14. AT THE HOUSE

At the house Liyan was terribly bored. She didn't dislike the big bedroom painted green with a big window on the very green pointed hills. But the whole house was so cold, so naked, so much not pretty. That's it, so much not pretty. That's what she'd tell F-sharp when she sees her again.

She had met Victoria, Jim's wife, the day before when she came home from her office work in town. Straight as a pole, dressed in somber looks and without warmth, Victoria did not share Jim's passion for sheep. She was an accountant. She worked in an office without windows all day long while Jim was running the hills on his 4WD bike behind the ewes. They had in common three little girls, a piano, a computer and debts. Loads of debts. The threat of financial disaster was weighing hard on everything they did and said.

The evening meal done with in fifteen minutes, the family scattered in the bedrooms and Elle joined Liyan back in hers.

- "Pity we left F-sharp in Auckland!" Liyan said.

- "And the camera", Elle added.

They were cold. Houses in this country are built in papier machey, Elle thought. Not even able to insulate them from the outside temperature, she went on annoyed. Hidden in her sleeping bag, she let her thoughts run loose to Motueka. Was Him still there? Would she see him again one day? She recalled his eyes, his built, his hair, his hands.

- "One day at smoko he was sitting in a spot where I couldn't see his face, I was looking at his hands caressing his coffee cup... are you listening, Liyan?"

The little doll had fallen asleep. The fresh air of Hamilton's hills, no doubt.

Elle went on remembering. How she had had the feeling of belonging to him. How he had seemed so possessive the day Gary drove past in his battered old truck blowing this horn, on the road by the orchard. Gary always parked his old vehicle up behind the kitchen to make sure he could get it started down the hill. He lived in romm 5 next to the kitchen and he was mate with everyone. Elle told herself she would not stand a man who would make a scene whenever she'd greet another one passing by. She had to find major defects to Him. Get rid of this mad urge she had to do anything to see him again.