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Die Pro
Complete English
Summary

Chapter 1

Tiaan is the main character and he is studying Life

Science (Biologie), or Life Science
(Lewenswetenskappe).
Life Science is the study of living organisms, thus the study of
the living world.
Viruses and bacteria
Here we have a variety (verskeidenheid) of primitive
somethings that are well adapted (aangepas) to their
environment (omgewing), whose children en
grandchildren are still like (aard na) them.
Viruses: all these stupid (eenvoudige) things want to
do, is procreate (voortplant). All they cause
(veroorsaak), are diseases. Often found in plants, but

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also “vigskriklike” [the writer came up with this word

which is a combination of “VIGS”, which is AIDS, and
“verskriklik” which means terrible] diseases amongst
people. Schoolbus-like (skoolbusagtig): the further
(verder) they travel (reis), the more they become.
Bacteria: these beings (wesens) can be found in
colonies [“balonies” once again a word made up by the
writer: a combination of the “b” from bacteria and the
rest of the letters from the word “kolonies”.] Colorless
when they are not colored [yes, you read correctly !
The narrator is just being sarcastic.] Their little old legs
(beentjies) are called /agella (/agellums). (Take your
/agella o0 of the table when you are eating!) [Yet
another wise crack by the narrator.] And guess (raai)
what, they procreate at a massive speed (dat dit dreun).
Kind of like a split in the middle and when you look
again, there are two! What are they good for? Illnesses
(siektes). What do we kill (maak vrek) them with?
Antibiotics. Where do you 6nd them? Everywhere
(orals).

25
January
The year has barely started, but Tiaan and his mom already (al
klaar) had a massive !ght (uitval). It was about tannie Ella
who phoned his mom and asked if she gave her permission
(toestemming) that Tiaan could sell his wetsuit to Louis. Tannie
Ella calls it a “natpak.” Only when his mom realized it’s his
wetsuit that was on the line, did she lose it.
He doesn’t know what the fuss is about: he bought it with his
own (eie) money, but his mom went on as if he was trying to
sell (verkoop) the house from under his parents’ noses. He
doesn’t need the wetsuit anymore because he says he is never
going to surf (branderplankry) again. He hasn’t even tried to
sell his bodyboard yet and now he knows he probably (seker)
won’t be able to anyway. He doesn’t know why Louis had to
involve (betrek) his mother in the transaction.
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It is clear (duidelik) from his argument with his mom, that Tiaan
doesn’t really leave the house anymore. She is constantly on
his case asking why he doesn’t hang out (kuier) with the other
kids anymore and goes on about how he can’t sit in his room all
day. He says that she is overexaggerating (oorreageer): he
goes to school every day AND he takes Hugo (his
Weimaraner, a dog) for a walk (stappie) every afternoon.
He is grateful when he can close his door at night and be alone,
well, almost (amper) alone. Hugo sleeps on the small carpet
(matjie) in front of his bed. He had to smuggle him in
(insmokkel). If his mom knows that the dog is sleeping in his
room, she will have a !t (driedubbele piep kry), but he will take
Hugo out early the next morning before she realizes (agterkom)
anything.
Tiaan writes that the book he is busy writing in, was supposed
to (veronderstel) be a type (soort) of workbook for Life Science.
Apparently, it was Geyer’s idea to help make the subject (vak)
more fun for Tiaan by adding some humor to his summaries as
well. He doesn’t know if it will work, but at this stage he will try
anything since he’s currently getting 42% and he is already at
the end of grade 10.
Tiaan writes and says he doesn’t know if HE, whose name is
actually DIRKIE (LATER IN THE STORY WE WILL FIND OUT
MORE ABOUT THIS PERSON TIAAN IS WRITING TO) ever
(ooit) met (ontmoet) Geyer. He describes (beskryf) Geyer as: a
short (kort), chubby (dikkerige) man with straight
(reguit), dull-brown-ish (vaalbruin) hair and a stubble
(stoppelbaard) that always looks (lyk) a week old.
Tiaan has seen him on the beach (strand) a few times, but
never spoke to him before. Then Geyer just (sommer) started
talking to Tiaan the one day. First (eers) about Hugo, of course.
Tiaan writes that Dirkie of course knows how people are about
Weimaraners: either the golden (goue) eyes scare (maak bang)
them or they are crazy (mal) about the dogs. Geyer and Hugo
got along from the beginning. Then Geyer asked if Tiaan is Ed
Notnagel’s son. His dad and Geyer apparently (glo) started
talking when they were !shing on the rocks together one time.
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First (eers) he thought the guy was lying through his teeth (lieg
dat dit spat), because Tiaan knows his dad doesn’t EVER talk to
anyone when he’s !shing, he doesn’t even speak much to
people overall, even (selfs) those who are customers in his
shop (winkel). Except of course when he loses it with
anglers/!shermen (hengelaars) who litter (mors) there by the
water: then he has lots to say.
But Tiaan asked his dad about Geyer afterwards and it turns
out the guy legit didn’t lie. Ma, as per usual (soos gewoonlik)
knows everything about the man. She says he’s been living
there in Vlakberg since June the previous year (die vorige
jaar). He used to (was) be a journalist en is now writing
(skryf) a book. According to (volgens) Tiaan’s mom, his
wife left him (hom gelos) and now he’s living alone in
their beach house (strandhuis).
Tiaan can’t remember how he and Geyer got talking about his
Life Science mark (punt), but Geyer keeps (aanmekaar) asking
a person so many questions anyway, like he is having an
interview (onderhoud) with some president or whatever. Within
20 minutes, they had talked about half a million things,
including humor and studying (swot).
Geyer is also going to come and play chess (skaak) against
Tiaan’s dad. It seems as if his dad is a really good chess player
and hard to beat.
But the best news for Tiaan is the fact that he is no longer in
Kruiwa’s class. This teacher is now the new vice-principal
(adjunk-hoof). Tiaan is super relieved that he doesn’t have to
look at the teacher’s sarcastic face anymore every day. Just too
bad that Kruiwa has more time now for his creeping down the
hallways (stoepe). He is even attempting (poog) to grow a
moustache (snor): Tiaan thinks it’s probably so that other
people will take him more seriously (ernstig opneem), but it’s
not like it’s helping him any because even Tiaan’s dad thinks he
should have become a baili= (balju) and that coming from
someone who never says anything mean (slegs) about anyone.

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Mrs. Beukes is the new Life Science teacher. Yvette and

Albert are just as happy about that. She is a short (kort)
lady with glasses (‘n bril). She has brown-gray-ish
(bruin-grys) hair that’s not too long and she dresses
(aantrek) neatly (netjies), not so showy (pouerig) like
Bambi. Tiaan estimates (skat) her age to be younger than his
mother and Mrs. Beukes told Yvette that her oldest daughter is
in grade 7 and is also coming to Storms (their high school)
the next year.
Tiaan almost (amper) didn’t take Life Science again this year,
but his dad didn’t want him to switch (oorslaan) to Economics
(Ekonomie); especially (veral) when the principal (hoof) said his
subject choices (vakkeuses) will collide (bots) and that he will
have to drop History (Geskiedenis) then as well.
Now Tiaan is stuck behind the laboratory benches
(laboratoriumbanke) once again. The place smells a lot like a
street child sleeps there at night, not that anyone in their right
mind would want to sleep there with all the shelves (rakke) full
of dead things laying with their closed (toe-oog) eyes in their
own sauce (sousies). Luckily Mrs. Beukes has living (lewende)
animals in the class now as well like mice (muise) and canaries,
but the place still feels like a horror to Tiaan. He says it’s no
wonder that Dirkie thought Tiaan was crazy to take Life Science
at the end of their grade 9 year.
Tiaan asks if Dirkie remembers (onthou) Henko Wiese, the
boy who always looked so dry (droog) and half dead (semi-
vrek) when he was walking down the hallways. Life Science for
Beginners. That’s what he wrote on the inside of his grade 10
book. Henko always wrote funny (snaakse) remarks
(opmerkings) in pencil (potlood), so the work was more like a
comic book than anything else. Just too bad that Kruiwa saw it
the previous year and thought that it was Tiaan who did it,
which makes no sense because anyone with a brain could see it
was not Tiaan’s handwriting (handskrif). But then again, Tiaan
says, he and Dirkie, could never do anything right in Kruiwa’s
eyes.

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This year Tiaan got Henko’s old Life Science book again: what
are the odds!
And yes, Kruiwa already (alreeds) complained (gekla) about
Tiaan’s hair: it’s too long.
Last year Kruiwa constantly (aanmekaar) complained that Tiaan
bleached (gebleik) his hair. Seriously? How does he expect
(verwag) a guy to surf in the ocean and not have his hair
bleached (gebleik) from the sun? Tiaan thinks it’s no wonder
that Kruiwa’s son became an alcoholic: he would be one too if
Kruiwa was his dad.
Tiaan gets back to his story about Henko, saying that this time
Henko wrote Life Science for Amateurs and Tiaan thinks that in
matric it will probably be something like Life Science for Pro’s.
He reckons that by the look of things, Henko’s captions
(byskrifte) might be the only (enigste) funny (snaakse) part
(deel) of the syllabus.
Then he writes that he probably has to get back to summarizing
the work. He doesn’t feel as if there is anything funny to him in
Life Science, except maybe the names, like 6agellums and he
wonders if it’s from Latin (Latyn). That reminds Tiaan that
Dirkie never gave him his Asterix and the Black Gold back.
Then he mentions that the braggart (windgat) Marcus asked
him the other day about the joke Dirkie told about the three
nuns (nonne). Tiaan was upset, thinking why Marcus asked him
about it. Now that Marcus doesn’t really have competition
anymore, he prances (trippel) around at javelin practice like
he’s some kind of imported (ingevoerde) Russian, probably
thinking he can beat (breek) all Dirkie’s records, Tiaan writes
bitterly. He adds that Marcus makes him sick.
Then he says another person that makes him sick, is Gustav.
He found a new friend, Dustin, and they have been sitting next
to each other in the bus since the beginning of the year. The
girls drool (kwyl) over him, but only they know why, according
to Tiaan. Albert says you have to use a putty knife to get
between the two if you want to speak to one of them.

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He mentions that Albert is still the same. Tiaan went with him
and Yvette that afternoon, actually, to the big marsh/wetlands
(vlei). He wanted to (wou) go show Yvette the Eamingos and
invited Tiaan along. Tiaan didn’t feel like going, but then he
thought it would help get his mom o= his back for a week or
two and besides (buitendien): from next Saturday onwards, it
will be athletics the whole time and then he won’t have time for
anything else. Hugo couldn’t tag along because they were
scared (bang) he would chase (jaag) the birds.
Luckily it was low tide (laaggety), otherwise the waves (golwe)
would have pinned (vasgedruk) them to the dunes (duine) like
the last time Tiaan and Dirkie had to struggle through the
bushes to get back home. But it was the whale and her calf’s
fault who were so close to the shallow waves: they just couldn’t
tear themselves away from them and then Tiaan mentions how
dramatic Dirkie was!

“We are never going to make it! Tonight we’re sleeping here,
surrounded by snakes (adders) and spiders (spinnekoppe). Just
imagine: such cold, hairy little paws (pootjies) on your neck. Or
stinking snake breath (slangasems) against your face (gesig.”
“Ja, and who kept (aanmekaar) saying: just a few (paar) more
minutes, Tiaan, just a few more minutes?”
“As if you really wanted to (wou) leave! Heck, I’m so darn
hungry. My tekkies for a roast (braaiboud). Can somebody hear
me? ROAST! Like only (net) my grandma can make it. With
yellow rice (geelrys) and …”
“Shut up!”
“Or smoked (gerookte) pork ribs (varkribbetjie). With my
mom’s roasted potatoes (braai-aartappels).”
“I’m telling you: shut up!”
“It’s over for us, Tiaan. All is lost (verlore). We are going to
freeze (verkluim). Starve (verhonger)! They are going to search
for us for days, in vain! And then stop. We will have to draw
straws (trek lootjies) over whose hand we are going to chop o7
(afkap) 8rst. And we don’t even have matches (vuurhoutjies).
Will have to eat it raw (rou).”

