I’m keeping a space for you next to my bed in the stables. Nobody’s allowed to touch it till you come back.
I can tell Kezia misses you. Shumba misses you.
Underneath that line, Simon had drawn a monkey riding a horse. Will’s eyes ached with the happiness of it. Neither of them had ever been able to draw horses. The tail was too long on this one; it looked like it had five legs. Under it, Simon had written,
But I miss you most.
Write back soon. I want to know what England is like.
Simon.
Will propped up her science textbook so Mrs. Boniface wouldn’t see what she was writing (they were supposed to be drawing the digestive system; Will was unable to find the digestive system exciting) and tore a page out of her exercise book. Her hand shook with happiness as she tried to write.
Dear Simon,
Thank you for writing. I miss you more than I can put on paper.
England isn’t like Africa. There’s no dragonflies. But there are some good things.
That was true. There were girls like the twins. There were books. There was Miss Blake. Will wrote again,
Daniel is one of the good things. He’s coming to visit me this weekend. He’s bringing me his comics. You’ll like him. When I come back to the farm, I’ll try to bring him, and you’ll meet. He’s almost as tall as you. He can whistle with his fingers, but he can’t swim.
Will bit the end of her pen. She wrote,
I will come back, Simon. I’ll come back to the farm and you. I will, I swear.
She underlined the last two words in red ink, and drew three stars around them.
But I have to stay here for a while, my dear. I’m learning how to cartwheel in thunderstorms.
For now, I’m sending love. All the love I have. Far more than will fit in the envelope, ja. Also—
The bell went. Will folded up the paper and put it safely in her boot. She would finish it later. But she’d said, more or less, what she wanted to say.
Letters, Will thought, were like books: they were mostly about love.
GLOSSARY
While Zimbabwe’s official language is English, there are many languages spoken in the country, from major languages to smaller tribe dialects. The words included in this glossary are in Shona, unless otherwise indicated.
ach—an exclamation similar to “argh”
booraguma—expletive: a slightly stronger version of “drat”
chongololo—slang name for the giant African millipede
faga moto—literally, “make fire”; figuratively, “hurry up”
faranuka—be happy
ja—Afrikaans for “yes”; pronounced “yar”
mangwanani—good morning
manheru—good evening
marara sei—did you sleep well?
mombies—cows
naajies—satsumas
ndatenda hangu—thank you
ndarara kana mararawo—I slept well if you slept well
nguruve—pig
nzunas—wild dogs
penga—crazy
sadza—savory cornmeal porridge
sekuru—uncle
sha—an exclamation of surprise or consternation
shumba—lion
uchaenda—come on, off you go
unanki—excellent
vlei—another form of flei, an (often marshy) field
zisikana—slang for “big girl”
Katherine Rundell is the author of Rooftoppers. She grew up in Zimbabwe, Brussels, and London, and is currently a fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. She begins each day with a cartwheel and believes that reading is almost exactly the same as cartwheeling: it turns the world upside down and leaves you breathless. In her spare time, she enjoys walking on tightropes and trespassing on the rooftops of Oxford College.
Also by Katherine Rundell
Rooftoppers
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SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2011 by Katherine Rundell
Originally published as The Girl Savage in 2011 in Great Britain by Faber and Faber Limited
Jacket illustration copyright © 2014 by Melissa Castrillón
First US edition 2014
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Jacket design by Lizzy Bromley
Interior design by Hilary Zarycky
The text for this book is set in Bembo.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rundell, Katherine.
Cartwheeling in thunderstorms / Katherine Rundell. — First edition.
pages cm
“A slightly different version was published in 2011 in Great Britain by Faber and Faber Limited.”
Summary: “Will must find her way after she’s plucked out of a wonderful life in Zimbabwe and forced to go to boarding school in England”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4424-9061-1 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4424-9063-5 (ebook) [1. Orphans—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. Boarding schools—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Zimbabweans—England—London—Fiction. 6. England—Fiction. 7. Zimbabwe—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.R88827Car 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2013021053
Katherine Rundell, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms
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