SHORT STORY 1: ROAD CAMP Just by the side of the road, in the shadow of the lorry, they eat

the sandwiches she packed and swallow them down with black
by J.M. GILFILLAN coffee. All around them, other road workers are propped up
against their lorry tires and eating. Some of them are wearing
sweaty vests with oil stained pants. Their faces look unshaven
When the letter arrived at home, the one from her father, with and tired. Yet they are friendly. They invite Antjie to take food
money for a train ticket included, Antjie's mother was from them, and that way she finds out who has wives in the
immediately angry. camp. They are the men who have been given fat cake, a handful
of raisins or a few clowns.
"It's the last time you go, understand me. A road camp is no place
for a girl child. It's your father who wanted a divorce, now he has Only from Skeelkoos Willemse is she allowed to take nothing. And
to bear the consequences. that is non-negotiable, her father said, even if he were to offer her
an apple of solid gold.
If he can't provide a proper roof over his head, he should just
forget about you. This is the last time, believe me." When they have finished eating, some of the men remain lying in
the shade of their lorries with a hat or a newspaper pulled over
But now she is here, in the road camp near Malelane. It's even
their faces. Some of the youngsters start kicking a ball around.
better than the other tent towns she's visited with him. This time
Her father also falls in and Antjie wanders off with the book she
there are some rondavels, and hot water. But best of all, it's so
brought with her.
beautiful here, with bougainvillea hanging in purple clusters over
the gate pillars, and languid afternoons smelling of guavas. And A little further on she sat in the shade of some thorn trees and
all this in the middle of winter. read. '
Antjie soon gets to know the rhythm of her father's working day. "Psst," she startled as a pebble fell next to her. She looked up and
Early in the morning, when the sky still glistens like opal, she is "psst" she heard again.
already sitting with him in the cockpit of his lorry. No matter when From behind the trunk of a fever tree, a cross-eyed man stood
they start, there is always a line of trucks ahead of them. and stalked her.
Everyone is waiting to be loaded. It's only bad white people like
Skeelkoos Willemse who only invade when the sun knows where, It can only be Koos Willemse, she knows and embarrassedly she
says her father. "Stay out of his way, he spells trouble." looks down at her book while a glow rises to her cheeks.

When it's their turn, her father pushes backwards into the quarry. "Psst," she heard again. "Come here, girlie!"
First the backhoe bites its iron jaws full of gravel and then it She pretended not to hear anything and tried to read on.
cranes its neck over the lorry bed where it spits it out. When the
bowl is full, tip them. Then they drive back to the backhoe, which When she looked up again, he was squirming out from behind the
spins like a trapped dinosaur in the crater it has eaten out of the tree trunk, lazy and noiseless and flowing like a snake. He stood
ridge. So, they load and tip, load and tip until it's time for lunch. there with his lower body bent forward and his hand on his hip. In
the corner of his mouth a canine glint and all the while his good

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eye is flashing over her, while the skele is looking at something He takes a few steps forward. Antjie feels paralyzed down to her
behind her. toes. Before she can jump up, the scowl in her eyes, as in a
mirror, sees someone coming up behind him. He swung around,
"Girlie, are you coming or should I pick you up?"
suddenly the one wariness. Like in a cowboy picture, thought
Antjie. Immediately ready to pick out a revolver at each hip.
Without a word he and the young man standing there with a
spanner in his hand measure, each other
The skele's eyes fall first. As if there was only jelly under his skin,
he sauntered back towards the lorries. He cursed under his
breath.
As for Antjie, not much happened. At least she finds out that the
name of the young man who came to her rescue is Ryno. This
Ryno tells her father about the incident and now she is no longer
allowed to ride with the lorry. Maybe it's just as well, or she never
got to know Aunt Molly.
Ant Molly stays in the rondavel diagonally behind them. Her
husband, Oom Boy, is also a road maker, even though to Antjie he
looks like someone who should have been on a pension for a long
time, his face is so full of wrinkles.
He is small and thin, but her father says Boy is a gentleman of the
old school. He still wants to meet someone with finer manners.
And when it comes to dancing, the young fellows can go to sleep.
Uncle Boy is the kind of man he doesn't want to mess with, her
father says with a distant look in his eyes. Only a pig would
descend low enough to harm Uncle Boy.
When she knocks in the morning, Aunt Molly has just finished her
homework. "Time for tea," she greeted and took off her apron and
headscarf.
