Читать книгу Oliver Strange and the journey to the swamps (school edition) - Diane Hofmeyr - Страница 7

Pre-reading
1.	Have you ever travelled anywhere on your own? How did you feel? What are the advantages and disadvantages of travelling alone? Can you sympathise with Oliver’s feelings here?
During reading
2.	How do we know that the girl on the railway platform knows the area?
3.	What does “dumela” mean?
4.	Why does Zinzi say that the snake is “small by python standards”?
5.	Why does Ollie choose the top bunk?

The station was crowded. A girl was standing next to a huge pile of boxes and crates. Oliver pushed his way across to her.

“Hi. Is this the platform for the train to the Victoria Falls?”

The girl didn’t look up. He was about to ask again but saw her earphones. She was singing to herself. He tapped her shoulder. She frowned as she slipped the ear-phones off. “What?”

“Is this the platform for the Victoria Falls?”

“Hope so!” She pointed to a sign. “Unless that’s wrong.”

At the sound of her voice, a furry creature with huge eyes, popped out above the top button of her shirt.

“Is that a monkey”

The girl shook her head. “More lemur than monkey. She’s actually a bush baby. Her scientific name is Gelago sengalensis. Her African name is impukunyani so I call her Puku.” She tucked the creature back into her shirt. “What’s your name?”

“Oliver. Oliver Strange. But you can call me Ollie. Most people do.”

“Well dumela, then Ollie! My name is Zinzi.”

Ollie didn’t know if he should shake her hand but she answered the problem for him. “In Botswana men and women don’t normally shake hands. Let’s get going. Here’s the train.”

There was a smell of hot metal and burning coal as the gigantic engine came hissing and snorting into the station amidst clouds of steam that swallowed up the crowds on the platform. A stream train! He’d never been on a steam train.

The platform became chaotic. People with luggage of all shapes and sizes balanced on their heads and tucked under their arms, pushed and shoved their way between vendors selling oranges and cigarettes and anything anyone might or might not need on a train.

Zinzi hauled out a ticket from the pocket of her shorts. “I’m carriage 2749. Compartment B. What about you?”

Ollie glanced at his ticket and nodded. “Me too.”

“They must’ve put us together because we’re travelling alone.” Zinzi examined the tickets stuck in holders next to the windows. “Over here! Stay on the platform. I’ll hop on board. Then pass my stuff up to me.”

“All of it?” Ollie looked at the huge heap of boxes and crates.

Zinzi leaned out a window. “Careful how you handle that big one. Don’t let the catch open.”

He heaved it onto his shoulder and came face to face with … “A snake!” He almost dropped the crate.

“Don’t worry. It’s a small one.”

“Small?”

Zinzi nodded. “By python standards.”

“You mean it’s a real python?”

“Well it’s not made of plastic.” Then she grinned. “Don’t worry. He’ll sleep all the way. I fed him a huge rat. Pythons are lazy after they’ve eaten.”

“Is it poisonous?”

Zinzi shook her head. “Pythons aren’t poisonous. They just squeeze you to death.”

Ollie swallowed hard. Of all things, why did it have to be a snake?

“Quick-start! You’re going to miss the train.”

He thought about asking for another compartment. A girl and a snake! But it was too late. The conductor was blowing a warning whistle. He climbed up into the carriage. There was a sharp, sour smell of coal-dust, hot metal and disinfectant. He squeezed past the toilet and the people in the narrow corridor. Then he froze. The snake crate was standing in the middle of the compartment.

“It’s okay. There’s a catch on it. It can’t escape.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.”

There was a commotion as doors slammed shut. Then with a sharp whistle and an extra stamp of steam, the train moved slowly out of the station. Ollie pushed down the window. Faces and colours blurred. Then the platform ended abruptly and the train picked up speed. As it raced past some dark sheds, broken windows flashed. Then they were out in the open. Not a single building in sight, just the tangled bush and thorn trees slipping past and the click of wheels over joints in the winding, criss-crossing tracks that seemed to be singing …

We’re going to I-la-la. We’re going to find your fa-ther.

We’re going to I-la-la. We’re going to find your fa-ther.

At last! He was truly on his way. Hot, dry air full of coal soot was rushing past his face and making his eyes sting. He slammed the window shut.

Zinzi was shoving boxes under the bottom bunk and onto the metal racks overhead. Ollie watched as she pushed the python crate under the bunk.

“Aren’t you going to check?”

“What?”

“The catch.”

She gave him a look. Ollie slid his eyes away and glanced around the compartment. There were two bunks covered in shiny, green leather with saggy places where people had sat too often. Tucked into a corner was a table with a hinged cover and a leather strap. Beneath the cover, he discovered a tiny, stainless steel basin with a single tap. Everything he touched had a gritty coal-dust feeling.

Zinzi stood with her feet apart, balancing to the sway of the train. “Which bunk? Top or bottom?”

