Finishing Family Business

“It’s so cold,” I whispered the words aloud, although I knew no one would hear.

My gregarious sister, Renee, was too busy chatting with her friend to be paying me any attention. Renee was raving about the ‘totally awesome’ decor of the room Anna had invited us into. I felt like I had walked into a commercial freezer, rather than Anna’s sunny, cream coloured lounge.

My breath was still invisible. The air in the room could not be as cold as it felt. The bone-aching chill was inside me. Wherever it came from, it was sucking my life out through my skin. I shivered and clenched my teeth together. This temperature drop was not purely a figment of my imagination.

To counter the cold, I moved to stand directly in the sunlight. The warmth coming in through the windows seemed to reach towards me but then split away into scattered rainbows of heat. It flashed out, touching my aura and warming everything except my body.

Even with all my will forbidding them to move, my teeth began to chatter. The shivers were getting worse, wracking my body. I had no idea what was going on but I needed to leave the room.

My escape was thwarted.

“Janet, are you all right?” Anna asked.

It was my sister who replied, in a voice that allowed no disagreement. “Oh, Anna, ignore her, she does this. She’s just looking for attention. She thinks she’s special.”

Suddenly reduced to the status of a misbehaving five-year-old instead of seventeen, I struggled to make a reply.

Sticks and stones and all that stuff. Renee was able to be seriously bitchy with me. That was the trade-off Mum and Dad had chosen when they asked her to look out for her geeky, klutz of a little sister.

Then, beyond the monster that embodied my sister in a shit mood, I saw the source of the cold.

I gasped, “There’s a ghost.”

My sister lifted her hand to slap me. Anna grabbed her arm and held her back.

“No. I want to know what she’s seeing,” my protector said. Her voice chased even more chills through me. She already knew about the ghost. I was merely confirming her belief.

“Over by the fruit bowl.” I stumbled for the right words. “A Maori man. He’s so angry. He’s scary.”

We all faced the bowl that rested on the coffee table. Cracks in the blond wood suggested it was very old, but, equally, they could have come about from too much sunlight drying it out. Its state of wear was incongruous in Anna’s clean and modern room.

“What can you see? What can you tell me?” Anna’s voice was barely audible. She was so intent on listening, she could only whisper.

The vision before me was clear, it was as if the Maori man still wore his flesh but I knew he had died long ago. Most likely, he predated Pakeha colonisation.

“He’s got a full moko.” I gestured up to my forehead and cheeks. “More tattoos over his shoulders. On his chest. Black hair, long loose. Greasy, black, curly.” I took a breath of frigid air. “He’s holding an axe. It looks like a stone blade.”

“She’s making it up.” I heard my sister speak but I was mesmerised by the Maori man.

“Anything else?” The room was quiet enough that I could hear that Anna was breathing fast.

The ghost looked at her and his fearsome gaze softened.

But I now saw what had killed him. “Oh my God. He’s got a bloody great hole in his stomach. He pulled the axe out. It was the weapon that killed him.”

The blood from the wound in the ghost’s belly seemed to be flowing into the wooden bowl. As it pooled, I saw more in the dark fluid. The energy within the bowl was calmer than that of the ghost, like reading a book instead of watching a 3D movie.

“He was killed in a big battle. The victor took his wife as a trophy. And,” I wanted to vomit, “Drank his blood, yes, from this bowl.”

“No way,” Anna squealed in horror.

Renee moved in front of me, effectively blocking Anna from my sight. “Don’t believe her, Anna. I’m sorry she tagged along. She’s just a drama queen. Loves making up shit.”

Unlike Renee, who, I thought, simply lied so well that people always believed her. Even she believed her lies. I had heard her often enough.

But Anna shifted back into view and spoke in my defence. “That was real. Janet could not have known any of it. The story with the bowl. Ross says it’s called the Blood Bowl. His family have had it for generations. I’ve told him I hate it.”

I had met Anna’s partner once before. I could imagine him being very possessive of anything that related to his Whakapapa or Whanau.

My sister screwed up her face at me in a petulant look that belonged on a spoiled child, not an adult woman. She hated it when I eclipsed her importance. Dread knotted in my stomach as I realised that I was going to pay for my error.

She then turned her attention back to Anna, “Oh, I didn’t know Ross has Maori blood in him.”

“Where do you think he gets that hair from? Oh, he’s not pure Maori, but it’s still a part of what makes him, well, him.”

Anna turned back to me, she looked serious. “Janet, can you tell me what we need to do? I’m guessing I need to get rid of the bowl to appease this ghost, but Ross will need a proper reason.”

I looked over Anna’s shoulder to the Maori man. He was much calmer now that he had our attention. He let me see how his spirit was tied to the bowl because of the blood. The anger he had expressed so clearly earlier was not at us, his death or even the way of it, but because he had failed to protect his wife and their unborn child.

