Afrika Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Surprise!” he said. “My ma and I live at the bottom of your garden.”

K im couldn't wait for her first day at the new school to be over. Through the long afternoon she was conscious of Themba who sat silently in the desk across from her. She didn't know what to make of him. Themba had obviously enjoyed her shock over finding out that he was living in her garden. The whole situation was weird: this country this boy in a shack in her yard, this school. She decided to act as if none of these unusual things really affected her. She wasn't afraid of Themba. She would act as if he were any boy she knew back home. Her opportunity came a few moments later when Miss Phillips left the classroom to speak to someone in the hall. Almost at once the students began to talk amongst themselves. Kim turned to Themba, as casually as she could manage, and asked him why he spelled Africa with a
K.
    “Oh that,” Themba responded giving Kim a look she couldn't figure out. “It's my poor Bantu education. I'm afraid we natives can't spell.”For a moment there was silence as Kim wondered if he was angry.
    “It's a joke, hey, Kim,” he finally said. Then his mouth spread into a wide grin – the first real smile Kim had seen from him.
    She made a mental note to get back at him. Somehow.
    “Don't you have jokes in Canada?” he added with a wink. When he winked he reminded Kim of Lettie. He had the same teasing eyes as his mother's, glossy as black river stones.
    “No, we don't,” Kim fired back. “It's illegal. They put you in jail.”
    Themba pointed at a framed poster that hung beside the blackboard. “Look at the first line of our new anthem.
Nkosi Sikele' iAfrika,”
he said, as he read the words out loud for her. “God bless Africa.”
    Kim almost told Themba about the map she'd drawn on the plane, and how she had scribbled Afrika over and over not really knowing why. But she didn't trust him enough to tell him anything about herself. Instead she said, “How come I didn't see you yesterday or the day before?”
    “On weekends I stay in the township outside Cape Town,” he answered.
    “Alone?”
    He smiled at her question.“I stay with my sister and grandfather.”
    “Why don't you go to a school out there?”
    Themba's smile disappeared and his color deepened. “Guys are knifed to death over bags of marbles. Girls are raped on the way to gym class. Township schools are shit.”
    Kim stiffened. At that moment Miss Phillips returned and the classroom quieted down. Kim was greatly relieved, for she had no idea how to respond to Themba.
    There was a great deal she did not understand about South Africa and the four days she had spent sick in bed had not made things any clearer. This world belonged to Themba and Lettie, to her mother and Oom Piet, but not to her. She had no business at all in Africa, and that morning, on the way to school, she had told Riana so. “Living here will make you appreciate Canada more,” her mother had said.
    After school, Kim grabbed her jacket and bag and went quickly to the front gate to see if her mother had come. Riana was nowhere to be seen, and Kim decided that she would walk the short distance home. She had memorized the route between the cottage and the school. By foot it would take fifteen, twenty minutes at the most. She would stick to the busy street that went up the mountain. She could see the street from the school parking lot. She knew for sure that it eventually intersected her street.
    Kim looked up at the mountain. Just as Oom Piet had promised, clouds were racing to form a tablecloth on its unusual flat top. It reassured her to see Table Mountain. Because of its constant presence above the city, she could not easily lose her way.
    Yet, as she crossed the intersection, Kim hesitated. How many times had her mother warned her? “You are not in Canada.” “Don't leave the yard.” “If you are alone, the streets are out of bounds.” When-ever Riana ventured out, and with a