Witi Ihimaera - The Thrill of Falling - Stories

‘Where are you taking us, Maggie Dawn?’ asked Chantelle.

‘There’s a movie we can go and see at the multiplex,’ Maggie Dawn answered. ‘Would you like that?’

‘Can we get us some lollies first?’ asked Roxanne Adorata.

‘Sure.’

‘Yay,’ said Zoltan, snipping away at passers-by with his scissors.

At the mall Maggie Dawn saw Candace Reynolds helping Ron Simpson putting out the usual sign:

NO HOODIES

NO SKATEBOARDS

NO PATCHES

Ron Simpson was the mall’s security officer and he had employed Candace to assist him in the office. When she saw Maggie Dawn approaching with the three children, she giggled and said to Ron Simpson, ‘Maybe we should add No No-Hopers to the list.’

Maggie Dawn had always felt that attack was the best mode of defence. ‘I do not appreciate the insinuation in your remark,’ she said very loudly. ‘I spend my money at this mall and will not be spoken to in such a way by … by … staff.’ Then she added, ‘Good afternoon, Mr Simpson.’ He had the courtesy to look a bit sheepish. He knew she should have got the job.

The doors to the mall opened automatically, and Maggie Dawn couldn’t stop Chantelle, Roxanne Adorata and Zoltan as they rushed inside. Quickly she followed them, the doors closing fast behind her, swish swish. The children ran in and out of the shops and up and down the mall. Unconcerned, Maggie Dawn headed for New World where she grabbed a trolley, then gave a loud whistle:

‘Haere mai, ki te kai!’

Immediately the kids came running towards her. Maggie Dawn picked Zoltan up and put him in the trolley. Chantelle and Roxanne Adorata took turns pushing the trolley down the aisle towards the fruit section.

‘Oooh, grapes,’ Maggie Dawn said. ‘Are they ripe?’ She took a few in her hands and put them in her mouth. Then she turned to the others. ‘What do you think?’

The kids took a bunch each and scoffed the lot. ‘Too sour,’ they agreed.

‘Shall we try the plums?’ Maggie Dawn asked.

Down the hatch. ‘Ugh,’ Chantelle said, ‘they’re off.’

Cutting a swathe through the fruit section, Maggie Dawn led the charge to the confectionery aisle. The kids had a fantastic time filling up a plastic bag with their favourites: chocolate fish (‘One for the bag and two for us’), wine gums (‘Two for the bag and three for us’), peppermints (‘Three for the bag and a handful for us’) and liquorice allsorts (‘Four in the bag and, whoops, too many, but we handled them so we’d better eat them, eh?’).

Maggie Dawn headed for the checkout. There was a man in front of them, wearing a cap with his ponytail sticking out the back: lame.

Her cellphone ding-donged. It was her mate Tawhi texting her:

— W r u? Wt u doing?

— At th mll. Tking kds 2 mvies

— Cn I cm?

— C u 1pm mltiplx

Maggie Dawn closed her phone. The man with the ponytail hadn’t been called to a checkout counter yet … but there was something strange about him now.

Uh oh. Where was his ponytail? Maggie Dawn stared at Zoltan. He was looking at her as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

Then, behind her, Maggie Dawn heard the sound of an outraged old lady whose lovely long dress now had a huge cut in the back, showing her panties. And now a young girl discovered that somebody had cut the straps of her fake Louis Vuitton bag.

Zoltan had been busy with his bloody scissors, but when had he done the deeds? You had to keep an eye on that boy.

‘Time to get outta here,’ Maggie Dawn said to nobody in particular.

The man without the ponytail was called to a checkout counter. And then it was Maggie Dawn’s turn, to pay $1.50 for her plastic bag of sweets.

‘What the fuck …’ The man had discovered he’d been scalped. His ponytail was lying on the floor and people were gathering to look at it. Was it … could it … be a dead possum?

There were a couple of shrill whistles and Ron Simpson came speeding along with Candace in tow. He had a long pole in his hands and a baseball bat at the ready.

‘Don’t anybody go near it,’ he said. ‘It could be dangerous.’ He stabbed at the ponytail, relieved that it did not stab back. Then he was alerted by another cry.

An old man who’d been snoring on one of the benches in the mall had woken up to discover that he now had only half a handlebar moustache.

Maggie Dawn gave the man without a ponytail a bright smile as she pulled the kids around the corner. Taking everything into consideration, he looked better without it anyway.

She bent down to Zoltan’s level and gave him the look. ‘I’ve noticed your interest in sharp things,’ she said as she took away his scissors, ‘but this is where it stops before you move on to pocket knives or samurai swords — and you’re not going to become a member of any gang, you geddit?’

Zoltan looked alarmed. This was the Queen of Outer Space talkin’.

He goddit.

‘Hey, Maggie Dawn!’ A hand was waving. ‘Over here.’

Tawhi was waiting at the entrance to the multiplex.

Gee, why did Tawhi have to wave? At over six foot, she stuck out like a sore thumb. But when you were like Maggie Dawn, not thin, you didn’t exactly go with the glamour crowd. Nah, you were stuck with other odds and sods like Tawhi the tall one, Renee with the wooden leg, and Chan the Chinese boy, who was brilliant at maths.

‘Hey,’ said Maggie Dawn.

Tawhi was dressed to kill. She was looking for a boyfriend, preferably a fulla as tall as she was. She was ever hopeful: she’d read a magazine article that said it didn’t matter what you looked like, there was always someone in the world who was into your type. The secret was to put yourself out there and wait till that someone turned up and, boingggg! true lurv, baby. Not that such a boy would ever exist in this dump.

‘I got us our tickets,’ Tawhi said.

‘Did you?’ Maggie Dawn stiffened. ‘I’m not a freeloader, Tawhi,’ she continued as she paid her friend back — gloom, over thirty bucks. The way things were going, she’d soon be in the red.

‘Okay,’ she said finally, ‘let’s go to the movies.’

Shouting with glee, the kids dived through the door and went way down the front where they could see everything. They were so much fun to take to films. Maggie Dawn hadn’t told them it was in 3-D. She couldn’t help but feel so much love for them as, laughing with joy, they held up their arms to catch some of the stuff that was floating out from the screen at them. She looked at Tawhi — You’ll be my best mate forever — and then she thought again about poor Mum, her arsehole boyfriend Dave and Gran away with the fairies.

And in the dark nobody could see her shivering.

Oh, kids, how are we all gonna to get outta here?

After the movie, Maggie Dawn said goodbye to Tawhi who thought she might go and hang out at McDonald’s; maybe the fulla of her dreams was there having a Quarter Pounder with cheese. The kids were jumping around and yelling, ‘Can we go too and have a burger and fries? Puh-lease, Maggie Dawn, please!’

‘No, we can’t afford it.’ More to the truth, she couldn’t afford it. There were still the groceries to get and Gran’s scratch ticket too. She had just enough cash left over for one ice cream they would have to share but, what was this? An old koro came over and told the candy-striped attendant, ‘I’ll take care of it.’ He must have been a relation or somebody.

Okay, so the next problem was this: Mum had asked Maggie Dawn to keep the kids for the day so her and arsehole Dave could have some space. She knew what that meant, but she would never understand the sex thing and why people had to do you-know-what in the middle of the day.