Page 14 of Just Watch Me
“I did not say she was dim,” Scarlett said.
“Did so,” Duncan said.
“I did—” Scarlett began.
Zane cut in. “Whoever said whatever, turns out Georgia does need specs. She’s going to get them, she’s going to learn to read, and there’s nothing wrong with her brain.”
“Because I know heaps of facts,” Georgia said. “And rats can too recognize faces, Scarlett.People’sfaces. So they reallydolike me, and it’s not just because I gave them rat food and carrots and scrambled eggs like you said.” Her face was flushed and defiant. The meeting with Skylar had boosted her confidence enough to let her stand up to her sister, he guessed. Could mean more shouting and tears, but probably for the best. He wasn’t interested in raising meek daughters.
“Georgia Mahuta,” his Nan said. “When did you give those rats scrambled eggs? When you asked me for a bigger serving and then couldn’t eat it all, are you telling me you gave it to those … thoserodents?Do you think we’re made of money, that you’re feeding perfectly good food to rats?”
“Dad probably earns about a million dollars just from his rugby pay,” Duncan said in a detached sort of way. He was still doing his maths homework, but then, Duncan was good at concentrating. He got that from Zane. “He earns more from the adverts he does, but I haven’t been able to find out exactlyhow much. Eggs cost almost a dollar apiece, but even if Georgia gave the rats an egg every day while she had them, that would only be twenty-one dollars. Or twenty-three dollars, because there was an extra weekend. The mortgage on the house is very expensive, but twenty-three dollars isn’t much. And she probably didn’t give them a whole egg every day, because she was giving them other things, too. Carrots. Walnuts. Like that.”
“Sothat’swhere your dad’s walnuts went,” Nan said. “He’s meant to have them for protein, and you fed them torats?They’re nearly fifty dollars a kilogram! What’s next, massages?”
“That would be funny,” Duncan said. “Rat massages.” He grinned, then started to laugh.
“Rat manicures,” Scarlett said. “On their tiny toenails.” She was laughing, too, and Georgia was saying, “I didn’t do that! I don’t even know what thatis.”
“Wait,” Zane said. “How would you know how much the mortgage is, Duncan? And how would you have any idea how much money I earn?”
“Because he’s a nosy stickybeak?” Scarlett asked. “And not very clever about it? Honestly, Duncan, you don’t tell Dad that you know! Kids are meant to observe quietly and store up valuable information, so their parents don’t realize they’re not as innocent as they seem. Everybody knows that. Why am I the only person in this house with any sense?”
“Oi,” Zane said.
“All right,” she said. “The onlychildwith any sense.”
Duncan had set aside his homework at last. “Why shouldn’t I know?” he asked, more puzzled than defensive. “How can I plan my future if I don’t? And I saw a paper from the bank that said Dad has to pay almost eight thousand dollars every month for the house, is how I know. That’s heaps, especially since he also has to pay for so many otherthings. It’s not too much if you earn a million dollars a year, but if youdidn’tearn a million dollars, you could?—”
“So this is about your future,” Zane said. “Exactly what kind of high living are you planning for? You’re not inheriting for a good fifty years yet, so I wouldn’t pin my hopes on that. You’ll have to make your own way, same as everybody else.”
Duncan put down his pencil and sighed.“Dad.University, for example?”
“University,” Zane repeated. “You’re eight. Are you sure you need to plan your course of study now, and the financing of it, too?”
Duncan blinked at him. “Well, yeh. What if I want to be a doctor or a professor or something, where I’d need to go to uni for years and years? I have to know whether you can pay for it or not, don’t I? This house is worth about three million dollars right now, which sounds good, except that it’s probably dropped by almost twenty-five percent in the past few years. If it keeps doing that, you couldlosemoney if you have to sell it. And you may go bankrupt when you stop playing rugby, so I have to think about that, too. Heaps of sportsmen go bankrupt once they retire. I read an article about it. And you’re already pretty old.”
“You don’t have to think about it,” Zane said. “You’ll never have to think about it, because it’s not happening. I’m thirty-three, thank you very much, and not turning up my toes just yet. And the mortgage wasn’t for three million dollars. The house didn’t cost nearly as much when I bought it. In financial terms, since you seem to want to view it that way, it was a wise investment, and it still is, temporary drop in value or not.”
“Take the pans out of the oven, will you, Zane?” Nan said.
“Dad,” Duncan said, with an air of patience that was pretty bloody annoying, “Iknow.The house probably cost about half as much when you bought it, because Meadowbank’s got soexpensive. The mortgage would be sixteen thousand dollars a month if you bought it now. But eight thousand is still?—”
“Also,” Zane said, talking over him as he removed two pretty spectacular roasting pans from the oven, “I’m not going bankrupt. I have investments, if you must know. Even with Georgia feeding the rats scrambled eggs, nobody’s going to end up in state housing or begging on a blanket on Queen Street. We’re fine. We’ve always been fine. We alwayswillbe fine.”
“If you got CTE,” Scarlett piped up, “we wouldn’t be fine. You could go mad and need a carer. Or you could die. You can’t say, ‘I won’t die,’ because we know it’s not true. Mum died. What happens then?”
“I have a fairly ridiculous amount of life insurance, as it happens,” Zane said, setting the lamb aside to rest and scooping roasted veggies onto a platter. “But I’m not dying anytime soon, so stop worrying. You realize that somewhere in Auckland, a father is surrounded by his loving whanau, who are telling him, ‘Thanks, Dad, for working so hard and taking such good care of us. Thanks for making sure we don’t have to worry about surviving and can think about suitably childish things instead. Flash cars. Sport. Fashion. Boys.” He shoved the veggies back into the oven to keep warm, although he wanted to inhale all of them right now; that was how hungry he was. A man his age shouldn’t have such a high metabolism. But then, most men his age weren’t playing professional rugby.
“I don’t care aboutboys,”Scarlett said. “Lame as.”
“Also,” Duncan said, “most sport is only really interesting if you bet. Almost all bettors lose money, though, if they keep doing it, so I don’t understand why anybody would. It’s kind of fun topretendto bet, though. I do that sometimes.”
“You do?” This sounded like a very bad idea. “On what?”
“Sport, of course,” Duncan said. “Rugby, because that’s theonly sport I know enough about. Also shares. That’s not exactly betting, but it’slikebetting, at least if you’re systematic at betting and not just betting on the team you like best. I’m still learning how to do the shares, though. There’s heaps of maths, and charts and reports and things that I don’t really understand yet.”
“There you are,” Zane said. “If I go bankrupt,youcan pay the mortgage.” He wasn’t going to talk about dying, because that wasn’t happening, and the kids had better know it.