Ollie’s eyes slid back to the snake crate. “Top.”

“Just a warning. Puku’s nocturnal. But if you bury your head under your pillow you’ll be okay. D’you have a pet?”

Ollie nodded. “Two stick insects.”

“Stick insects!”

He bit his lip. “Stick insects are …” he couldn’t think of anything interesting to say. “Are these all your pets?”

“Not exactly mine. My school’s part of Wild Care. We take in injured or abandoned creatures. Eagle fledglings that fall from nests. Elephant babies whose mothers have been killed by ivory poachers. Injured leguaans.”

Ollie stared at the strange-shaped boxes. What exactly was a leguaan? Wasn’t it a scaly, prehistoric dragon? “How dangerous is a leguaan?”

“Dangerous enough.”

How dangerous was dangerous enough? He kept his mouth shut.

“I’ve got some jumping spiders. Like tarantulas. They’re called baboon spiders because they’re so hairy. Puku doesn’t like them.” At the sound of her name, Puku popped out from Zinzi’s shirt. Her huge, dark eyes flicked open then closed again.

“Her leg’s broken. It’s splinted. When it’s fixed she’ll go back into the wild. She’s not exactly a pet. You can’t really own a wild animal.”

“But you’re taking them home? Won’t your mum be upset?”

Zinzi shrugged. “She’s used to it. She’s a bush vet. What about you?”

“I’ve come to find my father. He studies frogs. A …”

“Herpetologist.” Zinzi interrupted. “What’s he doing in Botswana?”

“Collecting data on a frog so small it hardly covers a thumb.”

Zinzi nodded. “Probably the painted reed frog. Pale, with pink dots on it. Sometimes with small black patches that make it look like a death-head skull.”

A death-head skull? He gave her a look. There wasn’t much this girl didn’t know.

“So where exactly in Botswana is your father?”

Ollie shrugged. “That’s the problem. I don’t know. He’s disappeared.”

There was a roar as the train dived through a tunnel and they were plunged into darkness. Then with a whoosh they were out the other side. There was a rattle at the compartment door. A steward flung it open. A smell of curried chicken and burnt coffee wafted in.

“You hungry?” Zinzi asked.

Ollie nodded.

The setting sun made a fire that leapt into their compartment as they ate. Then just as quickly the fire went out. Ollie climbed onto his bunk and lay close to the window and stared out through his reflection into the greenish light. The moon was coming up. A huge round mother-of-pearl button stuck on a velvet coat against an outline of trees with flat tops and strange ones that seemed to be growing upside down with their roots in the air.

It was odd. Here he was in Africa watching the moon and Grandma was watching the same moon over the rooftops in Tooting. But everything was odd. It was odd his aunt hadn’t been there to meet him. Odd to be hurtling across Africa on a steam train. Odd to be sharing a compartment with a snake!

Zinzi had settled down with her ear-phones glued to her ears. He would write to Grandma but he wouldn’t tell her that Aunt Hortense hadn’t been at the airport to meet him. He began drawing the strange trees that looked as if they had roots in the air. When he had finished he lay back listening to the wheels of the train singing …

We’re going to I-la-la. We’re going to find your fa-ther.

We’re going to I-la-la. We’re going to find your fa-ther.

He woke with a start as something landed on his stomach. He lay not moving an eyelid and waited. It wasn’t heavy enough for a python. With a sudden squeal, a small shape went flying up into the luggage rack above him. He grabbed his torch. Two luminous eyes reflected back like bright torch lights.

“Puku!” he hissed as she leapt to the rack on the opposite side. The splint on her leg didn’t seem to bother her in the least. Ollie leant down from his bunk. “Zinzi! Wake up!”

“What?”

“Puku’s jumping about.”

“That’s what bush babies do at night.”

“All night?”

“Go to sleep, Ollie,” Zinzi mumbled.

“I can’t. Not with her causing chaos.”

“She’ll settle down when the sun comes up.”

Ollie peered out through the window. “That’s not for ages.”

“Sing her a lemur lullaby.”

A lemur lullaby? This girl was weird. “I don’t know any lemur lullabies!”

But Zinzi was already breathing deeply. He lay back in his bunk and began humming. Sure enough, Puku sat still and watched him. The humming must have put him to sleep too, because he woke with Zinzi shaking him. “Wake up! We’re here. We have to catch a bus to Kasane. But if you hurry there’s time to see the river and Mosi oa tunya – the smoke that thunders.”

Post-reading

1.	As he looks at the moon, what does Ollie find odd about his present position?
2.	Ollie does not seem to know very much about wildlife. What is strange about that?
3.	Based on this chapter, what kind of person do you think Zinzi is?
4.	Write down a sentence with alliterative text.
5.	After reading the first two chapters you should be able to relay the plot of this book to someone. In no more than five concise sentences, write the basic plot of the story.