Ant Molly's teacups are very pretty. Almost translucent, with roses
creeping over it. "Bone China," she tells. "Expensive, but I bought
them one by one when I was still working at a large department

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store in Johannesburg. A cup every month, until the set was One must use one's beauty, she says. Especially here among the
complete with milk jug and sugar bowl and all." bunch of people who work on the road. That they can see you are
used to better. That's why she wears her step-in every day, even
if it's in the boudoir, and night after night she and Uncle Boy sit at
a set table, side plates, paper serviettes, the lot. And even if no
one is here to appreciate it, she will never go out the door without
her nylon stockings and a hat. It can be as hot as hell, but they
won't catch Molly Nortjé on the street without a hat and gloves.
On Saturday nights Uncle Boy and Aunt Molly come over to play
bridge. In their rondavel it's too cramped, Uncle Boy complains. If
you push your chair back, a teacup or a flower pot or an ornament
falls on you. It is so small, you cannot swing a cat in the place,
which still receives from people.
While they play, Antjie sits on her bed and pretends to read.
Every now and then she looked up, right into Ryno's grey eyes. He
is Uncle Boy's bridge mate. She would love to keep staring
because he is easily the most handsome man she has ever seen.
But she is shy, so she immediately looks away when their eyes
meet. Besides, he is a grown man; probably already close to
twenty, even though her father talks about a nice boy.
She is happy that her father and Aunt Molly are so comfortable
with each other. You'd think they were married, her handsome
dad and Aunt Molly looking like a movie star tonight in a chiffon
dress that clung to her torso and fanned out around her calves.
One could mistake Uncle Boy for Aunt Molly's father, especially
when he rambles on with the same old story. Over and over like a
moped against a windshield.
By ten o'clock, Molly winked at Antjie. This is their sign that she
can now manage the tea stuff. Antjie wished she could borrow
Aunt Molly's bone China when she poured the tea into her father's
cups, none of which fit a saucer. When she passed Ryno's milk
tart, his fingers caught hers over the edge of the plate. She
doesn't dare look at him, and long after she's already back in her
corner, her whole hand is still glowing.
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From taking Ryno by the hand, everything is different. She still "Listen to me today," said Aunt Molly. "There are two kinds of
goes to the women's washing block every evening at dusk to take women. My kind can never put on enough make-up. They carry a
a shower, but now there are young men leaning in quite a few whole bag of tricks with them. And the older they get, the harder
revolving doors when she walks by. Could it be that she just didn't they have to try. Until one day they get downright pathetic and
notice them earlier? drenched in gin." She remained silent and looked at her hands.
For the first time, Antjie sees how chipped her nail polish is.
Some of them whistled when she passed, but not Ryno. He just
stood there smiling, and when she looked up, their eyes held each Then she bent forward and gently caressed the girl's cheek. "And
other. For an eternity, as one reads in storybooks. then there's the other kind. The kind that doesn’t have to change
what the dear Father gave them."
When she goes to take a shower, the smoke of evening fires and
dust always burns in her nose, but something has been added; Antjie actually hopes that she is of aunt Molly's kind, because she
something like sweat or bruised grass; something that gets her also wants to wear sultry pink on her lips and spray Midnight in
blood racing. Paris between her breasts and trip around in high heels. She
wants to feel silk dresses rustle against her skin and let little curls
On the last Saturday morning before she leaves, there is a dance
roll down her neck. She wants to be drop dead gorgeous, like the
in the camp. A band from Komatipoort comes over, and
movie stars.
everywhere against thorn trees there are posters to advertise it.
"Our dances are very special," says Aunt Molly. "All the way from There is dancing outside, on a cement slab where there used to
Lourenço Marques the people drive up. Farmers and Portuguese be a tennis court. It is a balmy night under a hiss of stars and
and sorry to say, scum from the road camp." Antjie imagines that she smells orange blossoms as she stands in
the dark next to the dance floor.
On the afternoon of the dance, Antjie goes to aunt Molly early,
because she promised to help with her hair. As she rubs it dry, Suddenly it feels like something is reeling her in. Looking up, it is
Aunt Molly pours tea. right in Skeelkoos Willemse's good eye. He motioned that he was
coming towards her. Horrified, she stood back in the dark, only to
"I was thinking about you," she said. "A plain style suits you best."
feel two strong arms holding her.
