Chapter 15

David and Grace Anderson saw very little of Hineahuone Te Wherowhero over the next few months ... breakfast, dinner and the back of her head.

Breakfast was generally, "I only have time for coffee." Slurp Guzzle Gulp "Ahhh bye."

Dinner was a little more mannerly, "Good evening, Grace, David. Ooo that looks good." Gnash Rip Tear Clatter Scrape "Thanks." Burp

"I'm in the study." or, "I'm at the library," was followed by the slam of her books on her desk or the slam of the door on her way to the library. Sometimes the Andersons had to fetch her from the library because she was found asleep in the stacks. Waking her and expecting her to leave did no good whatsoever.

"Andersons."

"Yeah. She's ours. We'll come and get her."

Both Grace and David had to go because Hineahuone's car couldn't spend the night in the library lot.

Sometimes she fell asleep at her desk at home.

"David?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"She's sleeping, carry her to bed."

Hineahuone always slung her arms around his neck ... one could tell she was used to being carried to bed ... she burrowed her face into the toter's neck and mumbled ... it was cute ... and when she woke up in her jammies she always wondered how she ended up in bed and who undressed her. David held her up while Grace stripped and dressed her. Grace said it was good practice for parenting, David said it was excellent erection control.

There were times when she woke up in the middle of the night terrified. Those nights she crawled into bed with the Andersons ... why was she terrified? She couldn't ... or wouldn't ... say ... but she was an indiscriminate cuddlier when she slept with the Andersons and neither of them took advantage so it didn't matter to anyone. Lightning terrified her and there were times that she knew something bad either had happened to someone or something during the night or was going to happen ... soon.

Her studies frustrated her ... so many lies.

"I don't know a damn thing about the United States ... what I mean is ... I don't know this United States," she whined as she waved the American History 210 study book. "The American History I know is what they taught in New Zealand.

"In THIS book, you guys are all sweetness, goodness and innocent of any wrong doing," She slapped the 210 book. "What we were learning was the genocide side of America ... Trail of Tears stuff, Slavery in the South, Wounded Knee."

"And Cather ... and her crap. The statements she made in the stories she wrote. She knew that the Great Plains she knew had never been set foot upon by humans ... and she wrote that with absolute conviction. The first human to ever step on that soil. What a load of shit ... the indians were stomping all over that prairie for centuries!"

She picked up American faster than anyone had expected. She referred to herself as multilingual ... English, Gaelic, Maori and American. The Treaty of Waitangi promised that te Maori, (The language of the people) would be faithfully taught uncorrupted by its teachers. And it was. Latin alphabet and all.