Hallowed Ground by Paul Twivy

Author:Paul Twivy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YA novel;thriller;fairy circles;African setting;Namibian setting;magic;mystery;threat to planet
Publisher: The Conrad Press
Published: 2019-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

9

Science Project

Joe, Freddie and Hannah all threatened to oversleep on Tuesday. The morning bell could barely penetrate their fatigue. Hannah pulled back the curtain, encouraging the Sun to work its magic and wake her brain. She wanted to burrow back into the warmth of her dreams.

She half-opened her eyes and gazed into the garden. Basarwa was busying himself around the baobab tree, planting. She found his presence comforting, the simple and patient movement of his hands. This set her thinking about how many people there were in the periphery of your life who were essential to you feeling safe, but who never knew it.

Things were no less philosophical in the boys’ dorm.

‘Joe, what do you reckon the probability is of a sandstorm blowing up that quickly?’ Freddie asked.

‘I don’t have the data,’ Joe said. ‘I imagine it’s rare.’

‘You don’t think it might be linked to the bodies being moved from the mine?’

‘You mean that the spirits of the ancestors were angry…and they created some sort of force that made the weather extreme?’ Joe said incredulously. He knew that Freddie was susceptible to such ideas but couldn’t pretend to dignify them.

‘Something like that,’ Freddie said defensively. ‘Don’t you believe in spirits?’

‘Someone once suggested that a plane only flies because of the collective will-power of all its passengers egging it aloft,’ Joe offered. ‘Do I believe it? No. Am I fascinated by it as an idea? Yes.’

‘What is the maths of life? Of all its intersections and forces?’ Freddie asked.

‘I don’t know, but the math of breakfast is that it finishes in seven minutes.’

Jericho Andjaba was a brilliant science teacher. He brought science alive.

‘My great sadness,’ he used to say, at least once in most lessons, ‘is that there are no distinguished Namibian scientists…yet!’

Joe had once asked him why this made him so sad.

‘Because Science, Mr Kaplan, as you know as a mathematician, is everything. Great art might inspire us. Music might lift our souls. But Science enables us. Look at this country. If Namibia is ever to grow, we need to use solar energy better. We need to desalinate water and learn how to make the deserts bloom. We need to link the country better through non-polluting transport. We need to stop cybercrime. We need to find new ways to stop corruption. We need something to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus which afflicts a quarter of our population. Science is the key to all of this.’

Today was the start of the Science Project.

‘I want you to work in pairs or three’s,’ Andjaba said. ‘You need to pick a topic that needs unravelling. Think of something that needs some research but also some original thinking. This can’t just be a cut and paste from the Internet.’

Joe, Freddie and Hannah took all of ten seconds to choose the Fairy Circles. Surely Science could unlock their secrets.

Jericho Andjaba wasn’t convinced.

‘I would really prefer you to tackle something other than bare patches in grassland. Why not choose something medical? Hannah, your mother is a doctor.

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