Business had improved at the garage. There were more vehicles on the road, and Lou now had a position for a trainee. This place was what Oriwia had offered Lani on the dress-ripping, cupboard-scrubbing day, and which he accepted – or which Aki quickly accepted on his tongue-tied son’s behalf. Lani was settled in at the garage. Binnie was keeping the books for both businesses and helping with the baking. And there was a ‘delicious baby’ who was ‘all of life’ to Oriwia.

Though she was still impatient to see Chappy back with the family, business, weddings and a baby were all distractions for Oriwia as Chappy’s applications for Hawaiian residency and citizenship made their slow way forward.

Despite the near-throttling Chappy had undergone at the hands of Noddy, he’d felt greatly moved by the warmth and love shown to him by the people on both wedding occasions. It convinced him that he should be at home. But still he needed papers. He had to be a person, one with a name, a country and a livelihood, who depended on no one else. He was prepared to wait.

‘Forever?’ Oriwia asked.

But then something happened which caused Oriwia to think she shouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to bring Chappy home.

In the winter of 1964, two years after Daphne was married, Paa died.

As soon as they were able, Chappy and Aki boarded a plane for home, coming in to Wellington through a bank of cloud. This broke around them as they made their way, coatless, across the tarmac. A numbing wind, whipped up from southern oceans, accompanied the downpour.

They were met at the airport by relatives and driven first to Ti’s house, a short distance from the airport, where Ti was waiting for them with hot food and dry clothes. But the cold had already made its way into Chappy’s bones.

In the early afternoon, Aki and Chappy arrived in the doorway of the house of mourning. From where she sat, Oriwia could see the mottled, bruise-coloured hue of her husband’s skin. It was because of a plane journey, which elongated time and stretched out his insides, she thought. It was because of cold. It was because of sorrow.

The sounds of weeping and wailing broke in waves as the men made their way to the open casket – arrayed as it was in fine cloaks and precious ornaments – but it was the sorry sight of her husband more than Paa’s death that brought deep sounds from Oriwia at that moment. She moved aside to allow Chappy in next to the casket and sat, holding him.

Dorothea, on the other side, moved so that Aki could sit there. The lamenting subsided, the speeches of welcome began, after which those gathered came in a line to share their sorrowing with these latest arrivals.