The Lost Tohunga Read Online Free PDF

embarrassed and ashamed. ‘Think so. Sorry, Ko. Can’t hold my drink, huh?’
    â€˜At least you made it to the bog, lovey. More than bloody Brutal managed. He just chucked up in the lounge and then took hisself out for a smoke. Guess who had to clean it up?’ They exchanged hopeless looks. The Saturday morning comedown. Last night the house had been rocking, but now itslumbered in a silent haze. Hine gazed back down the hallway she had crawled along, to where the front door was ajar. Some guy was there, unconscious. She wondered blearily how many others were lying about the house amidst the trash and empties. ‘What’s the time, Ko?’
    â€˜Just gone midday, lovey. Ronnie’s gone to work, bless him. Brutal’s out back, and everyone else is taking off as soon as they wake up so’s to dodge the cleanin’ up. Evan awake yet?’
    Hine hoped not. ‘Don’t think so.’
    â€˜Amount of rum he knocked back last night, he should be out cold ’til Christmas.’
    â€˜You want a hand in the kitchen, darl?’
    Ko looked back at her wearily. ‘Nah. I need some fresh air. Let’s go for a walk, eh?’
    â€˜But there’s gonna be another bash tonight. Evan’ll want—’
    â€˜You worry too much ’bout what he wants, girl. Let’s go for a walk. Brandi-babe needs to get outta this house. And Filli, too.’
    Hine got unsteadily to her feet, and crept back to her bedroom, which echoed to Evan’s snores. She slipped in, grabbed clothes from a pile in the corner, and crept out. Evan’s hard face was softened in repose, his mouth open and dribbling into his spiky goatee. His bare chest was covered in heavy-metal tattoos, all spikes and swirls. He said he was part-Maori, but he looked Pakeha. At twenty-nine, he was eleven years her senior. The man who had rescued her. She prayed she hadn’t woken him.
    She dressed in the bathroom, eyeing the stranger in the mirror uneasily. She had been slim and pretty once, she vaguely recalled. Her tummy had been flat and her limbs taut. Her skin had been clear and her hair shiny. All the boys at Rotorua High School had wanted to date her. She had been happy, anddreamt of Olympic swimming medals and modelling.
    Her stepfather had changed all that one night, when he had held her face down on the mattress, sobbing that it was her fault. Glenn Bale … He had done it again whenever her mother turned her back, so she had run away. Bale had tracked her down, but when he had tried to drag her into his car, Evan had stepped in, bashed ‘Gentle Glenn’, and taken Hine home. She had been so grateful for her rescue she had not noticed that all she had done was swap jailers.
    Now she had aged, and her hair looked like a rat’s nest. Her eyes were sullen. She hugged herself and shook silently, trying to stop the girl in the mirror from crying.
    Finally, she dressed. The tee was too tight and the trackies were baggy. I look like a tramp . She dragged her fingers through her hair, pinched her cheeks, and slipped out. A half-empty pack of ciggies lay in the hallway, and she pocketed them. The man at the front door had gone. She glanced into the lounge: cigarette haze and empties everywhere. The stained carpet squelched as she picked her way into the kitchen, where Ko was dressing her children. Three-year-old Brandi was sitting on the floor fiddling with an empty beer bottle. Filli, who was eight months, was lying on the table while Ko finished changing her nappy. Ko’s partner, Ronnie, was Samoan, and the two kids took after him. Ko passed Hine a huge hoodie, about five sizes too big for her, which she burrowed into. ‘You ’kay, lovey?’ Ko asked. ‘Grab the pram and we’ll do a runner, eh.’
    They made it past the main bedroom without Evan’s snore faltering. Whoever was awake was in the back yard so the coast was clear. They wedged Filli into the old pram, and