This is the last thing Antjie wants to hear. She hoped Aunt Molly
She laughed in relief when she saw that it was Ryno. He leads her
would let her hair tumble down her back in wild curls and dress
to the dance floor, but she keeps falling over her own feet in
her up so she looked much older than thirteen.
sheer embarrassment. She can't believe that dancing can be so
But when she was finally allowed to look in the mirror, she difficult! She then dreamed that she would simply float away in
couldn't stop her smile. She looks like a ballerina, with her smooth Ryno's arms. As light as a feather.
brown hair slicked back and tied in a tight bun, as Aunt Molly calls
Before she can make too much of a fool of herself, Uncle Boy
it. Something has happened to her eyes too, because they look
comes to her rescue. He tapped Ryno on the shoulder and with a
twice as big as usual, and it's as if candles have been lit in them.
tight bow he led Antjie away. "I'll teach you two steps before you
There is a mysterious sheen on her lips and Antjie wonders if aunt
can say great Gotlieb Gouws. I wasn't dancing instructor at Arthur
Molly has applied Vaseline, or glycerine or something.
Murray for nothing!"
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When Uncle Boy left her, one of the other young men asked her. Just before she jumps up to run to meet him, a shadowy figure
As long as she forgets about her feet, she's fine. So good that moves out from behind a lorry. It's a woman, Antjie sees.
she's looking forward to dancing with Ryno again, because she Someone her father expected because he stood and wrapped his
knows he'll ask her again. arms around her body. The woman puts her hands on either side
of his face and there is so much intimacy in the way they stand
And then she saw him. In the middle of the dance floor, with a
there that Antjie wants to tighten her throat.
dark girl in his arms. She looks beautiful and self-confident to
Antjie and the lips with which she smiles at him are cherry red. At that moment the moon moved out from behind the clouds and
Her smooth shoulders are bare and his hand the hand he used to Antjie saw what she had already guessed, deep in her most secret
squeeze hers rests on one of those shoulders that look like heart.
they've been smeared with golden syrup.
This is Aunt Molly. Uncle Boy's aunt Molly who is now being kissed
She is asked again and again, but to everyone she says no so passionately by her father. Antjie is too stunned to feel
because she is waiting for Ryno to come and get her. But he stays anything. She only knows that she must get away; they are on
on the dance floor. He held the warm girl tightly against his chest. their way to the rondavel. To do who knows what, and she just
Anyone can see that he has completely forgotten about her, walks blindly into the dark. When she saw again, she was
thought Antjie. between the tents. Her foot catches on a rope and she falls down.
Her knee is definitely bruised, but that's no reason to cry, she
The music slows down and the girl lowers her head to Ryno's
thought as she wiped away her tears impatiently.
shoulder. His cheek rubs against her curly head.
Here she has to get away, these are the tents in which the young
To see this, somewhere in Antjie's stomach hits so that she has to
men stay, and she starts jogging.
bite back an exclamation.
Suddenly the ablution block is right in front of her, with light
She wandered back to their rondavel. The smell of dust mixed
pouring out from the vents. At least she could wash her hands,
with kitty litter is enough to make you cry. It comes from when a
she thought. At least she can hide between four walls until the
child wants to raise her, she thought, and sat down on the steps
dance is over. But she got stuck in the door. The girl leaning
with her hands wrapped around her legs.
towards the mirror with lipstick in her hand is Ryno's brunette.
Behind the far ridge she saw the round orb of the moon come She is so beautiful and radiates so much brilliance that Antjie just
loose. For a while it hangs loose against the sky, but then moves turns around and walks away. Where to she doesn't know.
behind a membrane cloud. Antjie can still hear the music with
She didn't even flinch when someone touched her elbow. For all
voices of people laughing in between.
she cares it could be Skeelkoos Willemse. Or the devil himself.
Everyone is happy, except her.
"Girl child, are you tired of the stuff too?" asked Uncle Boy. "Come
Then she saw her father coming between the rondavels. She will along, I'm going to make us a nice cup of tea."
recognize him everywhere, even in the dim light: her father
Uncle Boy pours them into tin cups and stirs in a thick stream of
holding his head high above those proud shoulders of his.
condensed milk. "That's what camp tea should taste like, or what
do you say?"
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Antjie is happy, because tonight she sees no chance for Aunt "I promised your father that I would leave you alone until you
Molly's fancy cups. The sweet, hot tea comforts her, so she can grow up," Ryno called above the ticking of the wheels, but Antjie
laugh at Uncle Boy's jokes, even if they aren't really funny. gave no sign that she had heard.
But even though the two of them laughed until tears flowed, she Only later, after the station building has disappeared into the
could see in Uncle Boy's eyes that he knew. Then he took out a distance, does she open Aunt Molly's package. In it is a block of
deck of cards and showed her tricks until he collapsed on the sofa mascara, with a brush to apply it. Furthermore, a card on which it
afterwards from sheer exhaustion. says: For Antjie with the bright brown eyes. With love from auntie
Molly. Only then did she cry.
