“Or not,” I say, somewhat gloomily. But I don’t want to talk about that again. “What did you mean when you said you both needed that today?”
She sighs and stuffs the empty wrappers back into her bag. “We were at my parents’ place. Mark and Nina had come to visit because my dad came home yesterday.”
“Oh, well that’s good, right? They wouldn’t have sent him home if they didn’t think he was well enough to cope?”
“Yeah… although you always wonder if they need the beds. His wound is still infected. I’m not reassured by them saying it’s minor and superficial. It looks horrible.”
Of course, I forgot that they wouldn’t be paying privately. New Zealand has a free healthcare system, and Joe’s heart bypass wouldn’t have cost him a single cent, which I’m sure is a huge relief to them. But the staff is overworked, the wait times are horrendous, and the follow-up care isn’t as good as it should be, from what I hear. No fault of the doctors and nurses. Just not enough money in the system.
I sense there’s something she’s not telling me. I glance at Thea to make sure she’s not within earshot, but she’s sitting on the grass, watching the rabbits playing beneath the trees.
“So… Mark was there… was the atmosphere not good?”
Chessie unscrews the top from a bottle of water, has a few mouthfuls, wipes the top, then offers it to me. I take it and do the same and hand it back to her, and she screws the lid back on. I can see she’s thinking about whether to share something with me.
Eventually, she sighs and says, “It turns out he owes another five thousand.”
My eyebrows rise. I’ve been thinking a lot about what she told me, and her statement that it’s almost what Mark makes in a year. It’s a significant amount of money for the family to find.
“He admitted he only borrowed a thousand,” she says softly. “The rest was interest and late payment fees.”
Anger flows through me. I can’t stand the type of people who make money from others’ misery and weakness. “Fuck.”
“Yeah.” She lifts her hands to her hair, extracts the elastic band, and lets the red locks tumble around her shoulders. “Dad’s really angry. I’ve never heard him criticize Mark, even after everything he’s done, but he laid into him this morning. Nina was upset. And I didn’t want Thea to see them arguing, so I took her out.” She picks up a stone and examines it, then tosses it away with some force so that it bounces off a tree. “It’s all so hopeless,” she says bitterly.
I don’t want to insult her again, but equally I can’t let her get upset when it’s such an easy problem to fix. “Please,” I murmur, “let me help.”
She lets out a heartfelt sigh and rests her face in her hands for a long, long time. I wonder whether she’s crying, but when she eventually lifts her head, her face is dry. Her eyes are bleak, though. “Thank you,” she says, glancing at me, “but I can’t.”
“Chessie, don’t let pride get in the way of a solution.”
“Pride is all I have. I’ll sort it.”
“How? I bet you’re already working a seventy-hour week.”
“That still leaves a whole day.”
“You can’t work without a break. That’s a sure way to make yourself sick. Believe me, that’s one of the first things I learned.”
“I can’t take your money, Kingi.” She speaks slowly, as if she’s thought about it and rehearsed what she’s going to say. “It’s very kind of you, and I was ungracious before, and I want toapologize for that. Yes, you could have phrased it better, but your offer was very sweet. I just can’t do it. My father wouldn’t want that either.”
“Even if it saved his house? And stopped his son getting his legs broken by some nutcase money lender?”
She bites her lip, but doesn’t say anything.
I’m lying on my side on the grass, and I prop my head on a hand. I might as well give it a try. What do I have to lose? “What about if we make a bargain?”
She frowns. “What kind of bargain?”
“I give you money. Enough to pay off Mark’s debt and all the money lenders, mend your mower, and make sure everyone’s flush. Probably a hundred thousand?”
Her jaw drops. “Dollars?”
“Yeah. And in exchange, you give me something else.”
She glares at me. “I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
I stare at her, startled and indignant. “Fucking hell! Give me some credit!”