You Will Be Safe Here by Damian Barr

Author:Damian Barr
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408886106
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-01-24T09:59:52+00:00

7

March 2000

It’s Saturday morning and Willem is poised in front of the wide-screen that his pa asked them to look after till he got back from wherever he had to go. Rayna’s been called in for more Diversity Training and Irma is still in bed. Elise is hoovering around him and humming along to MTV. Willem’s waiting for the beat to kick in. The Backstreet Boys want it thaaaat way and he does too – matches their every move, except the splits. He’s not as big as other boys but he’s bendier. He wishes he had somebody to dance with but Ma says it’s private. Who would he ask anyway? School has a dance every Christmas but he doesn’t go because nobody picks him – because he hasn’t got a pa, because he can catch a ball, just doesn’t want to, because he won’t even let the girls be nice to him. He fibbed to Elise when she picked him up after the last one but he knew she could tell (Elise can tell everything) and that was worse. Now he practises every Saturday morning when it’s just him and Elise and MTV and fantasises about turning up one year and showing them all his amazing moves then walking out just as the song ends. He would have danced with Lukas – Lukas was really good at Lego. They sat so close for the first few weeks of school they looked like a two-headed boy but dusty old Mrs Bun split them up. Sometimes his ma joins in, says it’s her aerobics and lifts him up – before he gets too big, she says. She kisses his face over and over until he wriggles away then she chases him. Soon he’ll be six.

The next video is his current all-time total favourite: Britney. He loves Britney. She sits kicking her feet in class and he knows the feeling. He moved on to bigger books with Rayna ages ago, is stories and stories ahead. When the clock hits 3 p.m. the bell rings and Britney’s out in the locker-lined corridor and everybody’s snapping their hips and bouncing their heels behind her. Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know, he sings along in perfect time and imperfect English, his accent a bright bubble-gum wish of Brakpan and LA. All the best songs are English, which he knows better than his ma and gran, thanks to MTV and the books Gran buys him. Everybody talks English in the playground. Afrikaans is for class and church but happily he doesn’t have to go there. Britney’s picking up the pace and Elise is dancing along with her hoover so Willem hops forward between beats and cranks it up. Irma can’t even pretend to sleep any more so rubs her eyes and stumbles along the hall to the top of the stairs. ‘Willem,’ she shouts, but he can’t hear, never listens, that boy. Another worry floats up – maybe his hearing’s not right, but surely

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.