Frank and Aubrey
Frank and Aubrey were brothers who lived on the Takaka Hill road in a house perched above the river. They were known throughout the district for their generosity, their stubbornness, and the astonishing fact that between them they had lived in that same house for over ninety years.
Frank was the older brother, quieter, more deliberate. Aubrey was the one who would talk to anyone, offer you a cup of tea before you had finished knocking on the door. Their house was on a bend in the road where the river curved round and the hills came close on either side, like arms folding in.
They had known that river all their lives. They had swum in it as boys, drawn water from it as men, sat beside it in their later years with the kind of patience that comes from watching the same current for so long you no longer need to see it to know it is there.
When the road was widened, the council came and asked them to move. The brothers looked at each other, then at the river, then at the council. They stayed.