The Thread That Binds Pt. 04

Chapter 12:

Tasi and Marge returned on New Year's Eve; in plenty of time to organise their traditional extended family celebrations. The rallies would be coming from Porirua and some even from Auckland. Marge was an influential matriarch within the Islander community and her New Year parties were famous.

Mark had spent a delightful few days with Katy, going to the beach, Te Papa, shady parks and other Wellington attractions, but now he and Tasi had both been dragooned into assisting with the celebrations. Mark had been kept too busy peeling potatoes, washing vegetables, basting roasted meats and hanging decorations to do anything but think about her.

Katy was also unavailable. Gary had returned from his conference and educational tour of traffic flow in Auckland, and was piling on the work, as she had explained to Mark.

"Apparently Gary admitted he was over the top calling Terry Teal a petrol head and said he would write a public apology, but the politician's awful lawyer encouraged him to continue with the lawsuit. So Gary has to present a whole lot of papers to court justifying why he called him a petrol sniffer. All about how Terry's plans, if implemented would be a disaster for public transport, and I need to help him."

Marge had asked Mark if there was anyone he had wanted to invite for the New Year festivities. Katy couldn't make it, and Mark was not that close to his school mates. Looking back, he now realised he had not made one single really good male friend. His best friends had been Natia, then Shona, and now Katy.

"I can't think of anyone," he said.

The guests started to arrive just as Mark and Tasi were taking a rest in the garden, beer in hand, discussing the latest cricket scores. Marge greeted the guests, Islander fashion, draping lei around the necks of the chiefly males and senior matriarchs - a custom that had started in Hawai'i but was now adopted in other Pacific islands.

Shona's family arrived, in style, in a convoy of two cars. Campbell and Paula got out of the BMW, together with two rather severe looking middle aged men in suits, who Campbell introduced as senior partners in his firm. A second car pulled into the drive, and Shona and three other young women got out. Mark glanced at them, wondering which one of them might be Shona's new girlfriend.

"Hi, Mark," said Shona, giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Hi Shona." Mark recovered his composure, but couldn't help peering at the three girls, dressed in short summer skirts, who were gazing at Mark and giggling.

"This is Casey, and Rachel, and Tricia," said Shona. "Associates from daddy's law firm. We're helping with a case. You see this politician is suing a seedy activist who was mean to him and daddy thinks we can win a large amount of money."

"This activist is a real loser," said Tricia. "Just has no idea how to behave in public."

Mark had not been listening. Campbell had often talked about his cases at the dinner table when Mark's family had been around there, not mentioning any names of course to avoid getting into trouble with the law society, but even so, Wellington was a small city, and it would not be hard for most people with even moderate skill on Google to find out who he was referring to. It appeared Shona had inherited his indiscreet attitude since she had started interning for him.

Then something clicked in Mark's mind, and he found himself listening more intently. "What is this case about, exactly?" he said.

"Well, this guy called my client a drug addict and my client wanted him to apologise. But daddy told him that he should take him to court instead. Daddy was really insistent. He told his client he would be a fool not to take this opportunity. The client was rather uncomfortable, said all he really wanted was an apology, but daddy could see a way at getting back at all those times he had been forced to wait in traffic while the buses whizzed past him on their dedicated lanes, and even cyclists overtook him. So he..."

Shona's friend Tricia nudged her (maybe she's the girlfriend, thought Mark), and Shona snapped her mouth shut like a clam.

"You won't tell anyone, Mark," she said. "It's supposed to be confidential."

Mark felt a twisting in his guts. He knew who Shona's 'client' was, and he felt a tug of loyalty between his old and new girlfriend.

Shona seemed to sense Mark's hesitation. "It's not as if you know who my client is" she said.

"No, that's true," said Mark. "I don't know him... or her". That wasn't quite a lie. Shona hadn't given him the name.

Shona seemed to relax, and the four teenagers walked into the house, where Marge greeted Shona and her friends effusively and introductions were made all round.