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Tiaan says he wanted to drown Dirkie at that stage or bury his

head in the sand, but it would probably have been him eating
sand because Dirkie was a big guy and Tiaan was much
smaller.
Tiaan writes that Albert doesn’t know much about the ocean,
but he came across the Eamingos by accident (per ongeluk)
and is now in complete awe (vervoering). He rode all the way
from the farm (plaas) with his bicycle to come have a look.
He says Yvette knows the ocean better than Albert and she has
been to the marsh a few times, but she had never seen the
Eamingos (Eaminke) and the long walk on the beach didn’t
bother (gepla) her.
He says to Dirkie that Dirkie knows how Albert is: always talking
nonsense. The latest is his nature reserve (natuurreservaat)
idea. Thousands of tourists are going to come see his personal
nature reserve: his farm which will have the ocean and the
mountains (berge) and everything (als). Tiaan says he thinks
Albert’s older brother is going to inherit (erf) everything, but he
just rather didn’t say anything regarding that issue.
Yvette was pretty quiet, busy picking up shells the whole time,
listening intently (ernstig) to Albert as if she believed
everything he said.
Tiaan then describes walking along the beach and then talks
about the Eamingos and how Yvette was on cloud nine (in die
wolke) about them. Tiaan told her about the !sh eagles
(visarende) that he and Dirkie saw up close (van naby) the
previous year and at !rst she didn’t know where to look when
Dirkie’s name came up but then she wanted to hear, in detail,
where they saw the birds and what they did there.
Tiaan noticed for the !rst time that the blue of her eyes is
outlined by a green circle. She is actually (nogal) pretty when
she becomes so excited (opgewonde). He writes to Dirkie that
he can now see why Dirkie was so crazy about her in the
beginning of the previous year. Tiaan sees her and Albert talk a
lot at school, but he doesn’t know if they have something going
on.
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Going home wasn’t as bad (sleg) as what Tiaan thought it

would be: the scene was almost romantic, as Dirkie would have
said.
Albert wanted them to go to the vlei again soon, but Tiaan
doesn’t know if they will have time. He also doesn’t want Alex
and the rest of them to see him walking on the beach otherwise
(anders) they will whine (kerm) that he must come surf again.
Tiaan sits next to Albert on the bus these days. Albert and his
dad still don’t get along (stryk nog steeds nie) and on diFcult
days (donnerdae) the hour-long drive to school can be very
long. Most of the time Albert talks as though he is living on a
cloud, but something about him is di=erent and he is de!nitely
much neater (netjieser) than the previous year.
Tiaan then mentions that some kids say he is also di=erent. He
doesn’t know where they come up with this rubbish (snert). He
thinks it’s none of their business and says that everyone
changes all the time; it’s anyway a new year, a new grade
(standerd), new kids on the bus. Like Dustin, Dino and Kevin.
And then Kevin’s incredibly beautiful sister in grade 9. He
writes to Dirkie that he can’t describe (beskryf) how beautiful
she is: long black hair and the most gorgeous black eyes
and dimples (kuiltjies) in her cheeks (wange) when she
laughs. Tiaan can already imagine what Dirkie would have said
and then we get a description of what Tiaan’s best friend used
to look like: very short shaved (poenskop) black hair and
dullish-brown-ish eyes like a coal miner’s
(steenkoolmyner).
Tiaan thinks back to how Dirkie wound up Kruiwa with his short
hair and even more so with his never-back-down-stare during
the last hair inspection. Tiaan wonders what Kruiwa would have
thought if he saw Dirkie that last December with an earring and
a nipple ring (tepelring)!
Tiaan writes about Welma Voges, the chubby (mollige), pretty
girl with the bob in grade 10, whose dad suddenly (skielik)
passed away due to a heart attack (hartaanval) the !rst
weekend (naweek) of the term (kwartaal). Her brother is now in

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grade 8. Welma cried a lot (kwaai gehuil) when the principal

asked everyone to bow (buig) their heads for a few moments
(oomblikke) of silence. Christien also cried a lot.
Tiaan wishes they would handle things like that a bit better.
One would think it’s just another announcement (afkondiging)
about the tuck shop (snoepie) being open during (tydens)
second break (tweede pouse).
Tiaan wanted to write Welma a letter to say he’s sorry about
her dad, but he didn’t; now thinking it’s probably (seker) too
late.
The children on the bus and at school talk about everything
that happened over December, but they keep quiet when they
see Tiaan. He’s happy about that.
He ends o= the letter by saying that it’s almost twelve o’clock,
so he has to try and sleep. He doesn’t know if he will be able to:
the whole room smells like the ocean. (This last sentence
tells us that the ocean reminds him a lot of Dirkie and of
the time they used to spend together: he associates the
ocean with Dirkie.)

Chapter 2
Miko6ete en 6ko6ete
Welcome to the slums (agterbuurte) of the biological
world where the miko6ete and the 6ko6ete hide (skuil)
in the dark alleys (gangetjies), use drugs (dwelms) and
smash (inslaan) each other’s heads in. Ja, just when you
thought all plants are softies. Another name for the
miko’s is of course fungus and fungi. They are certainly
(beslis) not green, although old Mucor looks a lot like it
on your forgotten (vergete) sandwiches (toebroodjies).
Their procreation (voortplanting) is just as weird as
their names. Sexually (geslagtelik) as well as (sowel as)
asexually (ongeslagtelik). Spores (spoortjies) are the in-
thing. Nobody noticed (gemerk) that the Mucor sneakily

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(stilletjies) left his/her spores in the apricot jam

(appelkooskonfyt). Calmly (rustig), the aunties ate the
one jam tart (konfyttertjie) after the other. Take note
(let wel), these souls (siele) are only found on land and
rots (verrot) everything that stands still long enough.
The Fiko’s are called alga (alge) by those who know
them personally. They can be found in all colors as long
as it is green, yellow-green, brown-ish (bruinerig) or
red. One of the most popular (gewildstes) ones in the
Fiko-gang (bende), is a fellow (knaap) by the name of
Spirogyra. Evolution left Spiro in the water so he has
never met the Mucors. Eats (vreet) sunlight and
procreate without a mate. Is this bunch (spul) important
(belangrik)? Well, whales (walvisse) tend (is geneig) to
die (vrek) if they don’t get a daily plate (bord) with the
6ko’s called plankton.

22
February
Tiaan mentions that the country is full of gangs (bendes) these
days: there have been a few incidents regarding abalone
poaching (perlemoenstropery). People say the smugglers
(smokkerlaars) trade (ruil) the abalone for drugs which are then
sold (verkoop) again.
Then Tiaan says it’s not like he cares: he’s not going diving
(duik) again so Alex and James keeping asking for nothing. It’s
way too much e=ort to clean an abalone anyway and his mom
always complains (kla) about the shells (skulpe) that stink so
bad.
He then writes about the giant abalone shell that was !rst on
his dad’s desk (lessenaar), but which is now on his table: it’s so
massive that he is guessing the abalone was probably
something like 20 years old. He then thinks back to the day
when they dived out three abalones over the legal limit and
how scared he was about being caught, but Dirkie was happy
about how lucky they got to score three extra ones.

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This conversation is a lot like the previous one: a lot of

bantering between the two best friends, which shows the
reader what a good and close friendship they had.
Tiaan thinks about how strange his dad is and how Dirkie bad
mouthed his own father again about the divorce, but Albert is
nuts, according to Tiaan. Albert thinks his dad is an abalone
poacher because there are divers who just rock up at their farm
and then they talk quietly and later there are strange cars
coming to pick up things in boxes. Tiaan reckons that Albert
shouldn’t be spreading around stories like that: sometimes it’s
like he WANTS his dad to get into trouble.
Then it seems like Tiaan wants to apologize for talking about
Albert too much and says that they aren’t best friends or
anything like that: he just sits next to Albert in the bus. Tiaan is
a lot like his dad in that aspect: he is a man of few words, but
people like to spill their guts to him. His mom, on the other
hand, though: joh! :-D
Sometimes Tiaan is glad that his mom talks so much, but at
times it’s just tooooo much. Like her complaining about him not
doing so well in this year’s long-distance running. Tiaan says he
can’t help it: he already practices at school and is dead tired by
the time Garries drops them o= in Vlakberg. He went running
with Dino Pietersen a few times, but that guy is such a fanatic
that Tiaan is not feeling it anymore either. Dino does well in the
1500m and will most likely get his Boland-colors.
He wishes that athletic season can !nish already, especially
after he made such a fool of himself at the event in
Franschhoek. Tiaan says he really couldn’t help it and that it
was all Marius’s fault because Marius was so busy checking if
the spectators were watching him that he wasn’t concentrating
on what he was doing and completely threw the javelin out of
the marked lines. It was at the exact moment that Tiaan then
looked up from where he was warming up at the 800m starting
line when he saw the javelin Eying through the air and the girl
drop a tray of cold drink she was carrying. The next moment
she was laying there with a javelin through her forearm. And
what did Tiaan then do? He threw up (kots), of course.
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Then he asks Dirkie in his letter how one is supposed to run an

800m race after that? Some people even fainted (Eou geval).
The teacher wanted to force him to run, but Tiaan took his bag
and walked to the bathroom (kleedkamers). The teacher was ok
with it afterwards, but when Kruiwa found out that no athlete
from their school participated in that event, he was furious and
gave it to Tiaan that next Monday in his oFce: saying how
surfers are like this and that and what he is going to do to Tiaan
if he doesn’t pull it together. Tiaan didn’t even tell him that he
doesn’t surf anymore: he wasn’t going to waste (mors) his
breath.
Tiaan keeps thinking about the girl with the javelin in her
forearm and how close death is to a person, so much so that
you can smell his stinky breath. He can’t wait for the athletic
season to !nish and mentions how he is constantly tired these
days, saying that it must be the wind that’s been blowing so
much the last few weeks.
He is, however, happy about the fact that he gets along well
with Mrs. Beukes. He thinks that maybe the summaries are
helping or maybe it’s the fact that she doesn’t think he is an
idiot just because he has blonde hair and used to be a surfer.
Kruiwa mos thinks that if you surf, you deal drugs as well. Tiaan
thinks back to when Dirkie wanted to slash Kruiwa’s tires
because Kruiwa accused them of dealing drugs at school:
nobody knows where he came up with that rubbish.
Tiaan mentions that he got 65% for his last Life Science test.
He actually wanted to go and rub it in Kruiwa’s face, but he
would just have thought that Tiaan cheated.
His dad was happy about the improvement (verbetering). Geyer
has come over 3 times already to play chess against his dad
and Geyer won once. Tiaan’s mom says Geyer’s wife was a
doctor and makes a ton of money; she apparently took their
only child (a girl) and said she doesn’t want Geyer in their
lives. Nobody knows what he did wrong: maybe he just didn’t
make enough money for her liking.

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This makes Tiaan think of Jasmine. He is very much in love

with her. It didn’t take him long to !nd out everything about her
and Kevin. They both speak English, but understand
Afrikaans. They live with their grandparents because
their parents are still in England. Tiaan isn’t sure, but he
thinks they have a business that they !rst have to sell in
London before they can move to South Africa.
Kevin says his dad went to Britain because of the political
situation in South Africa. His mom is British. He wonders if
Kevin looks like the mother because his hair is much lighter
than Jasmine’s and his eyes are more brown than black.
According to the other kids in his class, Kevin is a Math whiz
and very good at chess. Everyone wants to know when Tiaan
is playing against him, but Tiaan says he doesn’t have time for
that: grade 11 is no joke and you have to get good marks to be
considered for a bursary. He says that Kevin can come play him
at home if he wants to.
He has not spoken much to Kevin, but he has not spoken to
Jasmine yet at all. He doesn’t think she even notices that he
rides on the same bus as what she does. Then Tiaan thinks
maybe he should invite Kevin over for chess someday …
He then jumps to the topic of his mom and writes how she
always says she isn’t racist, but Tiaan knows she won’t like it
when the Farat-kids come over to visit. Typical: she complains
that he is too much on his own, but has an opinion about
everyone he comes in contact with. This is one of the things his
parents can argue about once Tiaan’s mom has worked up his
dad to a point where he’s just had enough. He is of the same
opinion as Tiaan with the complaining when it comes to friends.
Tiaan thinks she only likes Albert and it’s also only because she
plays tennis with his mom.
Then Tiaan jumps to a new topic, saying that Dirkie was right
about them having con!rmation classes with dominee
Oberholzer that year. Tiaan had wished for dominee Jordaan
and it’s not just because that dominee is friends with his dad.

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He goes on by writing that he doesn’t get along well with

dominee Oberholzer: maybe because of the time they added
lemon juice to his water by the pulpit (preekstoel).
These days Oberholzer looks at Tiaan as though he is going to
start a !re or do something demonic. He also gets asked the
more diFcult questions.
Tiaan feels that you can’t really talk to the dominee: when you
ask him a question, it’s as if his answer comes from the book
they need to know by the end of their con!rmation year: die
Heildelbergse Kategismus. Tiaan says there are so many things
God does that he doesn’t understand and he wants to know
why people can’t talk about things that are really important:
everyone always talks about politics and sport, but Tiaan wants
to talk about why accidents happen to certain people, why do
some people die young and others grow old. He doesn’t care
about whether being baptized is wrong or right. What Tiaan
actually wants to know, is why that speci?c thing
happened to his friend: Tiaan doesn’t have peace.
He goes on by saying that one probably can’t talk about things
like that when guys like Albert are in the class. He is always at
his worst over weekends: sulking (dikbek) the entire time. Tiaan
thinks that the more Albert and his dad see each other, the
worse it gets.
He thinks the only person who is not too stupid, is Yvette. She
actually thinks about what is going on in life and she is
always friendly.

Chapter 3
Brio6ete
One day, a gnome/dwarf (kabouter) arrives at his house
with muddy feet (moddervoete). When his wife, who
had just 6nished cleaning the entire (hele) house, sees
it, she shouts: Brio 6ete (play on words with “feet”). He
then wipes (vee) his feet by the green mat at the door

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and answers angrily (vies): I mos did!

Leaf moss, liver moss and horn moss. They are
“mos” green, have leaves (blare), stems (stingels) and
rhizoids (risoïede) which is just a pretty name for less
gifted (begaafde) roots (wortels). Reproduction
(voortplanting)? Finally! Here we have gametophytes
(gameto6ete), therefore we have male and female
genitals (geslagsorgane) on separate (aparte) plants.
But the bryophytes can’t reproduce without water. So,
keep your moss garden moist. And what are they good
for? Doormats for gnomes, lawns (grasperke) to
prevent the dirt (grond) from washing away. Also serve
(dien) as hiding place for local mites (myte).
28
Maart
Life Science is apparently not the only subject where Tiaan’s
marks have dropped: he doesn’t know what is going on.
In Life Science, they had to look at moss plants under the
microscope. There were three of them at one microscope and
Tiaan asked Mrs. Beukes if he could use the one in front of the
class. That was a great move because his looked so good that
he got better marks (punte) than the other 2 and he never
thought that moss would look so beautiful to him. (This just
tells us that he was actually happy about getting a good
mark and that he is starting to enjoy Life Science now.
Just shows you what a diAerence a good teacher
makes!)
Tiaan now knows Jasmine’s time table (rooster) o= by heart.
The other kids in grade 9 says she is very smart and gets
above 80 for everything, but it’s not like she’s a nerd. She
apparently plays hockey really well. Tiaan didn’t know that
Muslim-girls participated (deelneem) in sports.
He thinks that she is actually pretty quiet. She speaks to
Mandy every now and again on the bus, but most of the time
she sits and reads: English books, of course. And thick ones,

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at that! The other day she was busy with The Hobbit. Tiaan
thinks he should get the book too, then they can talk about it.
He retracts that thought: he hasn’t even spoken one word to
her! She at least smiled at him once. But she is friendly even
with that Dustin-character, so it means nothing. He thinks of
going to the library, maybe he will bump into her there.
Tiaan then addresses Dirkie directly, saying a lot of teachers
and kids won’t believe how many books in a year Dirkie
actually read. With his surfer-attitude (houding), short hair
and low-ish marks, people didn’t think Dirkie was very
intelligent.
He then jumps to Jasmine again, saying that maybe she does
study day and night because she’s never on the beach. Tiaan
has been walking Hugo during all possible hours of the day and
he hasn’t seen her once. He sees Geyer a lot, though, and he
can be a bit of a nuisance, especially once he’s had a drink or
two too many. Then he just wants to kuier next to the water.
Tiaan doesn’t know when he ever actually writes that so-called
book of his.
He’s been to Geyer’s house to play chess (skaak) against him.
It’s a messy place. Geyer o=ered him a beer, but Tiaan only
drinks wine with his dad. Apparently, beer doesn’t do much to
Geyer because he had a few and he still played well.
Unlike Dirkie, Geyer is one of those people who become more
and more mellow the more they drink. Tiaan writes to his friend
that he doesn’t think Dirkie realized how clearly one could see
when Dirkie was really angry: his eyes grew bigger and
there was this pale ring around his mouth with these red
Dames on his cheeks (wange).
Fortunately, he was never that angry with Tiaan, even after all
the times they argued (gestry) about things.
Tiaan mentions how the previous year was a bad one for Dirkie:
!rst it was Dirkie’s dad who moved to Bellville and then
the thing with StoAel, Dirkie’s dog (a Jack Russel) that died
after Louis’s dog (a Dobermann) fought with and killed him.

