this spot on your hand, keep it from getting infected. I can offer you …” He pulled out a ziplock bag. “Marvel superheroes or some blond Disney princess.”
“Elsa,” Hamish said. “I know,” he explained to me, “because Olivia watches it over and over. And then she sings the song. All the time.”
“Shh,” Matiu said with a grin, “or she’ll be doing it now.” He told me, “Olivia’s under the misapprehension that she’s been hiding her light under a bushel thus far, and must now express herself. It can be a noisy house.” He fastened a plaster onto my palm. “You get Thor. Very heroic. Very manly.”
I was aware of Fruitful, still in her chair, still saying nothing. I said, “Wait a second, will you? Fruitful’s wondering about Gilead, and I need to explain.” I needed to be sitting beside her for that, though. Beside her and Daisy. Where was Daisy?
I was thinking it, and then Daisy was in the room, her face composed, her expression shut down. She asked, “How’re you going with that, Matiu? Want me to take over?”
“Nah,” he said, bundling up the squares of kitchen towel he’d used to collect the many squares of gauze with which he’d been cleaning me up and chucking them in the rubbish, then putting the cap on the Dettol and going to wash his hands. “That should do him. You can check his knee, though.”
Daisy said, “May I talk to you, Gray? The rest of you should eat. Sorry it got late. Uh … need help finding things, Poppy?”
“No worries,” Poppy said. “We’re all good. Do what you need to do. Hamish, go tell Obedience and Olivia that it’s time for pizza, so please wash hands.”
I told Daisy, “Hang on. Don’t you think Fruitful should hear this as well?”
“Oh.” I could see it hadn’t even occurred to her. “Yes. Obviously.”
Fruitful said, “Obedience needs to hear, too.”
Obedience came down the stairs in time for that. Her hair was cut shorter as well, and she, like Fruitful, was wearing trousers. “Hear what?” she asked.
“Right,” Daisy said. “Well …” She lifted her hands and let them fall again. “I guess we’ll just … eat pizza and talk, then.”
“Good,” I said. “Because I need to know what your phone call was about, and then we need to make a plan.”
30
Puzzle Pieces
Daisy
I said, “Excuse me?” again. I felt like I’d been saying it ever since I’d met Gray. He was kind, yes. He also seemed to think he was responsible for the entire world. To say I wasn’t used to that would be an understatement.
He’d also kissed me. Twice. While I’d been in his lap. And it hadn’t been the way he’d kiss his sister.
And I hadn’t frozen, even though he’d grabbed me.
Why not?
Just now, though, Fruitful was looking anxious, and anyway, there was too much to do. Gray found books and cushions for kid-boosting on chairs, and Matiu and Poppy got the kids set up with pizza at the table, after which Poppy sighed and said, “I’m volunteering for child duty. Heroically. Only because Matiu’s probably more use in this situation, advice-wise. And because nobody has to feel bad about telling Matiu anything, because he’s already heard and seen it all and can’t be shocked, and he knows heaps more about the law than I do, too. But Matiu, please don’t forget anything, because I have to know.”
Matiu said, “And after all that—I don’t have to be part of this if you don’t want me to, Fruitful. And Daisy. Your choice.”
Fruitful looked at me, and I said, “Your choice, love.”
“He can listen,” Fruitful said. “I mean, I don’t know how things work Outside, and you all do. Plus you’re men, so maybe you know how men think. How to get a man to leave you alone.”
Gray said, “I know how I want to do it. But come on. Let’s sit down and eat.”
We sat around the couch and got stuck into the pizzas. The girls were tentative at first. Eating pizza on the couch with your fingers, on a plate you held in your lap, was yet another brand-new revelation, but either they were hungry, they liked pizza, or they wanted to go along with the group, because they ate. No extravagant wine this time, unfortunately, because I had to work tonight. Pity. I could’ve used a little liquid courage. I said, “That was my landlord. He was confused about the window I’d broken.”
Gray looked up, his face alert. I said, “He went to the