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“Nonsense. You work out of Pitt Street. Busiest station in New Zealand, you said.”
“It is that,” I agreed, smiling. “Although Manukau Station would disagree.”
“I swear my boss asks me every time I mention your name, whether there’s anything you set your mind to that you can’t accomplish.”
“How often do you mention my name?”
“Oh, it comes up at the counter when customers are sending their parcels off to Auckland. I tell them my daughter is a paramedic working out of Pitt Street.”
“That’s nice, Mum.”
“Have you been into the call centre lately?”
“I took a shift there the other day.”
“You’re not thinking of going off the road again, are you?”
“No. Not yet.”
“That’s OK, then.”
It didn’t sound as good as being a paramedic working out of Pitt Street at a guess
“I was thinking of taking a trip to the casino this weekend,” my mother said. “Is my room available?”
“Always, Mum.”
“Great! I’ll see you then. Give Sean my love.”
“OK.”
“See you, darling.”
“Bye, Mum.”
* * *
Idialled Sean’s cell phone, leaving a message when he didn’t pick up. He called me back two hours later when I was trying to write a fight scene in the office. A half bottle of wine sat beside the keyboard — an opened packet of cigarettes with a lighter on top to the side.
I stared at the ciggies as I looked down at Sean’s number on the phone’s screen. Then shoved them to the back of the drawer under the desk.
“Hey,” I said, a little too enthusiastically.
“Your dad coming down on the weekend, too?”
“No, just Mum.”
“Great. Maybe she can keep you company while I do those shifts in Helensville.”
“That’s this weekend?”
“Yeah. That OK?”
“I just forgot.”
“They’re short on rural paramedics. Everyone who’s comfortable working in a truck alone has to step up. Have you considered Betty’s request that you do a couple of shifts in Silverdale?”
“I don’t like working on my own; you know that.”
