Witi Ihimaera - Pounamu Pounamu

The sooner they understood that, the better.

Jack Simmons hears the sounds of a wire screen door twang open and slam shut. Quickly, he drains his tea. The horde is advancing. He looks out the kitchen window. No, not the horde; only Katarina. Jack Simmons watches as she runs across the backyard and climbs the fence between the two properties. He erected that fence three years ago. Come to think of it, the Heremaia children had helped him build it. Those children, they had no sense of shame whatsoever.

Jack Simmons smiles to himself. The fence might as well not exist. The Heremaia children may have conceded their territorial rights, but not their sovereignty. This they have maintained by the most cunning strategy. Whether the Simmonses like it or not, they have been adopted.

Katarina knocks on the door.

‘Come in Katarina!’ Jack Simmons yells.

The door swings open and Katarina enters.

‘Whew!’ she gasps, rolling her eyes. ‘I ran all the way and I’m puffed now.’

‘Where’ve you been?’ Mark asks her.

‘Yes, where?’ Anne asks too. ‘We thought you’d be over ages ago.’

‘Mum’s in her mood,’ Katarina replies. ‘She got mad when we came back. We have to stay inside, but I sneaked out. I can’t stay long though.’

Mark and Anne glance at one another. Mrs Heremaia is in one of her moods.

‘Hey!’ Katarina continues. ‘Did you fellas leave any cakes for me? That’s what I’ve come for. You didn’t eat everything at your picnic did you?’

‘Yes, Katarina, we did,’ Jack Simmons replies.

‘We did not!’ Mark and Anne shout.

‘I knew you wouldn’t,’ Katarina sniffs. ‘Eeee! Mr Simmons, you’re just having me on. You fellas aren’t pigs. You’re good to me. We share and share alike, eh.’

Katarina giggles. She watches with bright eyes as Anne brings the left-over cakes to the table.

‘Boy!’ Katarina says. ‘Weren’t you fellas hungry? And are those biscuits for me too? But I can’t stay. Do you mind? I’ll take them with me. I’ll give some to Jimmy. He’s got the flu or something. Maybe that’s why Mum’s in her mood. And I’ll give some to George, Henare, Annie and Tommy too. Share and share alike, eh!’

‘Wait a moment,’ Sally says. ‘I’ll give you a box to put them in.’

‘No, it’s all right. I’ll carry them in my dress. And I promise not to eat them all myself. Gosh, I better go now. But did you fellas have a good time? Wish I could have come with you. Never mind. Anne, I’ll give you a yell tomorrow for school. Jimmy’s sick. Mum’s in her mood. See you! And don’t be late tomorrow, Anne.’

Then she is gone.

‘Well!’ Sally Simmons laughs. ‘That child! Here one minute and gone the next!’

‘It’s your own fault,’ Jack Simmons says. ‘You shouldn’t encourage her with cakes and biscuits. That’s all she comes over here for. Every Sunday without fail she comes. I should have stopped it right from the start.’

‘Aaah,’ Sally laughs. ‘But you didn’t. Anyway, I like Katarina! She’s rather sweet in her own way.’

Sweet? It was not a term that Jack Simmons would generally use to describe any of the Heremaia children. Yet, they were such comic children that you could not always be stern or angry with them. Even if you did dislike them — which Jack Simmons did not — you had to admit that they were at least amusing. Katarina for instance, now she was a comic little girl.

Katarina was affectionately known by her brothers and sisters as Pretty Girl because she was so ugly. Despite this, she had endeared herself to Sally Simmons anyway, from the very start. There had been a knock at the door and Jack Simmons had opened it to be confronted with Katarina in all her radiant ugliness.

‘My name is Katarina Makarete Erihapeti Heremaia,’ she’d whispered.

Then she’d fluttered her eyelashes and giggled.

‘But you can call me Pretty Girl,’ she’d continued.

That day, Katarina had wandered through the house as if she owned it. She was the scout among the children. After concluding her inspection she’d walked calmly to the window, put her fingers in her mouth, given an ear-shattering whistle, and the rest of the tribe had come running. They’d never, entirely, in all those three years, been ousted. Least of all, Katarina. She seemed to look upon the Simmons house as her second home.

You could forgive Katarina anything … except her infuriating curiosity. And then of course, there was the borrowing. Katarina was a veritable magpie. She loved bright things: earrings, shiny beads, little scent bottles, the blue eyes of Anne’s doll and money! But Sally had her own way of dealing with Katarina. She would forbid Katarina to come into the house until the missing objects were returned. Katarina idolised Sally. She always returned the missing bright objects. As for money, well, you soon learned not to leave loose change around when Katarina was present.

Annie, the other Heremaia girl, was also rather a character. She was the gasbag of the Heremaia family. She loved talking, and once she had started she just kept on talking … and talking and talking and talking. She talked so fast and so volubly that sometimes you could never tell where onewordfinishedandanotherword began. You never dared to go out of the house if Annie was wandering out there alone, for she would pounce upon you with great delight and her stream of chatter would issue forth. She was always being scolded about it by her brothers and sisters.

‘Who pressed your button?’ they would yell at her. ‘Who pressed your button, Annie? Who told you to open your big mouth!’

Yes, like her sister, Annie was rather an amusing child. However, there were times when she ceased being amusing and was a downright pest. In common with the other children, she possessed a penchant for borrowing. Loving talking as she did, she was a natural adept at telling long and involved ‘stories’. Worst of all, she had a total unconcern for other people’s property. The borrowing wasn’t nearly as bad as the damage, accidental or otherwise, which Annie could wreak. Branches shattered under Annie, windows tended to break when she was around and a bed of strawberries which Jack Simmons had once cultivated was positively massacred after Annie had been at it. It all seemed amusing in retrospect, but at the time, the incidents had been far from funny. Worse still, you tended to suspect the Heremaia children, because of their record, of every misdemeanour which happened. And even if it was doubtful whether they had committed it or not, you still felt they must have done it. The goldfish affair was the classic case.

In England, one of Sally Simmons’ interests had been the breeding of goldfish. She’d been quite an authority on the subject and had decided to continue her experiments in New Zealand. Jack Simmons constructed a pond for her and she selected certain strains of goldfish which she planned to cross-breed. The result, she hoped, would be a goldfish of a purple colour. Her efforts raised much interest among other breeders and she was considered something of a celebrity in the street. The Heremaia children, especially, used to ask how she was getting on, though they’d been given strict instructions never to go near the goldfish pond. Wire-netting had been stretched across it as an extra safeguard.

After some months, it seemed that Sally Simmons would succeed. She bred a goldfish of a mauve-rose colour. But one morning, the Simmonses awoke to find the wire-netting had been tampered with and that key goldfish was missing. The first thought which came to Jack Simmons was that the Heremaia children had done this terrible thing. A bitter scene followed with Millie and Sam Heremaia. Their children denied taking the goldfish. Finally, as a matter of course, the police were notified. And as a matter of course, they questioned the Heremaia children. This divided the two families even further because Millie and Sam became convinced that Jack Simmons was out to get at their children. The police never did find the culprit. Relations between the two families were strained for a long time. And Sally Simmons was so upset about the whole affair that she gave up breeding goldfish altogether.