Read Online New Guinea Moon by Kate Constable - Free Book Online

‘Name belong you?’ She points at herself. ‘I’m Julie. Julie.’ She points at the girl. ‘You?’
    The girl whispers so softly that Julie has to lean forward to catch it. ‘Lina.’
    â€˜Okay! Lina! Will you be our meri? Yes? Okay —’ Julie realises she’d better let Tony know what’s happening. ‘You come back tomorrow?’
    The girl nods, and clutching her bag of lemons, she scurries off down the driveway. Julie gazes after her, not sure how well she’d managed to make herself understood. But she is well-pleased, and proud of herself, as she marches around to the Crabtrees’ house.
    â€˜Oh, dear.’ Barbara passes a hand across her eyes. ‘You don’t know anything about this girl! If you wanted a meri, you should have asked me to find someone reliable, one of Koki’s wontoks . . . And Tony’s always said he doesn’t want a meri.’
    â€˜Well, maybe he’s changed his mind,’ says Julie stubbornly. A familiar feeling of defiance hardens inside her. Barbara and Caroline might not have much else in common, but clearly they’d agree on one thing — whatever Julie does is wrong.
    But later that night, when she confesses what she’s done, it seems Barbara might have been right. Tony is dismayed.
    â€˜Oh, no, I don’t —’ He stares at the wall. ‘I don’t want a meri. You should have asked me first.’
    â€˜I was only trying to help,’ says Julie.
    â€˜Yeah, I know . . . I had a meri when I first came up here, but it didn’t work out. Never again.’
    â€˜Okay. Sorry.’
    â€˜Apart from anything else, I can’t afford it,’ says Tony apologetically. ‘I’ve got to save up for my old age, you know.’
    â€˜Okay, okay,’ says Julie. ‘I’ll tell her to forget it. I’m sorry.’
    â€˜Don’t worry about it.’ Tony rubs his bald spot, running his finger along the dent of his scar. ‘Look . . . I wish we could live like the Crabtrees. Big house, meri and a garden boi, all of that. But —’
    â€˜I don’t want to live like the Crabtrees. I was just trying to —’
    â€˜Make my life easier?’ Tony finishes the sentence for her. ‘Thanks, mate. I appreciate it. But I’m doing all right. Don’t worry about me.’
    Julie stares at him helplessly, unable to explain that she wasn’t thinking of him at all; it was Lina she’d been trying to help. And now she is going to have to turn her away, because Tony feels too poor to employ her. And yet Tony has so much more than Lina . . .
    â€˜I’m sorry, love,’ says Tony.
    Julie manages to muster up a smile. ‘It’s all right.’
    Tony says, ‘You want a game of backgammon? I play a game with Gibbo now and then.’
    â€˜I don’t know how.’
    Tony’s face falls, but then Julie adds, ‘Maybe you could teach me?’ And the shy, eager smile spreads across his face once more.

7
    â€˜But we always have a Christmas party,’ says Nadine, a few days after the picnic by the river.
    â€˜Not this year,’ says Barbara.
    â€˜I just don’t feel up to it this year. I’ve done it for seventeen years. Let someone else do the work for a change.’
    â€˜Teddie and Andy are going to have a Christmas party,’ says Ryan unexpectedly from the depths of the armchair where he’s curled around his guitar.
    â€˜Are they?’ Barbara shoots him a look. ‘Well. Good. Good for them. I hope it’s a great success.’
    She stalks from the room and Ryan chuckles as he pulls Julie down onto the arm of his chair. ‘She’s pissed off now. She makes out she doesn’t want to do the work, but she doesn’t want to lose the glory either. Poor Mum.’ His arm snakes around Julie’s waist and he presses his face against her back.
    â€˜Yay!’ Nadine jumps