Sweet as Honey (The Seven Sisters) - By Caitlyn Robertson Page 0,16
girls were a lot more switched on than the boys, who only wanted to do the practice so they could get out of their science lessons.
He found himself wondering as the kids marched back and forth across the road if his and Honey’s first child would be a boy or a girl. What would he rather have? Of course the correct answer was that it didn’t matter as long as the child was healthy, but in truth he longed for a son. It may have been incredibly old fashioned, but he wanted an heir, a child to carry on his name, a boy he could show how to play rugby, take fishing, teach how to dive.
Then again, boys were hard work when they became teenagers, he thought as he walked across the road to the high school, the training complete. He’d seen so many cases of fathers and sons butting heads once the hormones kicked in, when the boys’ natural urge to challenge and declare themselves the alpha male took over. How would he deal with that?
He checked in at reception and made his way down to the careers block. The careers advisor had invited him in to give a talk to senior students interested in joining the police force. He smiled as the woman came out of the classroom to welcome him. They talked for five minutes while the students filtered in, around two dozen in all, and then he joined her at the front of the class while she introduced him.
“This is Constable Concannon,” she said. “He’s going to chat to you about how he joined the force, and then you can ask him questions.” She smiled and gestured for him to start.
Dex cleared his throat and perched on one of the tables as he began speaking. There were more boys than girls, and over half the boys were Maori. He knew the ratio of white students in the school to Maori students was around five to one, and although the school had implemented special initiatives to raise Maori achievement, generally he would have named Maori boys as the demographic least likely to want to enter the force. In fact to his surprise he recognised several of the boys from previous encounters—two had been brought in for theft and one for suspected marijuana dealing, although they hadn’t been able to pin anything on him.
He spoke for a while about training programmes and salaries and possibilities for promotion, but it was warm outside and the class fidgeted, and he sensed he wasn’t saying the right things. He stopped talking, unbuttoned his police jacket and took off his hat.
“Why are you here?” he asked the nearest boy, the one who’d been suspected of marijuana dealing.
The boy glared at him. “I’ve as much right to be here as anyone else.”
“I wasn’t suggesting otherwise,” Dex said wryly. “What I meant is, why are you interested in joining the force?”
The boy glanced across at his mate, who smirked.
Dex’s heart sank, but he made himself smile. “I see. Missing science are we?”
“Phys Ed,” said one of the boys. “Too hot to run around.”
Dex glanced at the others.
“English,” a couple said guiltily. “Geography,” said another. A few others insisted they really were interested in joining, but he suspected it was more out of politeness than anything.
“Okay,” he said. “So let me ask you something else. Why aren’t you interested in joining?”
The boy nearest him shrugged. “They won’t want me. They just want white fellas.”
“Well that’s rubbish for a start,” Dex said. “We run special programmes to encourage young Maori men and women like yourselves to join, and I know half a dozen great Maori officers.”
The boy shrugged again. “They won’t want me. I’ve been in trouble.”
Dex hesitated. He didn’t talk much about his past. He’d had to declare it when he applied to the Force, of course, and without the support of his mentor, he didn’t think he’d have made it through the interviews. And of course Honey knew, and therefore probably did most of her family, although they’d never mentioned it. But he never spoke about it to his friends, maybe because he was worried of their reaction—that they’d treat him differently if they knew.
But he was here to reach out to these young men and women. And how could he do that if he didn’t tell it like it was?
“You want to know why I joined?” he asked.
The boy shrugged, but a flicker of interest crossed his features.