‘Greeny-blue, or bluey-green, with white facings,’ Oriwia told her friend, and went off to buy paint.

Oriwia also had letters to write and sponsorship forms to send to Chappy for his temporary visa. Residency would take much longer. Proof had to be given that she and Chappy had been together for more than a year so that the application could be dealt with more quickly. About their earlier marriage and the children they’d had together in New Zealand she said nothing, instead attaching letters of guarantee obtained from one of Ishy’s business contacts and a ship’s captain of Aki’s acquaintance.

Lani and Binnie came over in the weekends to help her paint; but there was something she didn’t know, to do with Lani and Binnie, which the couple had been discussing during her time away.

It was while she and her daughter were working side by side, standing on boxes painting windowsills, that Binnie broke the news that she and Lani were going to move to Auckland.

‘Definitely not,’ said Oriwia, letting paint drip.

‘We’ve had an offer and we’ve accepted,’ Binnie said.

‘You’re not taking my grandchildren to live in that rat-race.’

‘A big new place, a new restaurant. Lani as cook, second in charge, me as goods manager.’

‘People get murdered there.’

‘Oh, Mother.’

‘Oh, Mother, oh, Mother. Who’s going to look after the kids?’

‘I’ll work days, Lani’ll work nights.’

‘And what sort of life is that?’

‘A working life, Mother, just like your life.’

‘The children? What life for the children?’

‘And Father will be –’

‘Without his grandchildren … Anyway, how can Lani be second in charge? To hold that job you have to boss people around. He wouldn’t say boo to a goose.’

‘Mother.’

‘Mother, Mother … You’re not taking Noelani,’ she said.

‘Noelani can stay with you if she wants to,’ Binnie answered, ‘but we want to have her back in Auckland for her secondary schooling. We’re sending her to Queen Vic.’

Oriwia wondered if it was her own ambitious nature which sent them all away.

Noelani, who was ten years old at the time, stayed with Oriwia for three years before going to Auckland to complete her schooling. Oriwia couldn’t argue against it, as in her opinion the local high school had little to offer such a brilliant girl. She didn’t see much of Noelani, or any of them, from then on. Noelani spent her holidays with her parents as she was able to earn pocket money waitressing at the restaurant. At the end of her secondary school years, she went south to Otago University. Now Noelani was down there living her own life. That was Oriwia’s complaint with education. That was the price you paid.