After that year Pearly didn’t think much of the coach’s advice, and for the next two years he flatted happily with Snoz Gazler and two other friends who weren’t rugby players. The place they had wasn’t as comfortable as Forth Street, but they valued one another, formed a small clan in a casual, almost brotherly manner. Pearly kept in touch afterwards with all three, especially Snoz, but he never met Puff or Chas again to talk to after leaving the university, although he occasionally heard of Puff’s upward career curve and Chas’s downward spiral. He did once afterwards see Chas — well, he thought it was him. Not in a pub or at a big match, as you might expect, but at the kids’ playground on the Wanaka lakefront. Pearly was there with Kevin and Leanne, and he saw Chas standing by the dinosaur slide, smoking and watching the children, one of whom was presumably his. He didn’t look too bad, despite the stories of heavy drinking and a broken marriage, but Pearly had kept well back. What could he say to him that wasn’t false or accusatory? A year in the same house and team had proved only that their personalities were mutually repellent. Talking to each other would make no difference to that.

FOURTEEN

Rob Prendergast died. It wasn’t unexpected, but Pearly’s sadness was tinged with guilt because he’d meant to call round and see him again. The Prendergasts had sent a card when Pearly was re-elected, and he had responded personally. The Prendergasts were the sort of citizens he wished to see proliferate rather than decline. He held no grudge against them for the attack by their dog. He wondered how Jill would cope without the company and support of such a good husband.

The 10 a.m. funeral service was held at an undertaker’s parlour insufficiently spacious to contain the mourners. Latecomers stood crowded together at the back behind the seating, some even outside, surrounding the gleaming black body of the hearse. Members of the family spoke or read Rob’s favourite poetry. The head librarian gave a solemn eulogy, but Barry Harte came closer to true commemoration through personal anecdotes. He remembered Rob’s dismay at nudging another car in the golf club’s vehicle park, and Rob coming to his office to arrange an anonymous donation of $5000 to a solo mother with a Down syndrome son.