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Tiaan doesn’t understand why his mother won’t let Hugo sleep
in his room. He likes waking up and hearing Hugo breathing;
sometimes it sounds like he’s dreaming.
Tiaan has dreamt about the dog !ght twice, but every time it
has been the dogs that actually bit Dirkie. That is the only
thing he has dreamt about Dirkie.
He has dreamt about Jasmine a few times, but she won’t speak
to Tiaan even in his dreams :-D
He wonders what Dirkie would have thought of him liking
Jasmine: she is English AND she’s Muslim.
Tiaan mentions that Christien doesn’t ever speak to him: she, in
actual fact, purposely avoids him. He thinks that she is a bit
too chummy with Marius and asks Dirkie if he was really
going to go steady with her. Tiaan can’t understand how
Dirkie got girls so easily: with a name like that to top it
oA! He was one of the biggest guys in grade 10 and his
name was Dirkie!
Tiaan jumps to a new topic, saying how he got a big fright the
other day with Corré (Dirkie’s younger brother): he came
around the corner of the Afrikaans class and there Corré was:
his hair cut military style: super short! Just like Dirkie’s.
For a whole two seconds Tiaan thought it was Dirkie, but then
he just grabbed his bag and ran to the next class, writing how
very scary it was!
Tiaan’s mom bumped into Dirkie’s mom at the shops. She said
how Corré listens to Dirkie’s music all the time and that he
even moved into Dirkie’s room. She said Tiaan must still
come get the surfer-magazines and he PROMISES Dirkie in
capital letters that he will. He uses the excuse that he’s been so
busy with school and how his marks dropped in almost every
subject. If it wasn’t for Yvette that helped him with his moss-
sketches, he would have been in trouble with Mrs. Beukes as
well.
Tiaan says he can’t understand how people just won’t leave
him alone these days. If it’s not his mom complaining about his

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room, then it’s about him just being at home all the time. His
mom said she’s going to ask James or Dustin to come visit
Tiaan.
Tiaan nearly got a !t: Dustin! Ja, right! Dustin and Gustav have
transformed into these cycling-buddies, even wearing Ray
Bans, the works.
Even Albert now started nagging that him and Tiaan should
start cycling. Tiaan doesn’t want to and thinks if Albert really
wants to cycle, he can ask Kevin to do it with him. Kevin is
apparently just waiting for his bicycle to arrive from England.
What baPes Tiaan, is that his dad has also been on his case
lately, asking him the other day when he’s going to start
sur!ng again.
Suddenly Tiaan felt like he wanted to shout at his dad: it’s his
business, isn’t it? It never bothered his dad when he used to
surf, no: his dad just wants him to play cricket. That’s the
only sport his dad actually came to watch him play.
Tiaan wishes he could shout in his dad’s face that he must
leave him alone; he wishes he could scream at his dad like
Dirkie did to his dad, but Dirkie’s dad hit him. Tiaan doesn’t
think his dad will ever do that, but then says Dirkie also didn’t
think that his dad would have left them for “her”, the other
woman that Dirkie’s dad had an a=air with.
Tiaan thinks that he probably won’t ever be able to do it:
scream at anyone. Sometimes he dreams that he is shouting at
someone, but his tongue can’t move and he wakes up in a cold
sweat.
So, with his dad: he just mumbled something and turned the
radio up. His mother quickly came to complain about the loud
music. Tiaan wishes he had a sibling to take the attention away
from him.
He ends o= by saying he has to go to bed now: his mother has
knocked on the door twice already!

Chapter 4
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Pterophytes
Not to be confused (verwar) with the more dangerous
(gevaarlike) species, the pedophile.
No New Zealand sportsman or woman get sent
overseas (buiteland) with pterophytes on their clothes.
Those who lisp and struggle (sukkel) with words like
ptero just call them ferns (varings).
What do they look like? They have stems and roots
and leaves. But /owers? Nope. Reproduces via spores.
(Makes a joke based on Doc Martins).
Function? Decoration, was maybe once upon a time
dinosaur food and – last but not least – provides ground
cover. (Cover your naked/bare garden with our
pterophytes and save yourself the embarrassment.
24
April
Tiaan thinks his Life Science jokes stink and that Henko’s
sketches are just way better and wonders what Henko is doing
currently. He thinks people are not always what they seem
when judging from the way they look, like Dirkie, for instance:
he was an absolute clown at times, but then when other
people weren’t with them, he spoke more sense than
most of the academic wizzes in school. (It’s almost like
Dirkie couldn’t be himself around other people: he only
revealed his true character to Tiaan because he felt safe
with Tiaan and knew he would never judge him.)
Regarding Life Science practical: Tiaan now always ensures
that he gets to the light microscope !rst and he has done very
well since he’s been doing that. Tiaan thinks he’s losing his
mind because Life Science seems to be his highlight of the
week these days.
His mom at least stopped complaining about Hugo sleeping in
the room with him. He doesn’t know if his dad said something
or if her mind has just been busy thinking about all the other
stu= she can complain about.

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Tiaan hid his report until the end of the holiday. He thinks
his dad suspects something, but he pretended to believe Tiaan
when he told him that the mail was probably delayed again. But
not his mother! Nope. She watches him with hawk eyes.
His bad report at the end of the previous year caused quite a
shockwave through their household. He was !ned R50 for every
subject he got under 60%. So, he owed his parents R250 which
he had to earn by selling pizzas. In this paragraph he indirectly
tells us what his parents do for a living: his mom sells houses
and his dad has a shop, most likely one that sells
building supplies.
Tiaan didn’t just accept his fate lightly. He is still not speaking
to his parents, except when he really has to.
He thinks back to when Dirkie used to work at the pizza place
with him during their holidays: Peet se pizzas, was the name
of the shop. Peet almost !red them the one time when Dirkie
put pepper on aunty Ella’s pizzas. It was always so hot in
front of those ovens and Dirkie suggested they change the
name to “Inferno’s pizza”, but Peet didn’t get the joke.
There were a lot of people vacationing in Vlakberg again. The
two new guys from Paarl who surfed with Dirkie and Tiaan were
there again. They asked Tiaan if he wanted to go surf with them
when they stopped at the pizza place, but he declined. It
annoys him that there are guys who can talk about nothing but
sur!ng. As if that would make you a better surfer, eye roll from
Tiaan.
He says it’s almost as bad as Gustav now: the only thing that
he, Dustin and Kevin can talk about these days, is cycling. He
can’t understand why Kevin is so chummy with them: he
thought Kevin had some brains. But then Tiaan remembers
what Dirkie once said: just because a guy knows how to play
chess, it doesn’t mean that he knows how to make the right
move.
Tiaan goes on by saying how much Gustav has changed: he
is even playing hockey now. Gustav has never gone near a
ball since grade 8! And Tiaan thought he would be puking his
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lungs out from being un!t, but Gustav is apparently so !t from

all the cycling that he is running circles around the other guys.
Well, except for Dustin, of course, because that mister is also
now playing hockey. Tiaan wonders who is going to do their
hair after the matches "
Kevin also plays hockey, but not as brilliantly as Dustin. Kevin
is, however, the captain of the team. So, those three are
now thick as thieves.
Tiaan’s seen Jasmine practicing once or twice. He could only
watch the !rst half of her game because he had to go warm up
for his rugby match.
She looked beautiful in her hockey clothes. Kevin and the other
two were cheering her on and she apparently scored a goal, but
Tiaan had left by then. He wishes he was able to see it.
He has written her ten letters by now. He tears them up
afterwards, of course. He doesn’t know where she was during
the holiday but he didn’t see her in the library (bib) once. He
even rented the old video of Romeo and Juliet from the
library and the girl who played Juliet, looked a lot like Jasmine,
according to Tiaan.
The lady at the library asked if it was a holiday assignment and
Tiaan blushed, mumbling that it was for his mom. His mother,
again, wants him to mix more with the other kids. Tiaan
wonders if she thinks that kids are a salad or something: just
add anything and see if it works? He is not like her who wants
to talk to anything that moves.
Tiaan didn’t much care for the movie: it was a bit boring for his
liking. The sword !ghts were ok, but the rest was a snooze fest.
He can’t understand why he is so afraid to speak to Jasmine. He
only gets out a “hallo” on the bus and just when he thinks he is
going to do it, then nothing happens. Tiaan also doesn’t want to
invite Kevin over for chess anymore: not since he’s so in with
the other two.
He thinks he is going mad because Jasmine is the only thing he
can think about. He almost told Geyer about her the other day,
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but he won’t. Geyer asks too many questions, but Tiaan doesn’t
think that he actually listens when a person talks. These days
he permanently smells like alcohol. Not that he’s drunk or
anything: one can just tell that he has had a drink.
But Tiaan thinks that if he is crazy, then Albert must be close to
insanity because him and his dad now !ght almost all the time
and then he still came up with the idea of stopping rugby
and playing hockey! Tiaan told him that hockey is for Souties
(Englishmen) and Albert’s dad forbid him from playing
hockey. Just the other day he came up with the idea of
running away. Tiaan thinks it’s a good joke because where
will he go? He barely remembers to pack books for the six
periods he has in a day. Tiaan asks Dirkie if he remembers how
Dirkie also wanted to go after his dad left. Dirkie decided
against it, but then again: Dirkie’s dad didn’t hassle him the
way Albert’s dad does. Tiaan really hopes Albert doesn’t go and
do something stupid.
He also wonders why Albert’s dad makes such a big deal about
rugby. Tiaan’s dad lives for cricket and it’s his mom that
will surely die of shame if he had to stop playing rugby.
His grandfather Mouton will also probably have a heart attack.
They support the Lions rugby team.
The other day Tiaan left a newspaper article on his mom’s
dressing table about a boy from Natal who broke his neck
during a rugby match. He thought she would ask him to stop
playing after that, but she didn’t even pay attention to it.
Tiaan told his coach, Mr. Duvenhage, that he doesn’t want to
play Eanker this year again. At !rst, he refused, but when Tiaan
said in that case, he will just stop playing, the teacher gave in.
Tiaan is now playing fullback for one of the lower ranked
teams. He said he will not break his neck for other people’s
pleasure and that when he has children someday, he will not
force them to play rugby.
Tiaan then remembers about what Kruiwa said the other day
that made him want to punch a teacher in the face. Tiaan was
walking down the passage when Kruiwa stops him and shouts

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at him about the button missing on his jacket. The button

must have fallen o= during break because it was still on that
morning. As if that wasn’t enough of an issue, Kruiwa starts
complaining about how pathetic Tiaan’s marks were. He
just stood there and took it, thinking how Dirkie was never
scared to take Kruiwa on. Kruiwa was a bit weary of Dirkie,
but the teacher thinks he can intimidate Tiaan. That was not
the issue: it was when Kruiwa came to rugby practice that
Tiaan overheard him and Mr. Duvenhage speaking about Dirkie.

Mr. Duvenhage said they missed having Dirkie Lawrence as

a wing and that he would most likely have gotten Craven-
week this year to which Kruiwa responded that Dirkie was
too much of a Jannie du Plessis-character. (This implies
that he is a trouble maker, easily angered on the ?eld
and uses his ?sts to sort out the problem there and
then.) He would probably just have caused trouble for the
school, Kruiwa said.
Tiaan’s hands were shaking, he was SO mad! He almost started
crying out of sheer anger. He dropped the ball three times
during practice that day, but at least Kruiwa didn’t stay to see it
happen.
The worst thing of all, was that Kruiwa was at the funeral
(begrafnis). Tiaan doesn’t know what he was doing there;
maybe because the principal was overseas at the time. Tiaan
was very close to asking his dad to chase Kruiwa away. There
were so many people at the grave, but it had to be him that
Tiaan saw standing between the other graves, looking very
bored and staring at the boats of the people vacationing. Tiaan
thinks it’s a wonder that Kruiwa didn’t come to reprimand him
about his hair there and then.
Tiaan wishes he had the courage (moed) to say to Dirkie’s mom
that the grave should rather be under a dune (duin). It
would be much better, according to him. Then it wouldn’t be
just another one of those granite constructions next to the main
road. It’s bad enough to drive past it every day on the bus.

