First of all, Oriwia went to the Department of Immigration armed with her marriage certificate. She wanted to end this nonsense once and for all and get Chappy home as soon as possible. But it was a mistake to go there with the truth. She should not have told the story of how her husband had disappeared during wartime, been imprisoned and deported. She should have lied, she said.

The woman behind the counter twisted her mouth sideways, breath blowing out of a gap in the corner of it as though she were avoiding blowing smoke in Oriwia’s face. Her eyes went in the opposite direction to her mouth. Oriwia thought that behind the counter at floor level, hidden from view, could’ve been a pair of shoes two sizes too small, twisting the woman’s feet and making her face screw. The woman asked if Oriwia had married an illegal immigrant, an enemy alien. ‘Did he jump ship?’ she asked, pouncing. ‘Plenty of them around those days. Pommies. Portuguese.’

Afraid that if she took this matter any further it could lead to an investigation, Oriwia left there biting her tongue. She decided to turn her attention to ‘Japan is not loved.’

While Oriwia was in Hawai‘i, Chappy told her the story – written down earlier under the heading of ‘Chappy on the Run’ – of his going off and finding himself in a market-gardening region south of Auckland. After he had cycled away from that first town followed by thrown rocks and Ching Chong chanting, he was like one of the itinerants of earlier years, a roadie seeking work. The weather was becoming cooler.

However, he was given employment here and there in exchange for a meal or a coin, though he wasn’t given accommodation – not that he had asked for it. He was always sent on his way before dark, often with dogs at his heels. He’d look for a place to spend the night – in bush, under a bridge or in a doorway of an unused building – always knowing that he could be discovered and imprisoned at any moment. He was not afraid of being arrested now that he was away from his family, and thought that if his situation became too bad he would present himself at a police station. But he was determined to remain free for as long as he could, because what he did fear was deportation and never seeing his wife, his daughters and his family again.

What Chappy didn’t know at the time was that the words Paa had called to him on the night he left were true – that people would think he was a China Man. It was this mistaken idea that people had about his origins that was helping him to evade custody. Chows were all right in their place, people said. Just leave them alone. They worked hard and didn’t need much pay because they lived on the smell of an oily rag.