Find Me (Trust Me, Find Me 2)

“I met Rawiri working on the waka. He seems happy to be back.”

“Yeah, he’s a livewire, that one. His mum’s lives out in the wops. It’s a two hour round trip for them twice a week. Didn’t use to have much luck getting him here, but since the waka he’s back after every weekend.”

Over the next two hours he was introduced to all of the five boys.

In addition to Rawiri, there were twelve-year-old twins whose parents were dairy farmers way up north. The hostel was a home from home for them too, and they dumped their things in their rooms in record time, racing down to play on the games consul in the living room. Noah, a quiet seventeen-year-old, joined them a short while later with Mateo, another older boy. He raised an eyebrow towards Shaun.

“Who’s the Pom, eh?”

Ari bristled.

“This is Shaun. He’ll be staying here, helping me. In case the baby comes in the night and I have to go to the hospital with Michelle.”

“Good to meet you.”

Shaun extended his hand. Mateo stood motionless. He was easily the largest school student there. Six four and broad.

“I’m eighteen. We don’t need no Pakeha babysitter.”

“We’re not going into this now, Mateo,” Ari batted back breezily. “Principal Kara has kindly employed Shaun to help me out. And that means I get to spend a little time with Michelle and the baby when he or she makes an appearance.”

“What’s Pakeha?” Shaun asked quietly.

Ari’s eyes met his.

“White man.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t stress. He’ll come ‘round. And we’ll soon whip ya into shape. Get rid of that Pommy accent of yours and have ya talkin’ like a Kiwi.”

Mateo made a small huffing sound as Ari started recounting his trauma of assembling the new cot he’d bought the day before.

“What’s Mateo’s problem? Is it me?” Shaun asked once he and Ari were alone in the kitchen again.

“Ah, ignore that. He likes to think that he’s my right-hand man.”

Ari went over to the fridge.

“So, now everyone’s here, we’ll get the show on the road, eh? And get these snags on the barbie.”

“Snags?”

“Yeah, man. Sunday sausage sizzle.”

Ari laughed at Shaun’s mystified face and handed him a bag of onions to peel and slice.

“Welcome to New Zealand, my friend,”

It was after ten when Shaun finally had a moment to himself. The boys were all in their rooms, but not before they’d consumed a mountain of sausage and fried onion sandwiches, run off afterwards with a good hour of touch rugby.

Shaun had piled in and Rawiri had run the socks off him, but even Ari admitted he wasn’t bad for a Pom. Mateo even grudgingly started passing Shaun the ball.

He lay back on his single bed. The place might be on a different continent and in a different context, but hostel living was familiar ground after the years in social care and then the army. He liked it here he decided, closing his eyes. Ari was generous and welcoming, and they were a good bunch of boys.

In a couple of days Claire would be arriving at the Lake Lodge. She’d be starting her journey soon. He tried to block it from his mind but his stomach churned at the thought that she would be near him again.

He’d bought a ute for her to use before he left. It was nothing fancy, but it would mean that she could drive safely over the rough tracks to town when she needed supplies.

He reached for his phone and texted her. He couldn’t help it, his heart pounded when he pictured her reading it.

He so needed to get a grip.

‘Have a good flight. Shaun’

He stretched over and reached for Jake’s diary in his bag.

‘Jake Saunders’ was written carefully in capitals on the inside of the front cover. Inside, the writing was spidery but easy to read once he got used to it.

The first entry under January 1st was dated January 7th. And seeing as there were only a couple of entries in the whole book, Jake hadn’t been much of a diarist. He’d given up writing before the end of the first month. Still, Shaun was curious. What was Jake’s life at the lodge like?

January 7th

‘Mikey McCloud at the station asked me to keep this diary since the last comings and goings. It’s evidence, Mikey says. If you’re not me reading this, forgive the spellings and bad grammar. I’m no scholar.’

Shaun smiled. Neither was he.