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He wonders how it will all work on the Day of Reckoning: some

people are going to have a hard time getting out from
underneath all of that marble (marmer). But Tiaan stops
himself right there, because dominee Oberholzer is
apparently already threatening to go see his parents
about his “rebellious attitude” in the con?rmation class.
He’s also threatening to not have Tiaan con!rmed. Tiaan thinks
his dad will say that they will just then have to wait a year or
two, but his mother will never forgive (vergewe) him. So now,
he rather keeps his mouth shut. He’s just happy that oom
André (dominee Jordaan) handled the funeral and not
dominee Oberholzer.
Not that he really wants to think about that again; it was
already bad enough just being there with everyone crying and
Tiaan still having to help carry the casket (kis). It’s not that
he minded, but the problem was that at that exact moment,
Tiaan thought about the stupid joke Dirkie told about the
Japanese casket with the remote control
(afstandbeheer). Tiaan wanted to start laughing between
all those crying people, but luckily, he didn’t. Nobody would
have understood: nobody!
He just wishes Dirkie’s mom would have put Dirkie’s
bodyboard in the grave as well. Now Corré is apparently
sur?ng with it. He wishes someone would speak to Corré: he
is not well and any fool can see it. First, he cut his hair just
like Dirkie’s and now he also got a piercing in his ear, just
like Dirkie. Who does he think he is? But everyone is so busy
with their own issues that nobody is paying attention to what
Corré is doing. Then Dirkie’s mom keeps nagging Tiaan to come
fetch the wetsuit (duikpak) and the magazines, but there is no
way Tiaan is going into Dirkie’s room with Corré acting like a
weirdo. He !rst needs to get it together. Tiaan hopes Dirkie’s
younger sister, Adriana, isn’t also going to start acting up.
Tiaan ends o= the letter by saying he needs to do other
homework, but he is too tired actually, so he’ll just borrow
someone else’s homework on the bus.

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Chapter 5
Spermato6ete
Hang in there, the end of the phytes are in sight. We are
6nally at the seed plants. The 6rst ones to look at, are
the “gimnosperme.” It has a stem, leaves, roots. Feeds
autotrophically.
Life cycle: two years. Wind pollination for the pollen
grains. Fertilization only a year after pollination.
Function: wood and wood and wood. Can also be used
as bait for Santa Clause (Kersvaders).
Angiosperms. And the phyte’s eyes opened and they
saw that their seeds were bare/naked and they covered
themselves and from then on were called Angios.
Monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous. Called monocots
and eudicots.
Flowers and /owers and /owers. Join 11 Life Science
and see the exciting sweet pea cycle (pronkertjiesiklus).
21
May
A hundred and !fty million years. How long have humans been
here? Yvette says humans won’t be here long if we keep going
the rate we’re going (remember: this book was !rst published
in 1997!). It’s not that she is all dolphin crazy, but she thinks
deep about these things. Sometimes Mrs. Beukes lets them
talk about pollution and ecosystems and things like that, then
Yvette has a lot to say and Tiaan admits that she talks a lot
of sense. Albert says Yvette likes Tiaan, but he thinks
Albert is talking nonsense. She didn’t even want to go to the
sokkie with Dirkie the previous year, why would she like him?!
Albert actually legit ran away. He wasn’t at the bus on
Monday and Tiaan thought he was just sick. Kruiwa phoned
Albert’s dad who said that Albert wasn’t at home either and
that he is going to kill him when he does get home that
afternoon.

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Still no Albert that afternoon or the next morning. Tiaan’s mom

told Tiaan that Albert phoned his mom and told her not to
worry, that he is still alive, but that he is not coming back
home. He apparently phoned from a payphone and didn’t want
to tell them where he was. Albert’s dad nearly had a heart
attack when he heard that. Albert left his cellphone at home so
he couldn’t be reached or traced.
Day three and still no Albert. Everyone kept looking at Tiaan as
if it was his fault, asking what Albert said, where he went, did
he phone Tiaan, blah blah blah.
By day four Tiaan wanted to personally go drag Albert back
from wherever he was because he couldn’t stand everyone’s
questioning anymore. He even got called in by the principal
who gave a smirk when Tiaan said he didn’t know anything,
indicating with this that he didn’t believe Tiaan. Albert’s dad
and Kruiwa were there as well and Kruiwa kept saying Tiaan
better come out with the truth now and Tiaan just stood there,
shaking, not being able to say anything.
Providentially, Tiaan’s performance, according to him, was
pathetic enough that the principal eventually let him go and
just said to let them know immediately if he hears something
from Albert. After that, Kruiwa was watching him more than
ever, probably thinking that he was going to tell all the other
kids to run away as well. Eye roll.
And then, suddenly, Friday afternoon Albert phones Tiaan: says
he’s in Pietersburg and he can’t get through to his parents
and gives Tiaan a number that Albert’s mom must phone.
He got such a fright when he heard Albert’s voice (stem), that
he forgot to curse at him for all the trouble he got Tiaan into.
Tiaan immediately phoned Albert’s parents, but the phone was
engaged. Then Tiaan maar phoned his dad and told him what
happened, so his dad left everything at the shop in Kosie’s
hands (we assume it’s his dad’s assistant at the shop), picked
Tiaan up and went to the farm (plaas).
The farm is a beautiful place: very fancy (spoggerig).
There were 2 unfamiliar cars parked by the house, but Albert’s
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dad opened the door when they knocked. When Tiaan’s dad
said they have a message from Albert, the mom also appeared
in the loungeroom (sitkamer). Her eyes were red from crying,
but she was the one doing all the talking: Albert’s dad, who is
usually the one with the big mouth, was dead quiet. Like a
landmine.
Turns out there was something wrong with the cellphone tower
and it wasn’t even two minutes until Albert’s mom got hold of
him, so Tiaan and his dad made a duck.
That Monday Albert was back on the bus. Everyone was going
bonkers as though he got Springbok colors for running away.
Tiaan tried to see if he could spot any beating marks, but it was
hard to tell with the long pants Albert was wearing. Afterwards
he told Tiaan that his dad didn’t touch him and hasn’t fought
with him since. He also doesn’t talk to Albert, but that is
probably an improvement.
Albert tells Tiaan that he was hitchhiking and still full of
courage up to Potgietersrus, but then an old lady who picked
him up between Potgietersrus and Pietersburg, convinced him
to go back home. She made him feel so guilty (skuldig)
about his mother that he maar phoned her from the tannie’s
house in Pietersburg. Why on earth he would go to that part
of the country, only Albert would know: he said he wanted to
get as far up in Africa as possible. Typical Albert: not
completely o= of his cloud (wolk) yet.
Tiaan asked if he never heard of kids who ran away and whose
bodies were never found again, but Albert replied that the
people were actually pretty nice (gaaf). And what an adventure
he had! He travelled up past George over Oudtshoorn through
the Free State past Johannesburg up to Pietersburg.
Everyone wants to know why he did it. As if they don’t
already know. Any way: he’s now allowed to switch over to
hockey. It’s a pity: the season’s almost !nished.
Tiaan still thinks Albert was crazy to just go “into the wild” like
that, which is funny, because he and Dirkie used to hitchhike a

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lot! They even planned a trip to Victoria Bay, but then Dirkie
got the Eu (griep).
They would have taken a tent and slept in the caravan park
which was right there by the sea where they could go surf.
Tiaan didn’t think his mother would agree to it and then Dirkie
teased him by saying she can’t always keep Tiaan under her
apron. Tiaan threatened to hit Dirkie, but then apparently
picked up scissors and then a knife and then the banter just
stared all over again.
From this dialogue, the reader can see that the two
friends had plans to go to Australia. There were very
close indeed.
Luckily the ended up going to Victoria Bay after all in June.
They stayed with Dirkie’s aunt and his mom drove them to
George to go surf every day.
It was the best three days of Tiaan’s life. To just lay there
and wait in the grey blue water for the right wave and the
funniest was when the seal (rob) popped up right in front of
Dirkie in a wave. He almost did a Peter (Petrus walking on the
sea when Jesus was in the boat) back to the beach.
By the end of the three days, it felt like all the surfers knew
Dirkie. Probably because of all the jokes he cracked while they
were waiting in the swells for the perfect wave. He was never
too shy to speak to anyone, but nobody ever really knew
him.
Tiaan writes about Attie who phoned him the other day,
someone they met while they were in Vic Bay. It was bad,
because for some reason he never heard about what
happened. He was actually inviting them to go sur!ng again
and had a whole sur!ng trip planned.
It seems like Attie is still sur!ng a lot and although Dirkie
disagreed, Attie’s barrel ride was one of the best that Tiaan has
ever seen.

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Tiaan told Attie that he wouldn’t be able to go in June, that

his dad wouldn’t give his permission, that they were
going away. (Just excuses, of course.)
It’s not that he has anything against Attie, except for the fact
that he also had a super short temper like when he wanted
to beat up the guy with the dreadlocks for pushing in twice and
taking Attie’s wave.
Tiaan actually didn’t even tell his parents about Attie’s
invitation. His mother is crazy enough to force Tiaan to go visit
Attie. She is saying that the less Tiaan does, the less he wants
to do. He is now obligated to go to KJA on Sunday evenings
(it’s basically like a youth get-together at the church). If
Jasmine was there, he would be more than willing to go, but
chances are pretty slim.
It doesn’t seem as if Tiaan’s mom liked Dirkie all that
much. The two boys were planning on going to America and
Tiaan doesn’t think his dad would have had an issue with it, but
Tiaan’s mom would most de!nitely been a bit diFcult about the
whole thing. She kept saying the previous year that Tiaan
should make more friends. It’s not that she disliked Dirkie
entirely, but still.
He wonders if she sometimes feels guilty (skuldig) that Tiaan
doesn’t have any brothers or sisters. Grown-ups are weird, like
Geyer, as an example. He is still as friendly as always, but now
permanently stinks of booze, even when he came to play
chess against Tiaan’s dad.
Tiaan thinks that if his dad could, he would most likely have
wanted to go abroad as well, but his family was too poor and
he had to start working. He should actually have gone to
study engineering because he is always sitting with some
technical magazine or the other. Could be why he does so well
in the shop in spite of the fact that he doesn’t talk much.
Tiaan was not as excited as Dirkie was about going overseas for
a year, but he was looking forward to it. That’s why he was
working at the pizza place and saving up.

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He thinks how awesome it would have been: work here and

there, then surf: just him, Dirkie and the beaches of the world.
And just like that: gone. Everything, within minutes, gone. No
warning, nothing! Just gone, gone, gone (weg).
It is not fair! IT IS JUST NOT FAIR!
The fact that Tiaan repeats these words (weg) and that
they are written in capital letters shows his frustration
and anger and how he is still in the mourning process.
Tiaan gets angry and asks what in life is fair anyway: look at
Dino Petersen, the best mid!elder that the school has had in a
long time and breaks his collarbone in a game against Caledon.
Why did he have to fall in love with Jasmine of all people? As if
it’s not already a mission to talk to the girl he likes, but now it’s
Dustin and Gustav that are friends with her brother and they
speak to her on the busand they cheer her on at the hockey
!eld. Tiaan wishes he could just wake up and stop letting
everyone make decisions (besluite) for him.
He thinks that there has to be a way to !ght back (terugslaan),
but how? Everything is so big and overwhelming; it runs over
you like a steam train. What does the ocean feel for him?
Nothing! He feels powerless, completely and utterly powerless
(magteloos).

Chapter 6
Invertebrates
This is now our spineless (ruggraatlose) animal friends.
Millions of these things.
Protozoa: sociable (it was a play on words again with
the whole “cell” e0ect)? No, just unicellular. Find them
everywhere. Example is old Amoeba. They struggle
keeping their shape with all the cytoplasm and cell
nuclei that they have to drag with them. Eat with their
whole body (lyf). Procreates with the zip-method.

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Coelenterata: the more cells, the more fun (pret). The

“cool ones” are hollow (hol) from top to bottom.
Anemone is the hippy of the group. Hydra is another
artist (kunstenaar). Has a foot and tentacles. Does a
summersault (bollemakiesie) in order to move
(beweeg). Eats living animals.
Platyhelminthes (/at ones from hell): lead by the
vampire worm Taenia Solium (tapeworm). Bites with the
head and sucks your intestines empty (leeg). Head,
body, no blood of its own. Reproduces by breaking o0
parts of itself.
8
June
Tiaan is in a bad mood: everything is irritating him. He hates
getting up in winter in the Cape because it’s still pitch-black
outside.
He thinks that if his mother didn’t have an itch to get out of
the Wes-Transvaal (basically North West today), then
they would most likely still be living there. But his dad
was so tired after all her moaning and complaining, that he
gave in and they moved to the Cape.
He is getting sick of the place; he’s only been to the movies
twice that year and there is nothing else to do. (Not that he
had an issue before, but anyway.)
He’s also tired of playing rugby because it’s always wet
and muddy and he would have stopped playing if it wasn’t
compulsory to do a winter sport.
He doesn’t know how much more he can take and thinks he
should just stop writing.

Chapter 7
Invertebrates (a few more)

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Annelida: our beloved (geliefde) Ertie the earth worm.

Built like a ballpoint pen, but drags a saddle (saal)
along like a travelling (reisende) school. Ertie is both
sexes (geslagte), to save time. Actually, this creature
(wese) is just a tunnel in a tunnel. Eats leaves like a
vacuum cleaner. Has his own blood and goes to the
toilet often.
Reproduction: two or less cuddle under a blanket
(kombersie). Baby then deposited in a cocoon
somewhere. (Good bye, son, nice knowing ya)
Arthropods: walk around with their own skeleton, but
as teenager bursts out of their skin. It stops with
maturity. Has a head, chest, feet, wings and abdomen.
He can a walk, a jump and a /y. Eats leaves and even
dead grasshoppers. Only unisexual. Mates and lays eggs
in an egg sachet in a hole in the ground.
10
June
Tiaan thinks it helps when he links the terminology to humor:
he remembers them better then. He didn’t sleep well on the 8th
of June: he had a dream about Dirkie. They were walking
on the rocks next to the ocean and they were looking for
something. He can still hear Dirkie’s voice, going on and on
about something and after a while Tiaan couldn’t take it
anymore, so he ran after Dirkie on the beach and yelled at him
to stop his nonsense, but he didn’t want to. Then Tiaan grabbed
Dirkie by the arm and when he turned around, he looked
exactly like Corré.
It was the third time he’s dreamt about Dirkie since
December, but he wasn’t sad: he was angry. (Tiaan is
going through all the stages of grief.)
Corré is still acting strange: he came to Tiaan’s house in
the pouring rain one day and asked if Tiaan wanted to go
take out mussels from the ocean. Tiaan thought he was
mad: in that raging weather?
Corré left after Tiaan shook his head.

