‘I realise that,’ said Nancy. ‘It’s a big ask, but it’s for the old school, and we need all the best people to ensure success. We’d expect you to delegate most of the time-consuming stuff. It’s the ability to motivate and the higher management vision that’s so important in this sort of position. You understand that. And having the mayor head it up would send all the right messages.’

‘I may not be mayor by the time of the reunion.’

‘It wouldn’t make any difference,’ said Nancy. ‘And I can promise to rally a fine team behind you, but I don’t think it appropriate for me as board chair to lead the organising committee as well.’

‘Well, I’d need to have a good say on who else comes on.’ He didn’t want to be saddled with a bunch all like Porteous. One would be too many, but probably unavoidable. Pearly said he’d have a think about it and talk it over with Helen. He was already won, and Nancy knew it. Both of them were satisfied.

Afterwards he worked for a while in his study. Council business rather than his own, but he was distracted by the itch and tenderness on his ankle caused by the Prendergasts’ dog. Helen had used a disinfectant, but he was still a little anxious — all those germs that a dog might have. He put his foot up on the other chair and gently massaged the redness around the dressing on the broken skin. And he thought of Rob at the museum, watching his wife sorting historical photographs, still supporting community causes despite awareness of the cancer deep within him. He thought also of the time his father had been crushed by a steer in the yards and suffered several broken ribs, the pain on his face caused by even the most shallow breathing. Pearly’s sporting career had been cut short by an accumulation of injuries, several to his left knee, which was now restricted in flexion and subject to arthritis. Everyone said he could have been an All Black, and although he never made the claim openly himself, he never contradicted it. Two of his representative teammates had made it. Just one game would have been enough for Pearly. Just to be able to say he’d played as an All Black. The enduring, unacknowledged grievance of that exclusion was with him as he gently pulled the sock back over his ankle and then turned again to his desk.

SEVEN