Shamanka Read Online Free PDF Page B

chanting in an ominous language they don’t understand. The resonance and rhythm lulls their minds to the point of numbness.
    Suddenly, she opens her hands and the sparrow flutters into the sky. There’s a collective gasp. Some of the girls shriek. No one was expecting that, least of all Trevor Randle. For all his jeering and bravado, he doesn’t like it at all; it frightens him.
    â€œNo way did that happen. That’s sick.”
    Smallest Girl brushes grass from her skirt “Wassup, Trev? I fink it’s nice. I’m glad the sparra’ came back to life.”
    The boy is riled. “What are you saying, little mad girl? Things don’t come back from the dead.”
    â€œForget it, Trev,” says his mate. “It’s a trick. It wasn’t dead, it can’t have been.”
    â€œ
Was
dead,” mumbles Smallest Girl.
    Trevor shoves his friend hard in the chest. “It was dead; now it ain’t!”
    â€œP’raps it’s gone to heaven,” says Smallest, which only makes Trevor angrier.
    â€œShut
up
! Unless you want to go to heaven an’ all … do ya?” He points angrily at Sam. “You’re evil, man. I want you out of this school. I’m gonna grass you up, pikey!”
    Two other lads hold him back, but he catches one of them on the chin. A fight breaks out. All the boys bundle in, feet and fists flailing. Blazers rip. Eyes are poked. Buttons pop. First a resurrection, then a ruck; it’s a lot more exciting than double Maths.
    Smallest Girl runs off to fetch a teacher before someone gets maimed; she knows she’ll get house points for Telling. Sam steps back, retrieves the lid from the inside of her blazer and puts it back on her lunchbox; no one notices.
    Seconds later, a red-faced teacher arrives to break up the fight. He marches Trevor Randle by the collar to the headmistress’s office and it is there that the boy grasses on Sam. “It was Sam Khaan started it, miss. She brought a dead bird back to life. Ask anyone.”
    Every pupil confirms his story so the headmistress has no choice but to phone Sam’s carer, Miss Candy Khaan, and ask her to come up to the school. The phone rings while Candy is in her rum barrel; she is furious at being woken.
    Aunt Candy arrives at the school on her rusty old bike with her wig on backwards and totters into the headmistress’s office. “What have you done
now
?” She screams at Sam.
    The headmistress describes the incident on the school field; the bringing back to life of the dead sparrow. The school doesn’t allow resurrections; it mustn’t happen again.
    Aunt Candy stamps her feet in irritation. “It’s a trick. An illusion. Search her!”
    Sam shifts uneasily. Aunt Candy glares at her, the vein in her temple throbbing. “Come along, Spam! Show Miss Looney what you’re hiding.”
    The headmistress fiddles with her glasses nervously. “
Langley
. My name is Miss Langley.” She’s fond of Sam and not in the least bit fond of Aunt Candy, but she has a duty to get to the bottom of this, so she asks Sam to turn out her pockets.
    Sam places the contents of her top pocket on Miss Langley’s desk; a biro and a coin. She empties the bottom pocket; there’s nothing in there except a pack of cards. Miss Langley tries to make light of things. “Not gambling, I hope.”
    â€œNo, miss.”
    â€œGood girl.”
    Aunt Candy bangs her fist on the desk and screeches. “
Good girl?
She’s a liar! A cheat! Check her
inside
pockets. Let’s take her blazer off!” Without warning, she marches over to Sam, yanks her blazer off, turns it upside down and shakes it.
    Miss Langley panics. “Miss Khaan, I really don’t think that’s appropria—”
    A very dead sparrow drops out of Sam’s pocket onto the carpet. Another second and she’d have managed to hide it behind a cushion, but the attack was