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Tiaan thinks someone needs to have him checked out: he is not

going to take responsibility for Corré. Tiaan wishes Dirkie’s
mom would pay more attention to her son than nagging him
about fetching the stu= from their house.
He’s busy studying because he’s writing exams. He wonders
why Dirkie never took Life Science other than the reason of him
being so stubborn (hardkoppig). He knew more about sea
life than any other kid and most adults in Vlakberg, but
he didn’t want to take it because he didn’t like Kruiwa.
Dirkie also said Tiaan listens to his mom and dad too much, but
Tiaan said it’s because he wasn’t like Dirkie. Dirkie would slam
the door in his dad’s face and hit his brother with a snorkel.
Tiaan has never hit anyone, except Dirkie, but that was just
playing.
But what’s the use of thinking about all of this, Tiaan wonders.
Going to school never helped them much anyway: Dirkie’s life
would have meant much more to him if he went and looked at
the puddles by the beach instead of trying to study Math.
The dialogue that follows, reveals Dirkie’s vast knowledge of
sea life. Dirkie wanted to introduce Tiaan to Slopper: an
anemone. From this dialogue, we can see that the two
friends met when they were in grade 7, just after Tiaan
moved to Vlakberg.
Tiaan hasn’t checked on Slopper in a while. He thinks that he
will take Corré to meet him someday, but only once he has
pulled himself together.

10:15 12
June
Tiaan has to sit and study at school because the principal
refuses that they go home and study there, even on the days
that they aren’t writing anything. He thinks that it’s probably all
Kruiwa’s idea and wonders why the man didn’t just become a
warden. It seems like Kruiwa’s son is busy making a mess
of his life in Stellenbosch and Tiaan believes someone in

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Kruiwa’s family will be getting to know more about jail than

what is good for them.
He thinks that maybe he should just have stayed home, but
then remembers the time Dirkie wanted to do that the previous
year to study Accounting and how quick the school was to
phone his mom.
Tiaan thinks that Dirkie’s mom was very lenient after their dad
left with the other woman. Tiaan’s mom would never allow
Tiaan to stay at home if the school didn’t agree to it.
He ends o= by saying that Bambi (a teacher) is coming towards
him, so he has to at least pretend to work.
11:45 18
June
Exams are !nished and now the learners have to keep
themselves busy while the teachers are marking because they
are still not allowed to stay home.
It’s Tiaan’s birthday and he starts thinking about the future:
he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He can’t go overseas
anymore and he is de!nitely not going to the army (weermag).
He wonders what Dirkie would have gone and studied: he
spoke a lot about marine biology, but it’s just a pity that his
subjects were so messed up. Not that it matters anymore,
Tiaan thinks.
It’s the ?rst time in 5 years that Dirkie wasn’t with Tiaan
on his birthday. If he had a wish, it would be that he could
surf with Dirkie all day and that evening he and Jasmine could
go on a double date with Dirkie and his girlfriend to the movies
and grab something to eat afterwards.
He told his mom not to bother with all kinds of arrangements,
but she insisted that he invite two friends to go eat out with
them. He wanted to ask Jasmine, but didn’t have the courage
(moed) for it, so he asked Yvette and Albert instead.
The evening wasn’t too bad. He got a portable CD-player
and earphones for his birthday (don’t judge! It was a big
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deal back in the day !). The earphones have amazing sound
quality and he suspects that uncle Francois brought it with him
when he went to Asia last month. Tiaan thinks the present was
his dad’s idea, so he didn’t have to listen to Tiaan’s music, but
what he doesn’t know, is that Tiaan already tried out some of
his dad’s classical CD’s. Not that he will tell his dad: he might
just want Tiaan to listen to it day and night!
Yvette has never been in Tiaan’s room (and yes, that was also a
big deal back in the day!), so she and Albert popped in before
they left to quickly check it out. She asked about the pretty
poster on his wall: she was of course referring to the one of
the Hawaii surfer busy with his tube ride. He answered
that he got it from Dirkie and then changed the subject.
It is actually a beautiful picture, but Tiaan has been wondering
more and more about what Dirkie wrote at the back of the
poster:

To Tiaan
Life is a perfect wave and then somebody steals your
surfboard!
Enjoy your birthday!
Dirkie
Back then Tiaan thought it was funny, but now he wonders
about it. Did God tell Dirkie somehow? And if Dirkie knew, why
didn’t he tell Tiaan? Or didn’t he want to tell him, Tiaan
wonders.
Then Tiaan thinks that Dirkie couldn’t have known and yet: he
was diAerent that December. First the piercing in his
nipple and then the ?ght with James and …
But then Tiaan reassures himself that Dirkie couldn’t have
known: nobody could have known, nobody!
27
June
Tiaan believes that he must be crazy because he’s writing in
the book even during the holiday. (That’s because it has

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become more than a book he makes notes in: it has

become a sort of diary, a type of therapy where he can
pour out his emotions to make sense of them.)
Tiaan got his learner’s license. Albert and Yvette helped him
and his mother of course forced him to study so he couldn’t
actually fail the test. He mentions how James failed it the !rst-
time last year. Now he can learn how to drive, but he has to use
the bakkie because his mom refuses that his dad teaches him
with her car.
Albert, who also turned 17 in June, got a motorbike. His dad
is still grumpy, but now Albert gets these massive gifts. Tiaan
only found out about Albert’s birthday after the fact: only
Yvette was there and he felt bad about it; he wishes Albert had
told him.
Albert doesn’t say a word about him and his dad anymore.
Maybe they are leaving each other alone now. He says that
he might get a car for his 18th birthday that he will use
to go to varsity with. Tiaan thinks how lucky Albert is: a bike
AND a car! His mom and dad would never do that for him! But
he wouldn’t trade places with Albert.
Albert started smoking. It doesn’t help him dressing so
neatly these days when he stinks of smoke. He always
expected Dirkie to start smoking because he surfed and
listened to Nirvana and Guns and Roses. Well, at least Albert’s
not drinking yet, Tiaan writes. He thinks that maybe Dirkie
should rather also have smoked than drink alcohol.
He !nishes by saying he needs to go to the library.
28
June
Tiaan is super excited: he was in Jasmine’s house! He met
the grandparents and everything!
It all started at the library, just as he had planned it; well,
maybe not exactly as he planned it! The best part is that he
legit just went to look for books this time.

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The usual crowd was there: old people just hanging around,
mother’s with toddlers and this jazz music that the library lady
played over the radio.
He was searching for Douglas Adams’s Hitch Hiker’s Guide to
the Galaxy when someone touched his elbow and asked what
he was looking for: nobody other than Kevin! Tiaan told him
that he already read the !rst two books in the series and
wanted to read the last two before the end of the holiday, but
he couldn’t !nd it anywhere. Then Kevin o=ered that Tiaan
borrow his because he bought the whole series in Britain and
brought it with him. He asked Tiaan to just wait for him while he
got his books and then they could walk to his house. Tiaan
almost started hyperventilating!
It seems like Kevin likes science !ction and it turns out: he is
actually a pretty nice guy. His grandparents were home, but
Jasmine was nowhere to be seen.
Turns out their house look like all the others: the only thing that
was di=erent, was a text hanging on the wall in the lounge
area which was written in something like Arabic. Tiaan thinks it
might be from the Koran.
Kevin looked through his stack of books and !nally found what
Tiaan was looking for. Tiaan then thought he probably had to
leave, but Kevin was bored and wanted to !rst talk about
school and other nonsense. Turns out: Kevin was indeed ?rst
in grade 11.
After a while Tiaan really had to go, but still no sign of Jasmine.
Kevin said he heard that Tiaan is one of the school’s best chess
players and invited Tiaan to play against him some time. He
then showed Tiaan his incredibly beautiful chessboard: it’s
made out of wood, all hand carved. His grandfather bought it in
Pakistan or Malaysia.
Tiaan is super happy: now he not only has to return Kevin’s
books, but also play chess against him which improves the
odds of him !nally talking to Jasmine!

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As an afterthought, Tiaan mentions that his marks have

improved, so his parents didn’t !ne him again, but he still
wasn’t under the top twenty and doesn’t think he ever will be.

Chapter 8
Vertebrata
Vertebrata: their skeleton is on the inside, they have a
spine (werwelkolom), massive brain, bilateral symmetry.
Fish: the Datter, the more they swim, of course. Head,
body and tail. Scalloped (geskub) and swim with ?ns.
Chest, stomach, back, anal and tail ?n. Swim with an S-
movement of the tail. Eat each other or anything that
they come across. Breathes by pumping water in and
out. Unisexual. Eggs are fertilized on the inside or
outside.
Amphibia: Frogs. Built like humans, just not a neck.
Nostrils, the works. Jumps, crawls (kruip) and swims.
Food: sorry, invertebrate, my friend. Uses two lungs for
breathing as well as the lining of the mouth
(mondslymvlies) and even its slimy skin. (Warts are thus
the consequence of touching a frog with bad breath.)
Mating takes place next to the water. Baby frog stays
there until he ?nds his own feet.
20
July
The whales are back! Tiaan saw them with Hermann, a new
guy in grade 11. His family moved to Vlakberg during the
holiday. They are German and from Namibia. He speaks
Afrikaans well and German too, of course, but Tiaan thinks his
English is better than Herman’s. He’s a bit taller than Tiaan
and also has blonde hair, but his is curlier than Tiaan’s.
Albert now rides to school with his motorcycle, so there was an
open seat next to Tiaan on the bus and that’s where Hermann
came to sit. At !rst Tiaan thought Herman was a snob, because
he looked as arrogant as they come, but he is actually pretty
nice and he clicks much better with Hermann than with Albert.
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Not that he is going to become better friends with Herman than

what he was with Dirkie, Tiaan quickly adds, but he thinks
Dirkie would have liked him too. He has a good sense of
humor and, unlike Dirkie, he laughs out loud when he
?nds something funny. He doesn’t play rugby: in Namibia
they apparently play soccer, but he is a good swimmer.
Tiaan thinks Yvette likes him: she was very friendly towards
him again that day in Life Science class. Tiaan can’t tell what
goes on in Herman’s head because it was the second morning
in a row that he asked Tiaan what Jasmine’s name was.
At the moment, Kevin is ahead with seven to !ve regarding
their chess matches, but Tiaan thinks it’s because he can’t
concentrate so well when he plays at Kevin’s house.
Jasmine is just as shy (skaam) as Tiaan, so they haven’t talked
much. It looks like Dustin and Gustav visit them quite often, but
Jasmine says there is no way that they are going to convince
(oortuig) her to go cycling with them, which made Tiaan feel
better. He wants to ask her to go with him to the sokkie
which is being held to raise funds for the matric farewell.
He doesn’t know if her grandfather will allow it. It seems like
he’s not too crazy about the idea that all of them are visiting
Kevin, but the grandmother is as friendly as always. It doesn’t
look like their family really go to the beach.
Tiaan’s dad said he’s worried about Geyer because he
hasn’t visited them in a long time. It’s been raining a lot, so
whenever Tiaan the sun comes out, Tiaan takes Hugo for a
walk.
They bumped into Geyer on one of their walks towards the
harbor’s side. He doesn’t know if Geyer started !shing again,
but Tiaan believes he’s now drinking day and night.
Hermann has a dog: a staLe called Bruno. He’s big buddies
with Hugo, so Hermann suggested they take a walk with the
dogs since it was a sunshiny day. They couldn’t walk on the
beach because of all the sea foam and they couldn’t walk in the
veld either because the dogs will chase the partridges (patryse)
and then tannie Ella will scold them again. She watches

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the entire area with her binoculars, which is a good thing

when she reports the poachers, but not such a great thing
when she reports to Tiaan’s mom about their whereabouts.
Hermann and Bruno were not at all deterred by the seafoam:
Hermann threw Bruno a stick and Bruno was ploughing through
the seafoam, trying to get to it. Hugo also wanted to chase it,
but tried jumping over the foam the whole time: Tiaan and
Hermann had such a laugh about that !
Tiaan’s mom didn’t think it was funny when he arrived home
with a !lthy Hugo, so Tiaan had to bath him: something he still
hasn’t forgiven Tiaan for!
Tiaan wonders why Dirkie never had a dog again after
StoAel. Dirkie almost never walked past any dog without
touching them and yet, he never wanted one again which, in
hindsight, is a good thing because the dog would’ve mourned
itself to death about Dirkie.
Tiaan thinks back to the day they buried StoAel: that was
the only time he’s ever seen Dirkie cry (huil). He wonders
if there is something wrong with him for not ever having
cried about Dirkie. He wonders if Dirkie would’ve cried over
him if he died.
28
July
Tiaan is frustrated: he keeps on writing to Dirkie and doesn’t
know how to carry on with his life. He thinks that maybe it
would help if he could speak to someone and tell them he has
no clue how to cope, but he doesn’t know who to tell.
He wonders if there were things he did wrong, if he is being
punished (straf) for things he had already forgotten about.
Nothing makes sense to him anymore: Dustin and Jasmine
are together now. He feels stupid for not seeing it sooner.
If he knew about it, he would never have asked her. She
declined his o=er to accompany him to the sokkie and said she
and Dustin wanted to go together, but her grandfather said
no. Tiaan really didn’t take it well: he can’t sleep and wants
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to vomit when he eats. He thinks that everything that is

beautiful, just breaks or disappears (verdwyn).