I just knew in my frozen belly that the baby had survived and gone on to have children of her own. Ross was a descendent of the ghost.

What the ghost wanted was simple enough.

“Two things,” I told Anna. “Obviously, the bowl has to go. He would like it chopped to pieces or burnt.”

She nodded.

And, um, he wants you to name your baby Tutanekai.”

“What?!” Anna’s squeal was ear-piercing.

“Shut it, Janet.” My sister punched me hard on my shoulder. I staggered back out of her reach.

The Maori ghost raised his axe aggressively. He was not happy with Renee.

Anna gasped. “Oh my God, Janet. You’re the real thing. I haven’t even told Ross.”

Renee swung away from me, reaching out to grab Anna’s arm. “What? You’re pregnant!”

“Yes.” The smile on Anna’s face went as deep as her bones.

“You didn’t say anything.”

“Duh. We might be friends, but really, Ross was the one I wanted to tell first. When I was sure. But Janet, she’s just confirmed it.”

Anna grinned at me. “Oh, this will work so well. When I tell Ross, I’ll say the bowl has bad karma for,” she giggled, “Little Tut.”

A wave of normal room temperature flowed up my body. I joyously breathed in the tepid air. A single glance at the bowl assured me that the Maori man had delivered his message and was no longer visible.

But, standing next to Anna was my sister. And she was glaring at me with absolute hatred. Renee was looking ready to kill me.

“Hey,” Anna spoke in a quiet voice, “I feel a bit rude, but I need to ring Ross. Do you mind if I ask you to leave?”

“Not a problem.” Renee replied. Her voice was flat, unemotional.

She then grabbed my shoulder, the one she had earlier punched, and turned me towards the door. I wanted to object about her treatment of me but Anna didn’t deserve to be caught up our battle. Mum liked me to be with Renee because I could usually calm my sister down. I never told Mum that was because she would take all her attitudes out on me.

We walked away from Anna’s house. Or, rather, I walked and Renee stalked stiffly beside me. She thought I had ruined the visit with her friend. I wondered how close a friend Anna actually was.

Renee had taken me along purely to prove to Mum, and others, what a great person she was, looking out for her little sister who didn’t seem able to make many friends. But really, she wanted me around so I could tell her how fantastic she was. I knew my value to her ego.

As I climbed into the passenger seat of her old Mazda, I once again felt the temperature plummet. It got cold so fast that I almost screamed as my body reacted. I bit down on the noise because I knew Renee would punish me even further if I made a fuss.

She launched a verbal attack as soon as she sat down.

 “What the hell was that about. You’re Miss Amazing Psychic now? Well, guess what. You’re nothing. I should just leave you here, on the footpath.”

Ranting was normal for Renee. Her verbiage went over my head. I was more concerned about how to get my shaking hands to do up the seatbelt. The buckle still had not clicked when she reached over and grabbed my shoulder again.

“You’re quick to forget how I’ve helped you, given you chances, aren’t you.” It was not a question.

“Renee, please,” I whispered, “Let go. That hurts.” There was going to be bruising on my shoulder.

“Anna’s my friend. Not yours. You’re pathetic. After all I’ve done for you, you want all the drama.”

“I’m sorry.”

“If you ever embarrass again like that, I’ll kill you.”

“I’m sorry.”

But it appeared that, this time, my submission was not enough. Renee shook my shoulder then lunged for my throat.

“Putaputa!” I heard a man yell.

The car door swung open and I tumbled out onto the berm. Instead of seeing stars, I, once again, saw the Maori man. He was waving the axe at the car and screaming words I did not understand but knew to be Te Reo.

Against his tirade, I heard Renee. “Fuck you, bitch,” she yelled as she accelerated away from the kerb. The car, passenger door still open, disappeared down the road and around the corner.

Although I was in pain from my shoulder and abrupt exit from the car, the only thing I wanted to pay attention to was that my body was once again gloriously warm. The ghost who had haunted the bowl at Anna’s place had left, but before he went, he had given me the greatest gift he could. He had given me my freedom.

As I slowly and painfully clambered to my feet I felt my face crinkle up into a huge smile. The bullying I had endured since childhood was over. No one was ever going to convince me that my sister did not mean her cruelty. I simply was going to tell them we had fallen out. That was the truth. Or, at least, I had fallen out.

I laughed at the empty street.

“Janet?” Anna stood there, looking pale.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Ross doesn’t like her. I guess he sees more clearly than me.” Anna hung her head. “Come back inside. I’ll patch you up. You’re safe now.”

A cool zephyr from nowhere touched my injured shoulder. I smiled at Anna and nodded.