Chapter 4: Hitting the Wall

And so it went for much of the rest of the holidays.

Aapi and me worked on the new house with Frank almost every day, Robyn, Pauline, and sometimes Alison came for a day or two’s work most weeks, and I managed to get together with Pauline in my bed every few days. By the time we were almost due to return to our respective schools in early February, the Kingsland house had been transformed and was very nearly ready to rent. Mary’s World was providing regular and well paid employment for the members of our study group, and a steady income for Emma and Frank. That was just as well, because Frank had been putting huge amounts of time, energy and money into the Kingsland house, and had neglected his jobbing carpenter business, even though he had some jobs that were not yet completed.

Matters came to a head at the beginning of the week before school started. Frank and Emma had taken the weekend off from Mary’s World, leaving members of the study group to handle Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights with Robyn in charge. Emma’s employer had set up a ‘Conference’ in Rotorua which was actually a way to reward high performing staff for their efforts, since the State Advances Corporation didn’t pay bonuses. Frank had gone along as her partner, and they had been looking forward to a weekend of relaxing in hot pools, making love, and playing ‘thermal tourist’.

That had all been fine, until Frank had opened some mail he had collected just before he joined Emma for the four hour drive to Rotorua. As he later put it, ‘that was the first mistake’. It was unexpected and very bad news. He hadn’t wanted to share it with Emma for fear of spoiling the weekend, and that (as he later acknowledged), ‘was the second mistake’. Frank discovered he was in strife financially.

There were three letters. The first was from the insurance company covering the two houses, telling him that the cheques he had given them to cover the premiums had bounced, telling him that the cover was suspended, and telling him that they had informed the Bank that held the mortgages of this change in status. The second letter was from the Bank, informing him that since our house in Grafton/Newmarket was no longer insured, he was in breach of the terms of the mortgage, and giving him 30 days to ‘remedy the deficiency’ or blah de blah de blah. The third letter was also from the Bank. It was addressed to the partnership he and Emma had paid Marylyn Rowe to set up. It pretty much duplicated the letter about the Grafton/Newmarket house, but concerned the new one in Kingsland.

And Frank didn’t tell Emma. Instead, he withdrew into worry and depression, and they both had a miserable weekend. He eventually told her what was troubling him during the drive back to Auckland on Sunday night, and they had a fight that lasted for more than an hour. They had not resolved the issue of Frank’s failure to ‘front up’ earlier, or what to do in practical terms by the time they arrived at Mary’s World as we were all cleaning up after closing on Sunday night. They were really tired and deeply unhappy, both with each other, and with the financial crisis. Alison took control. I think Frank and Emma were all ‘argued out’, and the rest of us had no idea how to deal with the situation, so everyone let her.

“You guys are both really tired and so are all of us.” She looked around, but no one was about to challenge that statement. “We aren’t partners, but we do all have some sort of stake in the whole business. None of us are in any condition to sort anything out tonight. We should park this whole discussion until tea time tomorrow and carry on exactly as planned in the meantime. I’m not working tomorrow, who is?” Aapi and me nodded, Pauline shook her head, and Robyn looked doubtful. Alison turned to Frank. “Have you got other work – beside Kingsland?”

“Yes, but I want to get it ready to rent.”

“A day isn’t going to make any difference. Suppose you do the other work tomorrow. That will bring in some dough.” She turned to me. “Do you guys know what needs doing tomorrow?” Aapi and I nodded together, and Alison went on. “I’ll cook dinner tomorrow at Newmarket. Six thirty?” Everyone indicated agreement, but Frank and Emma continued to look terrible.

I was emboldened by the memory of all the good advice Frank had given me. I spoke to him directly and to Emma indirectly.

“You have been doing your best, but you got so upset about finding you had fucked up with the finances that you didn’t follow your own advice.” Frank looked both thoughtful and sad. “You didn’t want to spoil the weekend – fair enough! That intent was caring and loving.” I was watching Emma from the corner of my eye, and noted that she had relaxed slightly, so I went on. “But you couldn’t pull it off. You were worried and blaming yourself, and you didn’t trust Emma’s feelings for you enough to bite the bullet and tell her what was going on.” Again, I saw Emma nod very slightly. “That was stupid and perhaps hurtful.”

Emma’s nod was emphatic. “Both!” Frank recoiled and started to bristle very slightly.

I reached out and put my hand on his arm. “You’ve always advised me to front up. The financial problem is certainly distressing, but the main problem is between you and Emma and it is about you holding out on her and the hurt that causes. That’s the important bit.” Emma’s nod was again emphatic and Frank also nodded, so I went on some more. “You need to get right about that.” Frank took a big breath and reached out for Emma’s hand.