Chapter 9
Vertebrata
Aves: example, the dove. Columba: head, neck, belly,
tail. Skin covered with feathers. Moves with feet and
wings. Flies, walks. Big lungs. Dove eats plants.
Unisexual: eggs kept warm by male and female.
(The reason for this short, humorless summary is
because Tiaan still feels de/ated and defeated after the
whole Jasmine-saga and also because of him having
trouble coping with everything surrounding Dirkie.)
29
July
Tiaan wants to pretend as though everything is ok, like nothing
happened. He thinks he should try and concentrate on
something else.
He asked a question, a simple question, but she will never
know.
31
July
Something really bad happened: something terrible!
Geyer said to Tiaan that he’s a coward (lafaard) for not
going into the ocean anymore, he said Tiaan must stop
running away from everything.
Tiaan is furious: who is Geyer to lecture him about running
away from your problems?! He tries to drink his problems
away!
What happened was: Tiaan’s mom kept nagging him to check
up on Geyer. When Tiaan got to his house, he discovered that
Geyer had shot himself in an attempted suicide
(selfmoord): there was blood everywhere.
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This then leads to Tiaan writing for the !rst time about Dirkie’s
death:
Dirkie was being stubborn and trying to show oA in front of
the other surfers. Tiaan thinks how Dirkie always HAD to try
and be the best at everything: trying to ?nd the biggest
abalone, ride the biggest wave, tell the best jokes
(grappe), drink the most beers, stay in the water the
longest. And now? What does he have to show for all of that?
2
August
Tiaan asks why one can’t trust anyone: not the ocean, not
people, not God.

Chapter 10
Vertebrata
Mammalia (mammals): Example Oryctolagus or bunny
(konyn). Head with visible (sigbare) ears, neck,
abdomen with visible genitals (geslagsdele). Also tail.
Reproduction: fertilization takes place internally and
embryo develops (ontwikkel) in uterus (baarmoeder).
Babies are born after 32 days and fed with mother’s
milk (moedersmelk).
(Still the same tone and internal struggle that Tiaan
showed in the previous chapter: the summary is short
and to the point, no attempt even at humor.)
5
August
Tiaan’s dad told him that Geyer will live, but Tiaan says he
doesn’t care: he doesn’t want to hear from Geyer ever again!
He also doesn’t want to think about Jasmine; he pretends
as though he doesn’t know her or made such a fool (gek) of
himself. He wonders if she told Kevin, or her friend, Mandy or
even Dustin. He thinks Dustin is probably laughing at him now.

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Hermann and his family are Roman Catholics. They believe

something in the line of praying for people who are already
deceased. Dominee Oberholzer said that when someone has
passed away, there is nothing you can do from this side. Tiaan
then wonders if he is mad by still “talking” to Dirkie.
But every time he looks at the sea, he sees Dirkie on his
bodyboard, or him crouched next to a puddle. Every time he
plays rugby, he thinks about Dirkie’s silly remarks during
matches; he thinks about his friend every time he rides in the
bus, every time he listens to music. Tiaan basically thinks
about his friend all the time, because they used to do
everything together: they were like brothers.

Chapter 11
Nucleus and nucleic acids
Nothing strange about this bunch (spul). Actually, just
the smallest computers and programs in living cells.
Nucleus: regulates metabolism and structure of cell.
Carries genetic characteristics/traits. Find chromosomes
in the plasma. Consists of DNA. Ribosomes have RNA.
DNA: if your name was deoxyribonucleic acid, you
would also rather be called DNA, right? Build: Watson
and Crick think these things look like a winding
staircase (wenteltrap), the experts call them double
helix.
The nucleotides of DNA: DNA is actually a Goliath of a
molecule. DNA is a polymer, which means it’s made up
of monomers that are nucleotides. These consist of
sugar, phosphate and nitrogen particles.
21
August
Tiaan doesn’t know how he’s going to remember all of this.
His mom says like attracts like (soort soek soort). Something
happened and now the whole school and town knows
about it. He rather won’t say what some of the other kids told
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him. His dad says nothing, he just looks at Tiaan like someone
who bumped into something interesting by accident. His mom
doesn’t say anything directly.
Tiaan writes that he should have listened to Dirkie when
he said a person can’t tell Albert anything: he apparently
told everyone what Tiaan told him in con!dence. Tiaan thinks
that Dirkie would have punched him, but that is just not Tiaan’s
style.
He thinks that if Hermann or Yvette went with him that day,
“this thing” would never have happened.
Albert had invited them a while back already to go visit him one
Saturday on the farm. Tiaan still wanted to think of an excuse,
but his mother didn’t give him a chance.
Albert picked him up at about eight in the morning. He brought
an extra helmet (valhelm) and o= they went.
Tiaan had breakfast with Albert: it was a delicious spread,
almost like at a hotel. His mother checked in on them every
now again, but there was no sign of his dad or his brother.
Because it was just the two of them, Albert said they should
take the bike and ride to the top of the cli=s and walk from
there: he wanted to show Tiaan the baboon troop.
Albert knew just as much about vegetation as what
Dirkie knew about the sea and entertained Tiaan with his
vast knowledge of the plant life.
Before they even noticed it, they were almost right in the
middle of the baboon troop. Tiaan doesn’t know who got the
biggest fright: them or the baboons. Tiaan was terri!ed, but
thought that Albert would probably know what to do. So, there
they were: standing in front of the leader of the pack who
suddenly gave these two long, bored yawns (gape) that one
couldn’t really help but notice his massive fangs.
Albert motioned that they should slowly move backwards and
after they were out of the baboon’s way, they had to !nd
another way to cross the plateau. Luckily Albert knew the area

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well and before Tiaan knew it, they were at the edge of the
cli=s (kranse).
Halfway down the cli= they sat on some big rocks and ate
lunch.
After they stumbled upon the baboons, Albert was a little
quiet. Then he told Tiaan about Eugène Marais’s book
about baboons. He said it was an interesting book and that
Tiaan should read it some time.
Now when Albert got all serious like that, Tiaan made the
mistake of his life and asked Albert why he ran away
that time.
Albert made Tiaan promise not to tell anyone, to which Tiaan of
course agreed and then he started telling:
That day he and his dad had a massive ?ght, about Kevin
and Jasmine, of all people. Albert wanted to invite them to the
farm and his dad Eipped: his hypocritical dad who pretends to
get along with all people.
Turns out: Albert is madly in love with Jasmine!
Tiaan then told Albert that Jasmine was in love with Dustin,
which was such a shock to him that he nearly fell of the cli=. He
shouted at Tiaan and demanded to know how he got that
information. So, Tiaan told him.
He told Albert that he also likes Jasmine and that he
wanted to invite her to the sokkie, but that she and
Dustin are in love.
It was the closest to tears that Tiaan has ever seen Albert and
in that moment, Tiaan really felt sorry for him.
Of course, Albert solemnly (plegtig) promised not to tell anyone
about Tiaan’s feelings for Jasmine, but he lied, the little snail
(slak). Tiaan really trusted Albert, but for some odd reason,
Albert went and told Gustav. After Gustav, the story spread like
a veld!re and before the end of the day, all the grade 11’s
knew. It was only a matter of time before it got to Tiaan’s mom.

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Dirkie would ask him to tell the whole town about Albert, but
Tiaan couldn’t. Dirkie always said he was too soft, but every
time Tiaan just thinks about telling on Albert, he sees his eyes
in front of him: that doe-in-the-headlight-look he had. (Tiaan is
a compassionate and caring person: he will turn the
other cheek rather than seek confrontation. He
balanced Dirkie out well.)
But Albert knew what he did was wrong: he is basically crawling
on the Eoor to try and be friendly towards Tiaan. Those days
are gone, Tiaan writes. He wrote Albert a letter and gave it
to Yvette to give to him, saying that he doesn’t have a loose
mouth like Albert and that he should stay very far away
from Tiaan if he knew what was good for him.
Yvette didn’t say anything about the whole Jasmine-story: she
just looked at Tiaan funny, but said nothing. Hermann was
just sorry to hear that she liked someone else already. He
doesn’t care what other people think or say about him.
He continually says that Tiaan takes things too
seriously.
The only thing Tiaan and Herman has argued (gestry) about,
was his idea to start sur?ng. Tiaan told him he doesn’t surf,
but Hermann keeps nagging him to go with him and that Tiaan
has to show him; he keeps saying that the other kids said
Tiaan is the best bodyboard-surfer in town: Tiaan doesn’t
know where they come up with that rubbish. (He is very
humble).
This really upset Tiaan: he writes that he just can’t do it,
thinking what if he is too late again? Writing that once was
enough and that he is staying away from there.
The day after tomorrow would be Dirkie’s 17th birthday.
Tiaan would have given him that new surf-video. He would
have bought it the previous year already, but couldn’t !nd it in
time. But Dirkie is never going to turn 17. And there were so
many things Tiaan wanted to give him, but now it is too late.
Tiaan thinks he should have spoken to Dirkie more, to !nd out
if Dirkie really wanted to tell him something those last few
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months, thinking that if he had just stayed in the sea longer,

not gotten tired so quickly, he could maybe have prevented
(keer) it.
Tiaan thinks he should have grabbed the wine out of
Dirkie’s hands that day and poured it out over his head. But
he couldn’t, not in front of the others: so, he just left it, kept
quiet and didn’t stop Dirkie. He thinks that if he was a better
friend, Dirkie would still be alive and he apologizes to Dirkie
about that.

Chapter 12
Cell division
Multicellular organisms need new cells to grow and also
to repair (herstel) and replace (vervang) injured
(beseerde) cells. It’s the DNA that carries across this
message.
Two types of cell division, namely Mitoses (for normal
body cells) and Meiosis (for reproductive cells).
Mitosis has 3 phases: Pro, Meta, Ana. Look at the
sketches.
Meiosis is two divisions with sub sections. First one if
Pro Meta Ana Telo. Second is Meta Ana Telo. Again,
refer to the amazing sketches.
25
August
Tiaan just wants to take his bicycle and ride to a place where
he has never been and where nobody knows him, but life
goes on and it won’t stop just so you can !rst get o= and catch
your breath.
He feels beyond tired, but he needs to tell Dirkie about the
weirdest of weird days.
He started crying in the Life Science class, but, funny
enough: the more he cried, the less he gave a hoot about all
the eyes staring at him.

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Mrs. Beukes took him to her small room between all the glass
bowls and microscopes. At !rst, she said nothing, just allowed
him to cry it out and then she wanted to know what was going
on.
He doesn’t even know how it happened. One moment the
teacher turned her back to write something on the black board
and then Yvette stuck a paper in his hand saying: Tiaan, I
miss Dirkie so much today!
That’s when he started crying. And he couldn’t stop.
Mrs. Beukes asked if he wanted to talk to her about what’s
bothering him and he wanted to, in a way, but couldn’t. Then
she asked if it was about Dirkie, but he just couldn’t. Every time
he started talking to her, he began crying again.
When he eventually left the little room, the period was over and
there was another grade in the classroom.
Yvette had waited outside for him and apologized profusely, but
it wasn’t her fault. Tiaan just never thought she cared that
much. He believes that he knew it and that he knew how
honest she is and that’s why he got so very sad all of a sudden.
They couldn’t talk long because Hermann came to tell them
that Kruiwa already gave it to Bambi about the grade 11’s that
just walk around and never attend her class. So, they went
back to class, but not before Tiaan quickly went and washed his
face.
He thinks back to all the weird and strange things Dirkie
made him do: mouth-to-mouth, carrying a casket and
now crying over him: at school, of all places.
For some or the other wonderous reason, the whole crying-
episode didn’t get to Tiaan’s mom. She never asked him about
it, so she probably doesn’t know anything. (But she did
probably 6nd out about it and just decided not to hassle
Tiaan about it and just leave him be for a moment.)
Then, he !nally starts writing about that day because he thinks
it’s time and also so Dirkie can hear his side of things.

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It started like any other brilliant day during the holiday. Dirkie
was becoming crazier and crazier by the day: him and his
piercing in his nipple, which his mom didn’t know about. She
had just gotten over the shock of the piercing in his ear.
Dirkie was di=erent. Very diAerent. One moment full of
jokes and the next as angry as an anti-aircraft.
They went to the beach after lunch. A man from Wellington
gave them a lift in his kombi and Dirkie Dirted with the
guy’s daughter so much that she didn’t know where to look
after a while.
James, Alex and all the other well-known surfers in town were
there, along with some students from Stellenbosch and a
few from a Cape Technikon.
By four o’clock most of the surfers were sitting by the dune.
Dirkie was entertaining them with the one joke after the other
and the students thought he was the funniest thing after the
discovery of cream cheese.
Christien sat next to Dirkie, tightly, full of smiles, but Dirkie just
kept drinking the wine and it got to Tiaan, so he asked if
Dirkie was going to go surf again, but Dirkie kept drinking.
At half past four the lifeguards packed up and left. First,
everyone just sat and talked and laughed and then suddenly
someone decided it was time for a last wave or two.
Tiaan hesitated, seeing how amazingly high the waves lifted
before breaking, watching as the others were riding the one
wave after the other until !nally deciding to join them before
the sea got too rough.
He will never forget Dirkie’s face when he took that last,
perfect wave: has hands gripped tightly around the board,
body expectantly waiting, his neon green and black wetsuit in
the bubbling foam, his teeth white from the smile of sheer
delight.
It wasn’t long until they were all tired and the waves started
pounding them dangerously. James got out of the water

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?rst. Then the others. Tiaan swam up next to Dirkie,

telling him the sea is too rough. Dirkie told him he’s a
sissie and said he just wanted to take two more good ones.
Tiaan was really exhausted, but he wasn’t the only one. When
he swam back to the beach, Dirkie was the only one left in
the water. Tiaan stumbled back to the dune when suddenly
Alex jumped forward and grabbed his towel, running
away with it. The other saw the fun in this and played along.
Suddenly Christien called out: where is Dirkie?
They immediately stopped and looked towards the ocean. They
saw his board Doating in the waves, but he was not on
it.
Tiaan ran forward and saw Dirkie drifting in the water:
facedown. He started running like a mad man towards the
waves. James and the other students grab their boards and
swim past Tiaan where he is busy !ghting the waves. They got
to Dirkie ?rst, pulling his limp body onto a board.
Above the noise of the waves, Tiaan could hear Christien
screaming. They drag Dirkie out onto the sand. His eyes were
closed, his face frozen; blue around the lips, blood in his hair.
Tiaan doesn’t know how it happened, but he was the who
started giving Dirkie mouth-to-mouth. James tried to get
Dirkie’s heart going again.
It was doctor Gouws that pulled Tiaan away from Dirkie’s
body. He still doesn’t know who called the doctor.
Tiaan also doesn’t know who called his dad, but he was just
suddenly there between all the frightened faces: at ?rst, he
was elated to see Tiaan and then the shocked look on his
face when he saw Dirkie.
The whole world just stood still. When they got in the car to
leave, Corré stopped next to them on his bicycle and
Tiaan could see from the look on his sweaty face that he
knew, but that he also didn’t really know. (Because it

