Precious and the Mystery of Meercat Hill (3 page)

And then Precious asked: “What about your father?”

This time the boy answered. “Our father was struck by lightning two years ago,” he said.

“That’s very sad,” said Precious.

The girl nodded. “And so we had to sell the place we lived in. We moved here because my grandfather had a small house that he owned. We all live in that now.”

There were one or two other questions that Precious was able to ask. She asked how long it took them to walk to school, and they replied that it took just over half an hour. She asked them
whether they believed in ghosts and Teb said no, although Pontsho hesitated a bit before he too said no. Then she asked them whether they liked apples, and Teb shook her head.

“I have never tasted an apple,” she said. “Are they good?”

Precious tried not to show her surprise. Imagine never having tasted an apple! She herself loved apples, which her father bought her every Friday from one of the village stores. And then she saw
something that she had not noticed before. Neither of the children was wearing shoes.

It did not take her long to work things out. Teb and Pontsho must be very poor. That was why they had never tasted an apple and that was why they had no shoes. The thought made her sad. To walk
to school for half an hour on ground that could become burning hot during the summer could not be easy. Of course your feet got used to it, and the skin underneath became harder and harder, but it
must still have been uncomfortable. And what about thorns? Some of the bushes that grew at the side of paths were known for their vicious thorns. It would be only too easy to get one of these in
your foot, and she knew how painful that could be.

She did not say anything, though. Sometimes people who are very poor are ashamed of it, even if they have no reason to be. Being poor is usually not your fault, unless it’s because you are
very lazy. There are all sorts of reasons why people can be poor. They may have not been able to find any work. They may be in a job where they are not paid very much. They may have lost their
father or mother because of illness or an accident or, Precious thought, lightning. Yes, lightning was the reason here, and it made her sad just to think of it.

The bell sounded for the end of the morning break. “We have to go inside now,” said Precious. “But if you like, I can walk home with you and we can talk a bit more. Your house
isn’t far from mine.”

“I would like that very much,” said Teb. And then she added: “And if you come to my place, my brother can show you something really special.” She turned to Pontsho and
gave him a warning look. “But don’t tell her yet, Pontsho! Let it be a surprise.”

“I won’t tell,” said the boy. And smiled.

RECIOUS
could hardly contain her excitement on the walk to Teb’s house. She wondered
what her new friends could have in store for her, but try as she might, she could not guess what it was. That’s the thing about a
real
surprise – you have no idea what it can
possibly be, and the more you think about it, the harder it becomes to imagine what it is. Try it. Try to think of something that you don’t know anything about. Hard, isn’t it?

After they had been walking for a while Teb said: “We’re just about there. Our house is just down there. See, near that hill? Where those trees are? That’s our
place.”

They were now outside the village, and there were no other buildings to be seen. There were plenty of trees, though, and it took Precious a few moments to work out which trees Teb meant. But
then she saw a wisp of smoke rising up into the sky and she knew that this was from somebody’s cooking fire. And, sure enough, when her eye followed the smoke down she saw that there was a
small house tucked away at the end of it. So that was Teb’s place.

They followed the path that led to the house and soon they were there.

“This is our place,” said Teb. “This is where we live.”

Precious looked at the house. It was not very large and she wondered how everybody could fit inside. But she did not want to say anything about that, as people are usually proud of their houses
and do not like other people (and that means us) to point out that their houses are too small, or too uncomfortable, or the wrong shape.

And so she said, ‘That’s a nice house, Teb.”

That was not a lie. It is not a lie to say something nice to somebody. You have to remember that you can usually find something good to say about anything if you look hard enough. And it’s
kind too, and Precious Ramotswe was a kind girl, as everybody knew.

Teb beamed with pleasure. “Thank you,” she said. “It’s a bit small maybe, but then my brother sleeps out at the back, under a shelter, and so he doesn’t take up
much room. And my grandfather sleeps during the day and so he doesn’t really need a bed at night – he just sits in his chair until morning. He’s very happy, you know.”

Precious looked about her. In front of the house she saw two chairs, and in those two chairs she suddenly noticed that there were two very old people, both wearing hats that had been pulled down
over their eyes.

“That’s my grandfather and grandmother,” explained Teb. “You may think they can’t see anything, with those hats pulled over their eyes, but they can. They have
small holes in the hats, you see, and they see through those.”

Precious looked again, and saw that what Teb said was right. There were small holes in the hats and through those holes she could just make out … eyes.

And then one of the people raised a hand to wave to her, and then the other did the same thing. So Precious waved back.

Teb and Pontsho now took Precious to say hello to their grandparents. Precious did this, and was greeted very kindly.

“How do you do?” asked the grandfather. “You are very welcome. Thank you for coming. Good day.”

And the grandmother said: “How are you? It is very nice to see you. Good day too, my dear.”

Then Teb took her into the kitchen, which was the first room that you went into when you entered the front door. There she met Teb’s mother and her aunt, who were both busy crushing grain
in a large tub. Some people don’t know that bread comes from grain. You do, of course, but others have to be told that not everybody can go into a shop and buy a loaf of bread. Some people
don’t have shops anywhere near them, and some don’t have the money to buy bread. So they have to make it. And it tastes delicious!