Zebra by Jill Wallace

Author:Jill Wallace [Wallace, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780999776827
Publisher: Tsotsi Publications

22

Sipho, Lunch and Billy Pillay

Estcourt School days, 1960-1962

Boarding school, dormitory, playground, and classroom took on a repetitive daily grind that somehow pushed Jock through until he could have slap chips on Tuesdays and get home to Papin, Beauty and Dennis every second Friday.

Jock lived for Papin’s letters. He could see Papin buying stamps from his mom in the shop that hid his closet bedroom, sitting in the stable after working out the twins, writing in his cursive handwriting, even better than Scotty’s. It was Papin who always deserved to be at this “real” school, not he.

By the time the letters arrived, the news was old, but it was new to him, and it was the minuscule moments Papin captured that fueled Jock’s Mind Brownie and New Aunts. The letters were his treasures, his Bushman Cave of familiar delights, a vivid movie of hotel happenings. Imagine making pictures with words! And in ENGLISH! Dad was right about Papin.

Ultimately, Papin’s letters forced Jock to learn to read far quicker than Daddy Longlegs Dunn could. But he was fine with her taking all the credit for his improvement. Jock would copy a word or passage from the letter he couldn’t decipher, then ask Scotty to interpret. He’d feel disloyal if he let Scotty read the whole letter to him. He couldn’t let someone else into their world without Papin’s permission.

He cherished those letters encased in neatly printed envelopes as much as the Afrikaans boys cherished their Bibles. The only difference was, Jock couldn’t leave the letters next to his bed. He envied the Bible boys that privilege. He made sure to hide the treasures well back in his locker, the only private place in the entire boarding school. They grew to so many, he had to bring in a grown man’s shoebox to hold them all. He couldn’t take them home because they were at the boarding school to take him home. Papin’s letters and his Mind Brownie made most things bearable.

In a very short time at school, Jock realized how differently native Africans were treated outside the hotel’s environment. It was they who cleaned and washed and cooked and gardened, in and around school and the boarding school. But like ghosts, they were rarely sighted and quickly disappeared. The few times he saw an African on premises, he was thrilled and greeted them joyfully in Zulu. But they refused to make eye contact with him, let alone shout back the jaunty reply he was used to. He felt quite hurt and then realized Zulu or any other Bantu language was never heard on either boarding school or school premises.

But finding Sipho kept his Zulu sharp and his longing dull.

He met Sipho the day he was brought back to the boarding school after his first and only illegal escape.

As Jock crossed the big dining hall, he heard a soft, familiar song. He thought his Mind Brownie camera must be working overtime. Strains of a Zulu lullaby felt like cotton-wool dusting his ears, and the powerful pain in his chest he recognized as homesickness eased a smidgeon.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.