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hadn’t sunk in by then yet: they were all in shock at

that stage still to believe it to be real.)
They drove home and Tiaan’s mom was crying
uncontrollably, clinging to him. His dad gave him something
for the shock, but it felt like he wasn’t really there: as if he
stayed behind on the beach.
Freak accident (fratsongeluk), is what they called it. They
said one of the board’s edges must have hit Dirkie
against the back of his head and left him unconscious
and that the board’s rope must have torn his leg oA due
to the sheer power of the waves.
Tiaan thinks of how they weren’t even 50m away from Dirkie
and he didn’t even see it happen; he didn’t see his friend
needing him, he didn’t see his friend drowning. (Tiaan is
really beating himself up about this.)
He goes on by writing that maybe, if Dirkie drank less, he
wouldn’t have been so recklessly adventurous
(waaghalsig), that maybe if Tiaan was watching, they
could’ve gotten Dirkie out in time. Maybe if it wasn’t for the
others, Dirkie wouldn’t have been showing oA as much,
maybe if Dirkie never learned how to surf, he would still be
alive. Maybe, maybe, maybe. ☹
Tiaan just can’t seem to understand how other people want him
to go into the ocean again. Don’t they understand? It’s not a
joke! It’s not just a holiday. Dirkie is never coming back.
28
August
Tiaan thinks it’s funny how one can suddenly feel so di=erent
(anders). The whole school knows what a fool he made of
himself (in his eyes, of course, not in anyone else’s
opinion), but he doesn’t care anymore. Some kids are even
kind of friendlier towards him now.
He still doesn’t know why he is writing about everything to
Dirkie because it’s not like Dirkie will ever read it, but he says
that he really wants to write it all down.
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Tiaan and Hermann and Yvette cycled to Melkbosklip with

their bikes. Hermann would also have loved a motorcycle, but
his dad is like Tiaan’s. Yvette’s dad didn’t like the idea of her
cycling so far out, but her mom gave her permission
(toestemming). Yvette is quite sporty.
It was Tiaan’s suggestion (voorstel) that they cycle to
Melkbosklip. (We have some progress here! Tiaan
deciding that he wants to get out of the house a bit AND
go with friends, nonetheless!)
When the days are sunny, Hermann starts looking at Tiaan
questioningly (vraend), so then Tiaan tries to think of
anything to keep Hermann busy and his mind occupied.
It’s quick getting to Melkbosklip with a car, but Tiaan and
Hermann only have their learner’s licenses. Luckily the wind
wasn’t blowing too much, but it was still cold up in the
mountains.
Kevin, Dustin and Gustav at one staged raced (gejaag) past
them, but they don’t compete with them and just took it easy.
Kevin is still friendly towards Tiaan and Jasmine is still
friendly as well.
Tiaan didn’t tell Hermann what they were going to do at
Melkbosklip, but he was pretty happy when he saw that there
was more than just melkhout trees and beautiful rocks.
Hermann’s never been that close to a colony of penguins
before and enjoyed it a lot and so did Yvette. She even sat
down and drew a baby penguin.
When Hermann started saying he would like to see how the
penguins swim under water, Tiaan quickly changed the
subject, but he can see that Hermann’s mind keeps going to
the water and there is nothing Tiaan can do about it. Tiaan
thinks that it’s a pity because he doesn’t know how they will
still then remain friends. Once Hermann starts diving and
sur!ng, he will start doing more and more things with the other
surfers and it won’t be fun for him hanging around with Tiaan
anymore.

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Tiaan writes that they have actually become good friends.

Albert still tries to be friendly to Tiaan, but it’s mostly Tiaan,
Hermann and Yvette hanging out together. Tiaan !rst thought
that Hermann and Yvette would fall in love with each other, but
Hermann only has eyes for Mandy in grade 9. Hermann is
pretty chilled: he doesn’t angry quickly. Tiaan’s mom and
dad also like him and with him and Yvette visiting Tiaan so
often, she has ?nally stopped her constant complaining
that he should get out more or “mix” more.
Hermann and Yvette feel the same about chess: they can
play, but don’t like it that much. That and ?shing. Both of
them agree that there is nothing more boring than !shing,
yet, Yvette sits with her dad and draws will he catches !sh and
Hermann can sit and look at a puddle for hours on end. Tiaan
has asked him once if their TV-signal is really that bad.
Hermann is still as excited as a little boy when he sees the
whales.
The following month the test series starts and then it’s a week
long holiday at least. Klein Dawid is coming to visit that week.
Oom Francois and his family are all coming during the
December holiday, but Dawid is coming during the week
holiday already. He is the nephew that Dirkie thought was
Tiaan’s brother the !rst time he met him because they look
so much alike.
Tiaan has to stop writing and start with his other homework.
The English teacher, miss Harding, gave them questions about
The Great Gatsby that need to be done by that Friday.

Chapter 13
Genetics
Study of heredity
Man has 46 chromosomes. Father Mendel, the
Austrian (Oostenrykse) monk, didn’t just plant peas
(ertjies) when he was teaching. (Would me Beukes do
the same?) Mendel was only appreciated after his
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death.
Dad gives one gene; Mom gives the other.
Homozygous if both characteristics that are received,
are the same. Heterozygous when it di0ers. One,
however, is dominant. Di0erent characteristics on
di0erent homologues chromosome pairs are then
separately inherited.
Determination of gender (geslagsbepaling). One of
the 23 pairs of the human chromosomes determine the
gender. A woman’s are both identical. XX. One of the
man’s look like a woman’s X, but the other one is
smaller. Y. Gamete of the man determines the gender of
his kids. (So, a mother actually has no say. Can blame
the father.)
9
October
Kruiwa will probably do a backEip if he hears that Tiaan !nds
this genetics-part of Life Science interesting. But then again,
it’s Mrs. Beukes who teaches it so well.
It was just Tiaan’s luck to serve (bedien) Kruiwa’s table at
the matric farewell. He was sitting there with his sarcastic
smile and made all kinds of stupid remarks about people who
match their jobs. His wife was just sitting there, staring out in
front of her and saying nothing. Tiaan recalls Dirkie once
saying that she looked like a pickled cork. Tiaan kind of
feels sorry for her. Hermann says Tiaan still takes Kruiwa too
seriously, but he wasn’t with Tiaan in his grade 10 class. He
treated Tiaan like he was the dumbest kid in school. But then
Tiaan thinks that Hermann is maybe right: he should not care
what the guy does or says about him.
They worked hard on the matric farewell, but it was rather
successful. Bambi, of course, got all the praise for it, but so it
goes.
Yvette went to the matric farewell with James and Tiaan
has to admit: she looked stunning in her blue dress that
made her eyes look even bluer. Hermann served their table and

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when Tiaan wanted to swap, the little sadist didn’t want to

know anything about it :-D
Speaking of sadists: Tiaan heard some news about Geyer again
for the !rst time in weeks. His dad told him that he is
recovering by his sister in Alberton. He is also receiving
treatment for his drinking problem.
Tiaan actually tries to think about Geyer as little as possible.
He’s had 2 or 3 horrible nightmares, but doesn’t want to
tell his parents because he is scared his mother will
start talking about him going to some psychologist
again.
Tiaan has often wondered if someone told Dirkie’s mom that he
had a lot to drink that day. Not that Dirkie was drunk, that
Tiaan knows. She never said anything, so maybe nobody told
her.
Tiaan thinks that Dirkie probably wants to know when he’s
going to fetch all the stu= from Dirkie’s house and writes that it
might be soon, maybe now that he’s been in the water
again.
Tiaan tells Dirkie that he didn’t plan it at all. It was actually
his mom’s fault. Klein Dawid came to visit and his mom came
up with the idea that Tiaan should teach David how to
snorkel. Dawid had actually asked Tiaan about it a few times
and the last time his mom overheard Dawid, so she grabbed
onto the topic like an octopus with all its arms. She kept going
on and on about Tiaan teaching Dawid until he completely lost
it and agreed by yelling at his mom that he will do it, but that
if something happens, it is on his mom.
It snowballed after that because then Hermann happened to
come over just as Tiaan put his old wetsuit and Dippers
in a bag. He gave them one look, asked where they were
diving and said he’ll get them there before he ran o=. Tiaan
later found out that Hermann had bought James’s old
wetsuit a month ago already.

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Tiaan’s mom dropped them o= and agreed to pick them up

again an hour and a half later. As they were walking towards
the water, Tiaan saw Hermann and Corré waiting for them at
the rocks.
His !rst thought was to say no and turn around, but then he
saw that Corré didn’t have his diving equipment with
him. Dawid was super excited and didn’t care that Tiaan looked
like a thunder cloud. Corré just sat on the rocks with a
very bored expression on his face. Tiaan just ignored him
and showed Hermann and Dawid where they had to go into the
water.
At that stage, the tide had just turned: the water was high, but
no big waves were breaking in the little bay itself.
Hermann said the kelp looked like a family of Rastas
swimming together over in the higher swells, but Tiaan stopped
him and said they were staying away from there for now.
He took them to the smooth rock where they always go in. Both
the newbies were struggling to get their wetsuits on, but
eventually they were ready. Corré asked if they weren’t
going to dive with weights and Tiaan started getting
annoyed, but said no: they weren’t going to dive for abalone.
Tiaan !rst let the newcomers practice a bit: he could see
Dawid being a bit anxious, but Hermann couldn’t wait to
get into the water.
Hermann caught on quite quick and at !rst, they stayed
close to the rocks, but it wasn’t too long until Dawid also had
more con?dence and they were swimming in the entire little
bay area.
Tiaan thinks it was a miracle that he didn’t take a cigarette
from Corré and started smoking. (One can see that he was
very anxious and worried that something would happen
to the boys, just like something happened to Dirkie that
Tiaan felt he could have prevented.)
Corré was so relaxed, pulling on his cigarette as though he was
in a commercial. Tiaan wanted to ask him what goes on in his
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head, why he is busy unraveling like that, why he wants to try

and be Dirkie, but he didn’t.
Then Tiaan suddenly remembered about the boys: he saw
Hermann, but couldn’t spot Klein Dawid and panic overtook
him. Corré also noticed it and was busy saying Dawid just
shouldn’t start panicking between the kelp, but just then
Dawid’s head popped up and at the same time, a wave crashed
over him. He desperately tried, but the goggles and snorkel
slipped o= his face: he is in between the kelp!
When Tiaan grabbed Dawid’s arm, Corré was right there
beside him. Who jumped in !rst, Tiaan would never know, but
they were there simultaneously. Dawid completely lost his
mind: the more he struggled (spartel), the more the waves
crashed over him, the bamboo surrounding him.
Tiaan grabbed his arm again: Dawid sees him, his eyes wild and
terri!ed and the next moment has his arms around Tiaan’s
neck, pulling them down under the water between the kelp.
Tiaan tries to pull loose, but Dawid just tightens his grip. One
moment they’re above water, leaves all around them, then
under again. Tiaan feels like he can’t breathe any more, but
Dawid clings to him with all his might. Tiaan can feel his wet
clothes dragging them down deeper.
Tiaan kicks them to the top with all his might and gasps (hyg)
for air. Then Corré gives Dawid a smack (klap). He smacks
him so hard that Tiaan thinks he broke Dawid’s nose, but it
helps: Dawid lets go of Tiaan and grabs his face which gives
them a chance to grab Dawid and swim towards the rocks with
him.
Corré and Tiaan just stare at each other when they have
reached the safety of the rocks: both shaking of both shock
and the cold. Then Corré gives that skew little Lawrence-
smile and for the !rst time Tiaan notices that his brown eyes
are lighter than Dirkie’s and they have green speckles in them.
He tells Corré that he’s not too bad after all and that
makes him smile even broader. He cheekily says he
knows.
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From when he pulled the snorkel out of his mouth until he is dry
and clothed again, Hermann didn’t stop talking once. He
told them about everything he saw, how great it was, how they
needed to go again soon. When he eventually stopped, he
could see that both Tiaan and Corré were soaking wet, so he
looked at Tiaan, then Dawid, then Corré and his eyes grew
bigger and his mouth fell open.
By the time Tiaan’s mom picked them up, they were already
sort of dry. She was surprised when Tiaan asked if Corré and
Hermann could catch a lift back with them, but she didn’t say
anything, just asked if Dawid enjoyed it. He nodded
politely and said yes, thank you and then they quickly
changed the subject.
The last week of the holiday Hermann phones Tiaan says he
saw that the abalone season has started and if they
can’t go diving. At ?rst Tiaan didn’t know what to say.
This time it was Tiaan, Hermann, Yvette and Dawid who went
diving. Tiaan felt better about Hermann and Yvette being there
with Klein Dawid. Yvette and Tiaan demonstrated to the other
two what to do: Yvette even got out two periwinkles, just to
show the newbies what it looked like. It wasn’t easy at !rst, but
Hermann again learned quickly: he can dive pretty deep
with his strong breath. At home, it was a mission teaching
them how to clean the abalone and periwinkle. Klein Dawid said
he will have his own diving gear when they come to visit again
in December. Tiaan thinks it will all be brand-new because his
parents don’t have a shortage of money.
Dawid then wanted to know from Tiaan if Tiaan and
Yvette are a couple.
Tiaan is surprised and said they are just friends.
Dawid says that to him, it looks like she is crazy about
Tiaan …
Now Tiaan doesn’t know what to think anymore. Dawid is the
second person to say that to him. Yvette is beautiful and nice

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and all, but he doesn’t know: maybe it’s just their imagination.
They are just friends: buddies.
Hermann wants them to ask Corré to come diving with them
the next time. He says Corré isn’t nearly as braggart as he
seems, but Tiaan just kept quiet.