Later she could vaguely remember someone carrying her back to
their rondavel. Probably her father, because Uncle Boy wouldn't
even be able to lift her, he's too small for that. Only upon laying
down on her own bed did she half wake up and imagine that it
was Ryno's face bending over her, that it was Ryno's lips gently
caressing her cheek. Bad enough to make her close her eyes and
pretend to be asleep. The shame of being carried to bed like a
baby!
And then the holiday was over. Sommers Without her talking to
Ryno again.
Ant Molly doesn't want to go with me to the station. "Goodbyes
makes my chest tighten, kid, but trust me, the camp will be dead
without you." She says this with all her old warmth, even though
Antjie can see the sadness in her eyes. Ant Molly was not hatched
under a turkey; she knows that Antjie avoids her. Still, she
pressed a package into her hand.
"Here, girlie, is the only make-up you'll ever need. Hide it well
from that angry mother of yours!"
When Antjie hung out of the train window to talk to her father for
the last time, Ryno came rushing over. He is out of breath. Even
though this is what she's been waiting for all this time, she
pretends not to see him. She waves to her father, as the train
begins to move jerkily. Ryno runs along. She pretends that she is
already engrossed in the Red Rose that Uncle Boy bought
especially for her.

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 QUESTIONS 16.Who is Uncle Boy's bridge mate?
17.Why do they play this sport at Antjie's house and not at
1. Explain the title in your own words.
Uncle Boy's house?
2. Describe the relationship between Antjie's parents.
18.How do the men react every time Antjie walks past their
3. Why does Antjie's mother not like that she has to stay with
revolving doors on the way to the washing block?
her father in the road camp for the holidays? Give TWO
19.How does their reaction differ from Ryno's reaction when
reasons.
she walks to the washing block?
4. Where exactly is the road camp that Antjie is going to?
20.On the last Saturday night before Antjie left, there was a
5. Compare this road camp with the other road camps she
dance.
stayed in earlier.
6. What was Antjie's father's job? Discuss fully what he does. 20.1 Where exactly was the dance held?
7. Why do you think Koos Willemse gets the name "Skeelkoos
20.2 Where did the band come from?
Willemse"?
8. Describe how the road makers spend their meal breaks. 20.3 Do you agree that only civilized people attended the
9. How does Antjie know which men's wives stay with them at dance? Motivate your answer.
the road camps? 21.Arrange the following events as they occur in the short
10.Against whom did Antjie's father warn her? story.
11.Why does her father warn her against this person? (Your a. Antjie cries as she reads Aunt Molly's letter.
answer in 10) b. Uncle Boy sees Antjie at the washing block and takes
12.Ryno saved Antjie when Skeelkoos Willemse wanted to her to his rondavel for tea.
assault her. c. Antjie's mother receives a letter with money for
Antjie's train ticket.
12.1 Briefly describe Ryno's appearance.
d. Ryno saves Antjie van Koos.
12. 2 How does Antjie feel towards him? 22.Choose the CORRECT answer to complete the following
sentence. Antjie's hair was (in curls/"plain style") for the
12.3 What was the result when Ryno told Antjie's father
dance.
about the incident with Skeelkoos Willemse?
23.Describe the two kinds of women, according to Aunt Molly,
13.Uncle Boy was Aunt Molly's husband.
that there are in the world.
13.1 Describe Uncle Boy's appearance. 24.Antjie was an excellent dancer.
13.2 How did Antjie's father feel about Uncle Boy? What evidence is there in the short story that this
statement is FALSE?
13.3 Why do you think Aunt Molly married a man like 25.Why was Antjie upset with Ryno at the dance?
Uncle Boy? 26.Why didn't Antjie dance with the other men?
14.Give evidence from the story that Aunt Molly loved the 27.Antjie leaves the dance and decides to go back to their
finer things in life. rondavel.
15.What sport do uncle Boy and Antjie's father play every Discuss in what TWO ways she was betrayed.
Saturday evening?
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 28.What would you say is the tone or atmosphere in this short
story?
29.How do you feel about men like Antjie's father?
30.What life lessons did you learn from this short story?
31.Match the character in Column B with the quote in Column
A.
COLUMN A COLUMN B
31.1 "Psst. Come here, girlie." A. Antjie's mother
31.2 "He is a gentleman." B. Koos Willemse
31.3 "I promised your father I C. Ryno
would let you go until you grow
up."
31.4 "It's the last time you go." D. Oom Boy

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