The afternoon was spent in eating, drinking and carousing, and Mark joined in the games of twister with the others, noting how often Tricia seemed to position herself so she was rubbing on Mark's muscular torso. Perhaps she isn't the dyke after all, he thought. Mark chatted with Shona and her friends, quite surprised at how comfortable he was in his ex's presence. So many of his colleagues from school and choir had been through dramatic and awkward break ups, and had told anyone who would listen what bitches or slags their exes were and how they never wanted to see them again.

As midnight approached and Tasi turned on the radio to hear the countdown to the new year, Mark excused himself from the circle of partygoers joining hands to sing Auld Lang Syne. He went into his bedroom and called Katy on his mobile.

Katy answered it just as Mark heard cheers, stamping and shouts of "Happy New Year" from his parents and their friends and relatives. The voice was grumpy and gravelly. Mark did a double take.

"What's wrong Katy?" he said. Then - "you weren't asleep, were you."

"What the fuck else would I be doing at midnight, Mark. What did you call me for?"

"I just wanted to wish you Happy New Year," said Mark. "I'm sorry to wake you up. I thought you would be partying like everyone else. I didn't mean..."

"I'm not like everyone else, Mark, in case you haven't noticed. I'm me. I had a shitty New Years Eve. Polly got a tooth ache and I had to dodge all the crowds in town to get her to the emergency dentist, and he yanked one of her teeth. Said he would normally fill it, but she would be losing her baby teeth soon anyway. Polly hates needles and dentists and she was screaming. I was going to get her an ice-cream to calm her down, but of course the cold was too painful for her, then I bumped into this snooty bitch in the ice-cream place - Paris's mum, and she cut me dead - who the fuck does she think she is.

"Her daughter will end up as shallow as her namesake. And then Gary was keeping me up all evening with this impending court case - and no I didn't drop my knickers for him, though he kept urging me to. So I'm not in any mood for partying. Sorry."

Mark listened to his girlfriend rave on, wondering why she was so moody. So she had been woken up, but big deal. He and Shona had often woken each other up with clandestine calls, made when neither set of parents could hear, but he could not recall either of them being so grumpy or whiny.

"Jeez, sorry, Katy, I didn't know. I've found something out about your friend's court case that could be interesting." Mark wanted to continue to the conversation. Even at its most petulant, he liked to hear Katy's voice.

"Yeah, that's nice, but it can wait, okay. I'm going back to bed. Goodnight, Mark."

"Goodnight Katy."

Mark went back into the lounge where the young people were dancing, and the older people sitting around gossiping. Marge had her lap top open and was yelling on Skype to some of her relatives in Samoa. Campbell and Tasi were talking about rugby.

As Mark entered the room, Shona's friend Tricia dragged him on to the dance floor and clung on to him. Tricia's body was not bad, firm where it should be firm and yielding where it should be yielding, and Mark knew that if he had wanted to they could disappear into the still warm night for a snog and a grope, but he didn't feel up to it.

So much for her being a dyke. Shona was not showing any dyke-like tendencies, and in fact was openly flirting with one of Mark's male cousins. She definitely swung both ways. If Katy was up to it, a threesome may be a distinct possibility. Mark disappeared into the bathroom.

#

Mark had almost two months holiday between New Year's Day and the time when he had to go to Auckland for his medical studies. Marge had arranged for him to board with one of her Auckland cousins. "Save you getting in trouble in those student flats. I know what they're like. Full of sex and drugs." Now how would you know that, thought Mark. Have you done a survey? Or is it personal experience?

Both Tasi and Marge had noticed that Mark and Shona were not spending much time together. Mark in fact only went out once with Shona in the next month, and that was in a group, where it had been Shona's friend Tricia who had invited him.

"Shones and I are both busy. And I will soon be going to Auckland, maybe we need some space." Mark mumbled this to Marge when she next asked Mark about him and Shona, and Marge seemed to accept his explanation for now, though Mark knew he could not hold off telling her the truth forever.

Mark told Katy what Shona had said about Campbell Hodge's firm dragooning the politician into filing a lawsuit against his own inclinations. Katy had been interested, but distracted.

"Gary's in a sulk at the moment," she said. "It's 'cos I won't let him bonk me anymore. I'll let him know if I see him. It may be useful information, it may not. I don't really understand the law. It all seems rather childish to me."

