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Fight or flight proved an ineffective reaction, as he was in no shape to perform either. He experienced a moment of utter powerlessness as he perched with his backside on the porch steps. A bung finger added to his woes.
Someone was inside the house.
A dull glow moved around beyond the window as though the owner of the light paced the lounge.
“It’s Leilah,” he reassured himself, his lips tripping over the words. Reason returned, and he forced himself to relax. Cocking his head, he strained to listen harder to the conversation, tuning out the other local sounds.
“Kingii,” the woman’s voice said. Wiri detected a note of strain in her low tones. “No, he’s a nobody. Just a farm hand.” He jerked backwards with a sneer, recognising Seline’s voice.
“Who does she think she is?” he hissed. Anger dulled the pain as he closed his fingers around the banister and tried to haul himself to standing. His legs refused to extend and his spine sent a blossom of pain radiating its entire length. Wiri unfolded onto the porch steps like a rug being softly unrolled. He balanced the back of his neck on the point of the top step, waiting for the ache to subside. Seline’s voice carried through the wooden slats of the deck as her voice rose in temper.
“Don’t tell me what to do! I’m here, aren’t I? I’m doing my best.” She paused to listen to the person at the other end of the call. “No, this new guy lives in the room I had last time. Mum moved the furniture around and I can’t get to it.” Again, the dramatic silence as she waited. “I know you took care of the other thing,” she said. “But you made everything so much worse.”
A frantic edge entered her voice and Wiri recoiled at the blackness which issued from the spectre hovering over the house. It tried to settle on his head, sucking the air from his lungs and threatening every wonderful memory left in his tortured brain. He closed his eyes and lifted his arms as though warding it off, grateful for the prayers Hana covered him with every day since she’d taken responsibility for him. Pure nastiness drifted through the open window and tangled with the flapping net curtain. “You know what I’m talking about.” A low wheedling underscored her conversation. “Fine, I guess we shouldn’t talk about it over the phone.” Then, “Yes, I’ll do it,” she snapped. “Don’t worry. He won’t see it coming.” Her bark of laughter seemed so disconnected from Leilah’s sunny countenance and soft giggle, it made him wonder at their blood connection. Footsteps sounded on the floorboards inside and reverberated through the house and deck.
Wiri tutted and curled his lips back from his teeth in a grimace. He wanted nothing to do with the woman who’d provided his rescue the previous day. Something unhinged communicated itself to him and he quailed at the voice, which screamed in his mind for him to hide from her.
He hauled himself to a standing position and edged around the side of the house, using the balustrade and the weather boards to support him. The back of his head hit the wall as he leaned against it and he froze, not wanting Seline to discover him listening to her conversation. Instinct made him continue his journey, conscious she may come outside to see what made the bumping sound. He covered the ground with slow steps, tripping over the bobbing heads of flowers as he chose the soil over the loose pebbles, which formed a meandering path. Darkness hindered his journey on the unfamiliar terrain. Wiri stuck close to the building and reached the far corner, ducking past Jet’s bedroom window.
At the back of the house, he found Seline’s transport. The gelding scraped at the ground with a lazy front hoof, slewing through the dust which rose around his ears. The glow from the laundry light picked out highlights and shadows across his shiny coat. He snorted out a long breath and nipped the heads of the nearest clump of daisies. Seline had tied his reins to the banister of the back steps. The horse lifted his head as he sensed Wiri, his eyes widening and his rear jerking around in a wide arc.
“Steady,” Wiri whispered through the gloom. The moon slipped in and out of the overhead clouds as though teasing him. He hated not being able to approach the beast and introduce himself properly. He could have predicted the outcome, but it came sooner than he imagined. The gelding snorted at him and jerked backwards, his ears pricked and forward. Well-formed and muscular, he bore the brand of a thoroughbred on his left shoulder. “It’s okay,” Wiri whispered again, recognising the bunched tension in the horse’s spine. “You’re fine.” His heart sank as the beast’s eyes rolled in fear and the nose band strained as he tugged against the reins and dug his back hooves into the dirt.
Seline’s voice rose to a shout inside the house, compounding the horse’s nervousness. Conflict budded in Wiri’s chest and snaked up the back of his neck into his aching head. He didn’t want to reveal his presence to Seline, suspicious of her uninvited occupation of his home and now wondering about her appearance at the water tank. But he couldn’t stand by and watch the gelding injure himself. He took a deep breath and prepared to approach the horse and attempt to soothe it, stilling his muscles and exuding confidence as he took a step towards it.
The screen door banged and the laundry light winked out in his peripheral vision. Wiri took a giant step backwards. His trainers tangled with the wooden edging of the flower border and he scrabbled to remain upright. He tensed and held his breath as he fell, the knotty stems of the cape daisies digging into his ribs and shoulders as he turned mid-air to deaden the impact on his spine. He landed with a dull thud and the breath released with a whoosh of pain.
The horse covered his noise with its own panic, drawing a creak from the hand rail as it hauled its body backwards towards freedom. Seline’s footsteps pattered across the deck. “Steady, boy!” Her voice rose, but she remained calm. “Easy there.” Her tone changed as she exercised control over her emotions with admirable skill. Wiri lay in the flowerbed and listened to an experienced horse woman bring her mount in hand, soothing the gelding’s frayed nerves and talking to him in gentle, lilting tones. The buckles on the stirrups clanked as she hauled the leathers from where she’d hitched them. Wiri closed his eyes and imagined the scene beyond his vision. He heard the gelding blow out a breath as she tightened the girth. Something bumped against the rail and he recognised the grunt of her settling into the saddle. “Just wait.” Her tone held humour and shod hooves scraped against the dirt and grit as the horse fidgeted.
The ground beneath Wiri vibrated as Seline pushed the horse into a walk and then a lazy trot. He used his right elbow to force himself to a sitting and then a kneeling position. Peering around the corner of the house, he made sure she’d gone. A head torch fastened to her helmet lit a narrow path ahead of her. Moonlight picked up the loop of the reins tapping against her thigh as she rose to a canter. Wiri sank onto his bottom and leaned his back against the wall. A cloud of pollen from the crushed daisies impregnated the air and made him want to cough.
Wiri shook his head and crawled the distance between the flower bed and the back steps. In her haste, Seline had left the rear door unlocked, and he wondered if she’d realise and return. His knees and palms carried him up the steps where he used the banister to haul himself to a stand. The horse’s antics had caused the wood to separate from the post, and he worried about getting blamed for the damage.
One of his laces had come undone, and he used the other trainer to kick it free, leaving it where it lay on the back porch. Unable to face unlacing the other, he staggered through the house and planted himself face down on his bed. He didn’t check his phone or wake to hear the three missed calls. His front door key dug into his hip and he slept away the night in a fog of misery.