‘After Constable Harris drove up to the camp in the forestry, I’ve not seen hide nor hair of those Cobras thugs.

Been a peachy New Year week and the lake’s been buzzing. Some kids up from town camped New Year’s Eve and did a fair bit of boozing, letting off a bit of steam. They were good kids though. Cleaned up after themselves before they left. I’d give my eye teeth to be that age again. There’s been a lot of boats out on the lake and a fair few families up here in the daytime, swimming and having picnics.

Been into town for supplies today. Got me some feed for the chooks and enough groceries to last a couple of weeks, now I’m getting new visitors staying with me.

Rowdy, the rooster’s still playing up. Wish I never agreed to have him off Frank. He’s a rum bird that one, alright. I’m sure Frank passed him off to me so as he could get a lie-in. The so-and-so’s waking me up at six every morning. And the worst of it is that I can’t bloody catch the little blighter to take him back.

Frank’s pesky rooster, Shaun chuckled. Some things hadn’t changed. But who were the Cobras?

The snake sprayed on the boarded-up door was a cobra too. Was the graffiti marking their territory? How long had it been there?

He put Jake’s diary down onto the floor by the bed. Jake had written that the police had sorted the Cobras out, and he’d not seen hardly anyone apart from a couple of fishermen with boats in the couple of months he’d lived there. The gang was probably long gone by now.

His phone pinged, making him jump. Hardly anyone knew his number.

He pulled it quickly from the charger to read the text.

‘Thank you, Mr Cobain. I’m super-excited about coming to NZ. I look forward to finally meeting you.’

His stomach flipped. Mr Cobain. It sounded so formal. So excited to be coming out here. And so unsuspecting of who her boss really was.

The gnawing in his gut unsettled him. He never got like this, nervy and nauseous. It was real now. She would finally be with him again.

He put it down to the fear that she’d freak out and leave when she found out who exactly Mr Cobain was. He hated deceiving her. But he was only doing this to keep her safe.

He hoped she’d see it that way.

All he wanted, he told himself, was to have one chance to talk things through with her, tell her what really happened that night at the farmhouse. Anything more was too much to hope for.

Chapter 11

---------?---------

“I can’t believe I’ve slept for fifteen hours straight!”

I’m embarrassed to find myself in my pyjamas in front of Celia.

But she laughs it off as she strolls into the Lake Lodge kitchen.

I check the clock on the wall and cringe. It’s three in the afternoon, for goodness sake!

Celia sets an apple pie she’s baked for me onto the counter-top.

“Ah, thank you. That’s so kind.”

Smoothing my bed-head hair down, I go to fill the kettle.

“Sorry, about this. Guess my body’s not set up for time travel.”

“No worries, honey. That ole’ jetlag’s a bugger, I’ve heard.”

“What a view!”

I almost drop the mug as I take in the lake.

I’d feasted on the lake view last night at dusk. You can’t exactly miss it. And I’d done a quick nosy scoot around the lodge too, but I was so exhausted that within half an hour I’d crashed out, fast asleep.

But now, going through to the lounge area with our mugs of tea, I can s

ee the full vista of the lake in the sunshine through those wonderful full-length shuttered windows.

“It’s so beautiful here.”

I’m already eyeing up the route along the shoreline where I’ll go for a run later.

“And quiet. If you need anything, you give me a call, love. And you’ll be coming over to our house for supper tomorrow, I hope?”

“You sure? I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”

“You’re not. So I take that as a yes, then?”

“Yes! Thanks Celia.”

My new neighbour smiles back at me.

We chat for a while, talking about Greece and my whistle-stop tour of Italy, and I get my camera out to show her.

“You take a pretty good photo. I love that one of the coloured houses on the cliffs.”

“Cinque Terra. It was amazing. I went out on a boat to take those.”

“You need to take some of the lake.”

“Oh, I will. In the morning, when the light’s best. Not that I’ve seen it yet.”