The Adventist Church had its first service of the New Year in mid-January, and when Mark picked up Katy and Polly in Johnsonville he was apprehensive about Katy's reception at the church, especially since she was dressed in very short shorts, that showed her shapely buttocks in sharp relief.

Mark had no objection to Katy's short shorts, and let his feelings be known by pulling them down, bending her over her bed and ramming his cock inside her almost before she had got good and wet. But as Mark had pointed out, once he had discharged inside her and Katy had pulled them back up, the stickiness seeping into her knickers, such shorts may not be appropriate in church.

"Nor's having quickie sex before the service," said Katy. "If they don't like it they can lump it."

As it turned out, the church had been very accepting and welcoming, and the three of them decided they would go again the next week. This time, Mark restricted his erotic attentions to holding Katy's hand as they walked into the church.

When Mark disappeared with Katy to the Seventh Day Adventist Church on the first Saturday, Marge started asking further questions, even though Mark made sure he also attended church on the Sunday with his family and the Hodges.

It was after the second service that Marge confronted Mark. "So who are you going out with on Saturday," she said. "And why have you broken up with a nice girl like Shona?

Nice girl? Nice girls don't do that sort of thing. Mark was still uncomfortable about Shona's revelations, but in loyalty to his ex he didn't say anything to Marge.

"Don't know, mum. We just drifted apart. Shones isn't really interested in music."

"Shona has very good taste in music," said Marge. "She goes to all the concerts."

"Yeah, but its all snobbishness. She doesn't really understand them. I've been going out with someone else. Katy writes poetry, and I put it to music. She wrote a really funny piece about animals on a farm. I improvised a harmony, and we're going to sing it at a pub gig. Katy used to sing in a choir. Her voice isn't bad."

Mark braced himself for a third degree grilling now he had finally mentioned Katy, but Marge appeared to be more interested in Mark's career than his love life.

"I think you're making too much of this singing, Mark," she said. "It's fine for a hobby while you're at school. Keeps you out of mischief, helps you become disciplined and work together as a team, all that sort of thing. And certainly preferable to boxing. But you won't become rich from music. You will be at medical school in a couple of months, and you'll need to concentrate hard on your studies. A studious girl like Shona would be far better for you. I don't even know what Katy does for a living."

Mark had only just left school and didn't know that the question 'what do you do?' was fairly standard during social discourse among the adult world. He was as fond of status as the next person, but wondered what the fuss was.

"She's some sort of secretary/PA," he said. "She works for a traffic designer."

Marge sniffed. "Well her prospects are not that great then. Shona could become a top lawyer. And you could become a respected physician or surgeon. I think you're making a grave mistake. What do you see in her?"

What could Mark say? Katy was more cuddly and curvaceous than Shona. Not just because her body was a curvier shape, but her personality was also less bony and more yielding. Katy was down to earth, moody, and not always able to judge social situations, but she was kind and considerate to those weaker than her - her treatment of Polly and the animals both showed this, and unlike Shona and her father, did not delight in kicking someone when they were down. Just because they could do it through the law courts and not in a pub brawl, doesn't make that sort of behaviour acceptable, Mark realised.

"Maybe I could ask Katy over for dinner one day, and you could judge for yourself."

Mark regretted saying this as soon as the words left his mouth. How would his meat loving Islander parents react to Katy's veganism? More to the point, how would Katy react to them? Mark opened his mouth to rescind the invitation, but too late.

"I think that's a great idea," said Marge. "Shall we say next Thursday?"

Mark nodded dumbly. He would have his work cut out next week persuading Katy.

#

"You must be out of your fucking mind," was Katy's rejoinder, when Mark broached the subject to her the next day on the phone. "And what about Polly? I can't leave her here."

Mark had got so used to Polly being around he had forgotten that she may be a major factor.

"Polly can come too of course," he said.

"Did you tell your folks that I've got a kid? Solo mothers are like child molesters among her sort."

Mark felt a stabbing of anger. He tried to suppress it, knowing that if he spoke sharply to Katy their argument would escalate to Middle Eastern proportions in a very short time.

"I don't know what you mean by 'her sort'," he said. "But isn't that just as judgemental as judging solo mothers? You saved Polly from being aborted. Isn't that a good thing? My parents are certainly opposed to abortion."

