Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms Read Online Free PDF Page A

after her, heard singing on the wind.
    When Will sang, she smiled at the same time; the corners of her mouth reached outward, into her ears, and her eyes changed color, to amber with bits of gold. This was Will’s world, and it was her joy.

I F YOU WANTED TO SEE will’s world at its best, you went out at sunset. You had to put up with the swarms of mosquitoes, that was true, but in return you got the toads singing, and the air tasted of excitement. The African witching hour, the men called it. And it was true, Will thought, looking round at the circle of horseboys and the cobs of roast corn scattered on the ground; everything was strange in this light. Even the men drinking leftover beer from the gala two days before looked stronger and wilder than usual. It was like the world was carved out of expectant silence. Will sniffed and tucked her legs under her chin. Her knees smelled the same as the air, of woodsmoke and earth. Had anyone ever been as happy as her?
    Her thoughts were interrupted by a colossal crash. It was Simon, back late from mucking the horses, pushing through the other boys, tripping and swearing, throwing a stick at someone’s head, stealing someone else’s corncob and collapsing to sit beside Will. She grinned. Simon had never done anything quietly in his life.
    â€œ Manheru , hey!” He took a handful of the gooseberries by her side and crammed them into his mouth.
    â€œManheru!” Will leaned toward him. “Hold still.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œTick.” She pulled at the black insect on his arm, and it came away, complete. “You got to keep the head on—see, this one’s good.” She held it out to Hector, who was two years younger and desperately in awe of her. “If it stays in your skin, you’re finished, ja . You froth at the mouth and die.” She smiled her most beatific smile. “Truly.” She put the tick between her teeth and bit. Blood squeezed down her lips.
    â€œEugh! Will, that’s horrible! Now you’ll get rabies,” warned Peter.
    Will grinned at the expressions of horror on the boys’ faces. She kissed the back of her hand, and the blood on her lips left a lipstick-like mark. “It won’t hurt me.”
    Simon laughed. “Nah. Will’s immune to everything .”
    Will made her rabid-dog face.
    Hector rolled his eyes into his head and dribbled. “I’ve got rabies! Look! Look , Will! I’ve got rabies too!”
    â€¢Â Â â€¢Â Â â€¢
    Biting ticks was one of the very few things forbidden by Captain Browne.
    â€œBut they bit me first,” Will had said, trying to look sullen when the captain had first caught her. “And”—this was daring—“I bet you bit ticks when you were a kid? Didn’t you, sir?”
    â€œEh?” The captain had growled low, like a lion with a blocked nose, and swiped at the back of her legs with his walking stick. “Eh? Whatasay?” The captain was deaf only when it was convenient. “Run off and play with those boys of yours.” She had heard him snorting with laughter as he’d gone round the corner. In fact, that had been the day she’d realized you could be as rude as you liked to the captain—or you could be mute or say stupid things or be awkward and dirty and scratching—so long as you loved him at the same time. It was a thing worth knowing.
    The other things that the captain had forbidden were (1) playing near the compost heap, where there were scorpions and some of the smaller snakes—which Will and Simon did anyway, and were duly bitten, but by a grass snake, no moredangerous than a wasp—and (2) eating the dark red berries that grew along the veranda. Will only tried that once, and then never again, after the foulest fit of diarrhea she had ever had. “I thought I was going to die, but I would have hated to die in a toilet. So I went out into the bush, without any