For a second or two I thought she was going to push him away, but she sighed and took it. “It was the not trusting me that hurt. That’s the big one. I don’t really give a rat’s arse about the money. You think that’s the big deal but it’s not. My clients fuck up all the time. I don’t get to deal with anyone unless they’re behind on their mortgage payments. That’s why they’re my clients.”

They eyeballed each other and after a few seconds, both of them started to tear up. Robyn sent them home to Emma’s, and after checking Aapi had a key for the Kingsland house, she gave us payslips and cash for our work on the three nights she had been in charge for, cashed up and locked up.

No one had thought about what should happen next. Aapi had his bike, and usually either Frank or Emma would drop me and the others home. But this weekend they had been away and since the busses stopped running an hour before closing time, we had walked. So Aapi rode off into the night, and me and the three girls set off together. After half a mile or so, I went off to the east to the Grafton/Newmarket house while they went west around the base of the mountain to their various places.

From this distance, more than fifty years later, it seems almost unbelievable that a trio of fifteen year old girls could be allowed to walk home through their suburb after midnight, especially with one of them carrying cash equivalent to six week’s wages, but New Zealand was a very different place in 1961. At least we thought it was.

I didn’t hear anything to the contrary until the following morning, when Robyn turned up at the Kingsland house as Aapi and I were starting to deal with the overgrown garden.

She was not happy. “It all turned to shit last night.”

At first, I didn’t understand. “I thought Alison handled things pretty well.”

“No, not that. Just after we split from you, we got hassled.”

“Shit! What happened?”

“We were only a couple of hundred yards from my corner, where I turn off and Pauline and Alison keep going on round the mountain. A car with four guys in it coming the other way slowed right down when they saw us. Then they turned around and started to follow us. They came up really close behind us for a start, then pulled alongside, and started to call out all sorts of shit.”

“Like the Ruggerbuggers at the demo over South Africa?”

“No. The rugby guys didn’t want sex. They wanted to humiliate us. These guys really wanted to fuck us. We ignored them, but they kept on asking us to go with them and promising to give us a good time. One of them kept describing what he wanted to do to us. It was scary!”

“Shit! What did you do?”

“Ignored them and walked faster. Just as we got to my corner, they stopped the car and piled out. They left the engine running and the doors open and stood in front of us about ten feet away. We stopped. At that stage I suddenly went from being pissed off to being scared. For a few seconds I didn’t know what to do. Then Alison started yelling really loud. That sort of activated me and Pauline. We all yelled at them as loud as we could.” Robyn had been fairly calm when she started her story, but the memory was still live, and by now she was clearly upset.

Aapi moved closer and put his hand on her arm. “What did you yell?”

“Alison just yelled ‘Help!’, but I was yelling ‘Fuck off! Leave us alone!’. I don’t remember about Pauline at first, but after Alison had screamed ‘Help!’ a few times, Pauline and I both started to shout ‘Help! Rape!’.”

“What did the guys do?”

“Nothing at first. They were just standing on the footpath in front of us. I couldn’t really see the expressions on their faces. There were a few dim lights on in the houses, but apart from the streetlight on the corner, it was pretty dark. Then someone must have heard us yelling, ‘cos a porch light came on in the nearest house. When they saw that, the shitheads scrambled back in their car and roared off.”

“Could you see their number plate?”

“No. As soon as they were leaving and it was all over, I felt really shaky, and Pauline started to cry. Alison sorta shepherded us to my place. It wasn’t far. She made us hurry, but wouldn’t let us run.”

“How did they get home from your place?”

“Mum and Allan were in bed, and I woke them up to ask if I could use her car to take the others home. She insisted on the full story, and then we both took Pauline and Alison home. Mum was really unhappy, and there’ll be shit coming about the whole business.”

There was. Aapi and Pauline had quit work early on the Monday, and had come back to the Newmarket house for a ‘rest’ while Alison casseroled mutton chops, and they emerged from the shower looking happy as she served them up with snap frozen peas and mashed potatoes. She wouldn’t let us start the discussion until we had finished, cleaned up, and adjourned to the parlour.

Frank started. “Emma and me are sorted.” He looked toward Alison. “Thanks!” I felt slightly miffed that Alison was getting all the credit for helping Frank and Emma, but while I was deciding whether to say anything, Frank went on. “But now we have another problem. Last night was a wake up call!”

Emma nodded. “Was it what!” She looked at Robyn. “Your mum was on the phone to me this morning. She gave me an earful!”

Robyn looked slightly embarrassed. “She told me I wasn’t allowed to work at ‘Mary’s World’ any more, since I didn’t have enough sense to keep myself safe and you were out to lunch with your new man!” Emma reddened slightly and Alison chimed in.

“Dad’s away on the road, and that’s just as well. I’m hoping Mum won’t tell him and make a fuss, but she wasn’t happy either.” She looked at Pauline. “You managed to keep it together until they got back in their car and buggered off – but you seemed pretty upset.”