the earthquake, this was the main port for Napier. Now the old wool warehouses have been transformed into apartments, and restaurants fill the spaces where wagons once unloaded their bales of wool. If you want, you can take a tour of the area sitting on a horse-drawn wagon of wool bales.
    I chose a place that served great chips and delicious ham-burgers. We sat outside, by the road overlooking the marinas that had replaced the wharves.
    ‘So,’ asked Dad, ‘how was school this week?’ This was his usual opening, and normally I would mumble something in reply. However, this time I welcomed the question becauseit would lead to the thing I wanted to talk about.
    ‘Pretty good. We’re studying the earthquake.’
    ‘Haven’t you done that before?’
    ‘Yeah, sort of. We’ve talked about it in other classes, but this time we’re doing a “Study in depth”. At least that’s what Klinkenstein calls it. We’re going on a field trip next week.’
    Klinkenstein is our teacher. His real name is Mr Klinkstein, but everyone calls him Klinkenstein or Klink, except to his face. He’s a good teacher, and the nickname is now a friendly one rather than an insult.
    ‘Oh yeah,’ replied Dad. ‘Where to?’
    Instead of answering, I pulled a piece of paper out of my