"I notice they don't make any move to make things easier for single mothers who want to keep their kids though. Easier just to blame the women who are so desperate they kill their babies. My mum always spoke out against fundamentalist tossers in her church, whose noses were so high in the air they would drown in the rain."

Mark swallowed hard, and tried again. "I would love it if you came, Katy," he said. "I would be proud to be seen with you."

"Can't see why," Mark wondered why Katy was in such a belligerent mood. "I'm not pretty like your last girlfriend."

Was she fishing for more compliments? If so, Mark had had enough. "All right, have it your own way. I'll tell my folks you're not coming."

"Who says I'm not coming?" Mark rolled his eyes. Katy's contrariness was something he found hard to cope with.

"We would like to see both of you next Thursday at 6pm. I will tell my folks you are vegan." Just then there was a howl from Polly, who had spilled the water for her paints.

"Okay, Mark. Gotta go. See you Thursday."

Mark put the phone down with some trepidation, looking round at the immaculate kitchen his mother kept, with the help of various exchange students from Samoa that she was supporting through their studies. What had he let himself in for?

Chapter 13

Katy cleaned up the mess as best she could, consoled Polly, gave her a cuddle and ran off to the kitchen with the empty glass. She remembered the adoption woman and her disdainful sniffing when she had first visited Katy at her home. Fortunately Katy's mother had been there to give moral support, or she would have either clammed up or lashed out, the way she always did when confronted with power.

"Always let them know actions have consequences, Katy," the woman had said. "If they spill their juice, let them go thirsty for a while."

Fuck you, pretentious creep, thought Katy as she passed another glass of water to Polly. They're children. Cut them some slack.

Katy then thought about Mark's invitation, and a tight knot formed in her stomach. Her opinions of older people had been coloured by her recent work experiences, and Katy saw them as all self opinionated and full of themselves. She had only seen Mark's parents once, at the restaurant, but with their well tailored clothes and their strutting posture, they had not make a particularly good impression. They were also friends with the creepy lawyer and his snobbish daughter; another point against them.

Katy spent the day before the dinner party shopping and baking, making a vegan carrot cake that she could take to Mark's place. She decided that the presence of Polly would be one more burden that she could not cope with, so she arranged with Sir Ron the physician to baby sit.

On the day of the invitation, Katy pondered long and hard over what she should wear. Mark was no help at all. "Just be yourself, Katy," he had said. But which of her selves? Her domestic looking-after-Polly self; her activism self, her sex kitten self - in the end she decided on her emerging Christian self; the one she used to practice with her mother, before her dad left and her distraught mum became a missionary.

So Katy ransacked her wardrobe, laying out clothes she had not worn for several years. Her tights were full of moth-holes. Not much point wearing those. Her long dress was frayed at the ends - and it was too hot anyway. Katy took out her polka dot summer dress that came to just below her knees. Or at least that was the theory. Her mother had bought it for her when she was still growing, and it now reached her thighs.

But it would do, she thought. Then what about knickers? The matronly ones she put on at first were too tight. Katy took out a frilly pair that Ben had bought for her, and she had never worn, belonging to that period in the relationship when infatuation turns to ennui.

Maybe there will be time for a spot of sex, she thought, rubbing her crotch at the thought of doing Mark in his parents' house. So I need knickers that can slip up and down easily. And a dress that turns him on.

Katy laid out a light cardigan and a pair of sandals that looked suitably girly, and decided that clothes were sorted.

Katy worked all day on Gary's papers. They were reaching an important stage in the negotiations with Terry Teal. Katy had met up with Gary in the New Year. He had tried to kiss her, but Katy had pushed him away.

"I have a boyfriend now," she said.

"What, a real one?" Gary seemed genuinely surprised.

"No, a blow up one, you twat. Of course he's real, what did you expect?"

"Oh, I don't know, I thought you were maybe..."

Then Gary stopped himself, realising that Katy was staring at him.

"Maybe what, you sad fuck?"

"Nothing, Katy." Gary backed off as Katy advanced on him.

"No, say it! I'm a slut. That's what you mean, isn't it. Though that didn't stop you getting your rocks off in Katy's slutty cunt."