Witi Ihimaera - Uncle's Story

‘You don’t know First Nation people,’ Sterling whispered.

‘All those against, say No,’ Bertram Pine Hawk said.

There was silence.

In the end, it was as simple as that. No thunderous acclamation. No dancing around the totem pole. Change is not always telegraphed in big ways and with grand gestures. Sometimes it comes quietly from the silent places of the heart. Even so, I couldn’t believe it. I heard Bertram Pine Hawk turning to the next remit as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world to do.

‘Can you confirm for me,’ I asked Roimata. ‘Have we won?’

Roimata’s eyes were shining.

‘Yes, you dumb ox, we’ve won.’

‘Okay, babe,’ I said to Roimata, ‘it’s time for you to get on your plane.’

The conference was over and Roimata and I were separating. She was going on to London, and I was leaving half an hour later for Houston, Texas, to spend a few days with Amiria and Tyrone.

‘Are you sure you’re going to be all right without me?’ she asked.

‘You’re talking like a wife already.’

‘Look,’ she said, ‘I’ve had strict instructions from Carlos. If you don’t get back in one piece and on time, he’s pulling my business class ticket from London to New Zealand. I’m sorry, dear, but when it comes to your welfare or my ticket, the ticket wins. Oh, you —’

Sometimes, when Roimata can’t express herself verbally, she resorts to physical stuff. Usually a furious hug and a badly aimed kiss. While I was wiping her lipstick off my nose, she said her goodbyes to Lang, Sterling, Wandisa and Franklin.

Surprise, surprise, Bertram Pine Hawk joined us.

‘This might be unexpected, Michael,’ he said, ‘but I want to thank you for all you and Roimata have done. Not only did you shake us up once, you shook us up twice! The irony is that I have benefited on both occasions. The Council is going to have to change, and it looks like I’ll be up for a more important position either there or higher.’

‘You?’

Bertram laughed and shook my hand.

‘Goodbye, Michael. Some future time, somewhere in the world, we’ll cross swords again no doubt.’

With a nod to Franklin and the others, he turned and left and — Roimata was hugging me again.

‘Come on, Roimata,’ I soothed. ‘We’ll see each other back in New Zealand.’

‘Oh, I’m not emotional about that,’ she answered. ‘I’m so happy at what we did here in Canada! Bertram knows it, I know it, you’re the only one who doesn’t! And this is just the beginning, Michael. Don’t you understand how much you’ve changed, how much you’ve grown? When we get back to Aotearoa, we’ll have to make our stand there too.’

Then she was gone, running through Customs, a whirlwind of beauty and strength.

I turned to Franklin.

‘Goodbye, Fairy Godmother,’ I said.

‘It’s been an honour, Michael.’

I turned to Lang, Sterling and Wandisa.

‘Be strong,’ I said. ‘You all have a long and hard road ahead of you, but together you’ll get there.’

Lang laughed.

‘Are you talking to us? We don’t know each other. We only happen to be standing next to each other. I’m a mountain Indian.’

A few hours later, I exchanged the cool of Canada for the heat of Texas. The first person I saw when I got off the plane was Amiria. Who could miss her? She was as big as a house.

‘I’m pregnant,’ she wailed as she hugged me.

‘Gee, Sis, tell me something I don’t know,’ I said.

‘I can’t even fit behind the steering wheel any longer.’

I saw Tyrone, grinning from ear to ear. I shook his hand and whispered:

‘I suppose it’s twins, right?’

‘Even better,’ he said. ‘Triplets. I was wondering how I was going to keep Amiria off the freeways. Have you seen her drive? Man, she’s lethal — still hasn’t remembered which side of the road she should be on. Now she’ll be so busy with the kids and America will be able to breathe easy.’

Tyrone and Amiria’s uptown apartment was lavishly decorated and had a balcony view of the city to die for. In the early evening Tyrone excused himself, and left for work at the casino.

‘Anyhow,’ he said, ‘I’d only be in the way. You two have a lot to talk about.’

Amiria and I sat on the balcony and watched the sun go down. Amiria told me about her life in Texas and how everybody was overjoyed about the triplets, especially Tyrone’s ex-girlfriend.

‘She thinks this is her chance to get Tyrone back. No way! All he wants to do at nights is to come home, put his head against my tummy and listen to the three little buggers fighting in there. He goes all cross-eyed and goofy-looking, and he’s full of plans for them. I can’t stand it!’

Amiria made dinner and we sat in the candelight munching on the diet to which the obstetrician had confined her: lettuce, carrots, fish, no dairy products or fatty foods whatsoever. I told her about my split with Jason, meeting Carlos, and Roimata’s proposal that we should think of getting married.

‘Give me that girl’s telephone number,’ Amiria said as the triplets kicked inside her. ‘There’s something somebody better warn her about fast .’

She gave me a quizzical look.

‘You’re moving, aren’t you Michael. I can see it in the way you are, the way you look, the way you act. It’s like you were in soft focus before you came out. Now you’re more defined, more clear, more purposeful. I can see you now.’

Amiria, my twin, had always been able to go straight to the heart of things.

‘Yes,’ I nodded. ‘I think you’re right. It’s taken me some time, but right now, I have embraced being gay. I’m no longer scared of it or ashamed of it. I’m glad of it and proud of it. And —’

‘And?’

I stood up. I looked at the darkening city.

‘Amiria, it has to stop. All this hatred of gay men and women. All the pain that it causes. I can help make the difference. I have to get out there in the front line.’

‘Mum and Dad won’t like that. I was talking to Mum on the telephone last week. I told her you were coming to see me. She and Dad are hoping for a reconciliation.’

‘That’s what they say, but that’s not what they want. What they want is for me to go home and tell them I’m sorry, I’ll be a good boy and that I won’t do it again. But that’s not the way it’s going to be, Sis. They’re going to have to accept me as I am. On my own terms.’

By late evening Amiria and I were like old lovers. There was only one last thing to tell her. I breathed in deep, saw the stars spinning in the night sky and began.

‘Amiria, I need to tell you about someone you don’t know. He was our uncle. His name was Sam —’

That night, speaking Uncle Sam’s story to Amiria, singing and crying his story into the dawn, was the First Telling.

I had a wonderful few days with Amiria. She and Tyrone had an invitation to go to the opening of the Dan Flavin art installation down at Marfa, and they insisted I go with them. We booked into the El Paisano Hotel, where the cast of Giant had stayed while making the film. Amiria and Tyrone had Elizabeth Taylor’s room, I had James Dean’s, and I imagined Auntie Pat’s face when I told her. The Flavin installation was stunning — awe-inspiring fluorescent gateways illuminating tunnels of darkness. All too soon, however, it was time to go home.

‘Will you come back?’ Amiria asked.

‘I’ll come when the triplets are born.’

We hugged and kissed. Amiria didn’t want to let me go.