Chapter 14
Reproduction of the human (grade 12 work)
Male reproduction organs: testis, bytestis, seed leader,
seed bag, prostate gland, Cower’s glands, penis.
Female reproductive organs: ovarium, fallopian tubes,
uterus, vagina.
Spermatogenesis: process by which spermatozoa
develops from spermatoganiums.
Oogenesis: process through which ova develops from
germinal epithelium cells.
Reproduction: spermatozoon and ovum fuses and lead
to a zygote. The zygote is divided and goes crazy until
it’s a morula. (No, Jannie, they don’t make liqueur from
it!) The morula develops into the blastocyst. (Sounds
like a portable CD-player. “I said, turn down that
blastocyst!”) The blastocyst goes on a walk (wandeling)
and ends up in the mucous membrane. The embryo is
called a fetus after 2 months. The fetus becomes a baby
who is then born after about 280 days, to everyone’s
relief (40 weeks). The baby is dependent still on the
parents for months (?).

(It is evident from this summary that Tiaan is feeling

much better emotionally: he is cracking jokes again and
his mood seems to be a bit lighter.)
30
October
Tiaan doesn’t know why they have to learn about grade 12
work now already. Mrs. Beukes teaches this work without
batting an eye. Even the braggart Marius didn’t put her o=

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with his stupid questions about sperm banks. He probably

thought he was going to make her feel embarrassed, but she
turned the question around and said he should tell the class
what he knows about it and she will just !ll in as they go along.
He turned bloodred and kept his mouth shut the rest of the
week.
The only bad thing about the week, is that Tiaan suddenly
thought about the fact that Dirkie would never become
a father. Nobody would one day look like him and carry his
genes. Corré might look like him, but he isn’t Dirkie. This
makes Tiaan sad.
Hermann always says if a teacher or someone was very rude:
it’s not how hard you get hit, it’s how high you bounce back.
Maybe this is true, Tiaan thinks, but it’s easy for Hermann to
say that because Tiaan doesn’t think that anything bad has
really happened to him in his life. The worst thing was
probably him not getting chosen as prefect. Everyone
likes him and his marks are good, but he is apparently
too new in the school.
Tiaan also didn’t get elected prefect, but he had no
illusions about it. He had been way too quiet that year.
A lot of kids said Dirkie would have de?nitely been a
prefect, but Tiaan isn’t too sure about it. There were a lot of
teachers who didn’t like Dirkie at all, but on the other hand,
there were some that were crazy about him.
Kevin is the new deputy head boy. It wasn’t a big
surprise: he was captain of the hockey team, chess team
and even the cricket team. It was strange that he wasn’t
chosen as head boy, but then again: Kruiwa and the
principal have never chosen a hockey captain over a
rugby captain.
To Tiaan’s surprise, Dustin got chosen as a prefect. He
doesn’t know how that happened, but it seems like Tiaan is one
of the few people who don’t like him. Nobody even mentions
the fact that Dustin and Jasmine are together now most
of the time these days. Yvette says it’s because they are the
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most beautiful couple that the school has seen in a long time.
Tiaan just kept quiet. He doesn’t want to hear someone
say he is jealous of Dustin again.
Yvette is, of course, also a prefect. He told her to not get
become all high and mighty that she doesn’t want to be seen
with her mere mortal friends. She nearly crushed his skull with
her sports bag. Hermann wants to know if they are together yet
and Tiaan keeps saying that they are just “good friends”: okay,
Tiaan, okay …!
Tiaan blames dominee Oberholzer and thinks that if he didn’t
force them to go on the con?rmation camp, nobody would
have known anything. This is when Tiaan realized that he
really likes Yvette a lot and actually loves her. At !rst, he
was frightened, but afterwards thought that it could have been
way worse: she could have liked someone else, like Jasmine
did. Tiaan probably wouldn’t have said anything if he didn’t
realize at the camp that she really, really liked him a lot.
Whenever they had a chance, they would talk. They have
known each other for years, but suddenly it was as if
they couldn’t stop talking: about anything and everything
under the sun. She said she didn’t go to the sokkie with
Dirkie the previous year because she already liked Tiaan
back then. He nearly fell over backwards when he heard that.
Tiaan doesn’t know why it took him so long to realize how much
he liked her; maybe because he was half stupid going after
Jasmine for a while.
Tiaan told Yvette a little about things he and Dirkie used to do
and also what they were planning on doing still someday. He
admitted to her that he misses him and she wanted to
know if he is never going to surf again. She says she
understands Tiaan’s reasons, but she thinks that Dirkie would
have wanted him to surf again. He didn’t want to say it to
her, but was thinking how anyone can say they know what
Dirkie would have wanted: especially not in the last few
months of his life when he was not himself. (Dirkie most
likely changed and acted out because of his dad leaving
and it being a big shock and disappointment to him. It

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was a deep issue because he didn’t even speak to Tiaan

about this.)
Tiaan then wonders if Dirkie actually would have wanted him to
surf again. If the tables were turned: would Dirkie have surfed
again? It’s hard for Tiaan: it’s not that he hates the ocean.
He did, at !rst, but realized it was stupid because the ocean is
just a thing. The problem is that he doesn’t really feel it
anymore: he doesn’t have that overwhelming urge to
grab his bodyboard and set oA to the beach. It feels like
work now.
Albert was also at the camp. He had to share a room with
Tiaan, so there was no avoiding him. Sometimes Tiaan still feels
like grabbing a tree and hitting him with it, but sometimes he
feels sorry for him because his life is a mess. The more he
gets the know Albert, the more he realizes that he talks so
much nonsense just to camouDage himself. If he can just
learn to keep his mouth shut: they were barely back from camp
and the whole school knew exactly how close Tiaan and Yvette
had become, which means it’s just another day or two before
his mother !nds out.
Surprisingly, Tiaan’s mom didn’t make an issue out of it
this time. Maybe because she knows Yvette and likes her.
She’s also good friends with Yvette’s mom, which helps. Not
that they are going to get married or anything, Tiaan quickly
adds!
Tiaan wonders what Dirkie would have thought about the whole
thing and how he saw this one coming long before Tiaan
ever did.
Albert and Dustin are both playing for the ?rst cricket
team. Kevin says Albert ?nds fault with everything Dustin
does and that the two of them wanted to beat each other up
a few times already.
At !rst Tiaan thought Gustav was also going to play cricket that
year, but he already started training for the athletic season.
Now that he’s so !t, he wants to do the 200m and 400m next
year.
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Tiaan’s dad didn’t say anything, but he could see his dad was
disappointed (teleurgesteld) because Tiaan was in the
second cricket team this year. Mnr Brits said now that he
gained two such excellent bowlers for the !rst time, he
wanted to use Tiaan as the second team’s secret weapon.
At !rst Tiaan felt bad about it, but after the great game
against Caledon, he now enjoys being the second team’s best
bowler. He just needs to work on his batting.
Tiaan’s mom says cricket is a game for old men in white
pajamas, but she was happy to hear about Tiaan’s hat-trick
against Caledon. Not that she entirely understands what it
meant, but Tiaan’s dad was on cloud 9 about it and said
he’s taking Tiaan to watch an international match when a
team from overseas come to South Africa again, even if he
has to close the shop!
Exams are approaching fast and Tiaan has to start doing
revision. Hermann and Yvette are so good that he has to start
studying if he doesn’t want to make a fool of himself. Hermann
wants to become a psychologist one day. Tiaan doesn’t
know why he wants to dig and delve around in other people’s
minds.
Someone whose mind has been a gold mine for digging, is
Geyer’s. Tiaan couldn’t believe it when he got a letter from
him. He didn’t feel like opening the thing, let alone read it, but
fortunately it wasn’t a long one. Geyer wrote that he was in a
very deep hole and that he is sorry for what he did to
Tiaan. He asked for his forgiveness, but still couldn’t help
himself by adding a little lecture in there: take the
bodyboard and surf, Geyer wrote, don’t keep running
away.
10
November
It’s been one of the craziest days ever on the calendar
(almanak). It’s like a million things were sitting and waiting to
happen at once.

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When they arrived at school that morning, they heard that Mrs.
Beukes was not going to teach them again the following
year: her husband got relocated (verplaas) and she is of
course going with. The kids were in an uproar about this.
Their !rst thought was that they were going to get Kruiwa again
and nobody wanted that (except Marius who didn’t like me
Beukes that much anymore.) Fortunately, they then heard the
amazing news that Kruiwa wasn’t going to teach at all
the next year: he took a year’s worth of study leave!!!
Tiaan wanted to legit do a few backEips!
Albert and Dustin had a full-on ?ght. Dustin wasn’t’ at
school and Albert is walking around with a black eye. Gustav
says Dustin’s arm is broken because Albert hit him with a
cricket bat. Albert refuses to speak to anyone. Tiaan wonders
what his dad said about his black eye. Tiaan’s mom said she
thought cricket wasn’t a contact sport. The worst thing (or best,
he doesn’t know how to feel about it yet) is that Tiaan now
has to bowl for the ?rst time in their upcoming match
that Saturday. His dad was very happy, but Tiaan is not so
sure about the whole thing.
As if that wasn’t enough drama for one day, Dirkie’s mom
arrived at their house and insisted that Tiaan fetch the
things she had been talking about all year. There was no
escaping, so he had to go with her.
The only problem was that nobody told Corré about his
mother’s plans: he nearly went into a spasm when he saw
Tiaan and his mom in Dirkie’s room and heard that she wanted
to give Tiaan all Dirkie’s surf magazines and old wetsuit. Tiaan
has never heard Dirkie even speak to his mother the way that
Corré did that day: it was like he thought his mom was
spitting on Dirkie’s grave or something.
Tiaan felt bad and out of place: he was just standing there, at
the door, looking into Dirkie’s room. Everything still looked
exactly the same, maybe a bit messier, but the same
nevertheless. The big di=erence was the two people yelling in
the middle of the room like two crazy cats. Corré was so upset

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that, after a while, he started crying. That’s when Tiaan

decided to leave.
An hour later they stopped at Tiaan’s house again: this
time Dirkie’s mom AND Corré. Dirkie’s mom put the bag with all
the stu= down on the carpet in the lounge and looked at Tiaan.
It seemed as though both Corré and his mom had been crying a
lot. After a long, uncomfortable silence, she apologized for
their behavior in front of Tiaan, saying it must have been
very diFcult for him and it’s not like Corré doesn’t want
Tiaan to have Dirkie’s things, it’s just that she didn’t
discuss it with Corré ?rst. Tiaan made it o= as nothing,
brushing it o= as though they didn’t make him actually feel like
a dog.
There was a long silence.
Then Dirkie’s mom said Corré wants to know if he will
please go sur?ng with him that afternoon.
Tiaan looked at Corré who was standing there right in front of
him: such a braggart, but too shy to ask Tiaan himself. Tiaan
didn’t know what to say: there Corré was, looking at Tiaan as
though his life depended on Tiaan’s next words and there
their mom was, her eyes red from crying so much and her
hands !dgeting with a tissue.
If anyone had told Tiaan a year ago that sur!ng would feel
someone telling a blind man to climb a mountain, he would
have never believed them.
And there they were, eventually: getting dressed in the
municipal bathroom, each busy with their own thoughts, no
one saying a word. Even as they were walking down to the
beach, they weren’t speaking. Tiaan felt weird: guilty, tired
and new, all at the same time.
There were just two other people in the sea: James and Alex.
Suddenly Corré started running the last bit on the
beach, dived onto his board with his belly on the water
and shot into the sea. Tiaan walked slowly to the edge of
the water, bent down, wet his face and hair. He tasted the salt

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on his tongue and wondered how something that you have

done so many times in your life, can be so hard.
The water washed like icy cold hands over his face and ears,
but the waves were breaking deep which meant he had to swim
in further. He had to duck dive one or two waves, like yesterday
and yesterday and yesterday.
Suddenly he was in front of the others.
He asked James if this is how one studies for their matric exam
and !rst, they look at him like they had never seen him before
and then they started shouting and going crazy, like he
had just successfully completed his ?rst moon landing.
They went on and on and Tiaan later started feeling like a
monkey and he didn’t know why they were making such a fuss,
but he did feel pretty good about it, he will admit. !
For a while, he was just laying there and looking at the big open
sky above him: he was a little island in the enormous, endless
ocean that surrounded him. Then he gave himself over to the
breeze, the seagulls, the rise and fall of the swell, the salty
smell and taste and … life. Then he just let go of the guilt
(skuldgevoel).
He took his !rst wave. Then the second, the third one. One
after the other. Shouted and cheered into the waves because
he was there: HE WAS ALIVE!
Corré surfs well, but his eye isn’t really tuned in yet: he
sometimes takes the wave a bit too late. One thing Tiaan was
very grateful for, was that Corré wasn’t wearing Dirkie’s
wetsuit. Maybe it’s still too big for him.
He is actually quite weird, Corré. Dirkie used to crack jokes
while they were on their boards, waiting for a wave, but Corré
is completely diAerent. Once, when they were close to each
other in the water, waiting for a wave, Corré gently stroked
with his right hand over the water. The skin of the sea is
foamy soft, he said, but suddenly became shy when he saw
that Tiaan overheard him. Before Tiaan could say anything,

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Corré swam away and took the next wave as quickly as

possible.
When they got out of the water, it felt like Tiaan was never
going to stop smiling again. He was tired, but felt GREAT!
Corré went straight to his bag when they got to the
bathroom: delved and delved relentlessly until he found his
packet of cigarettes. He had one in his mouth, ready to be lit
when Tiaan walked over and, without even thinking about it,
took the thing out of his mouth and broke it in two. He
looked Corré straight in the eye and told him that if he
will punch his lights out if he ever sees him smoking
again. (It’s as if he is taking over the roll of an older
brother in Corré’s life.)
Tiaan laughs as he writes to Dirkie about the expression on
Corré’s face: he looked at Tiaan as if he had gone stark raving
mad! Corré wasn’t exactly smaller than Tiaan, but the thing is:
Tiaan meant every word. Corré swallowed
uncomfortably and then agreed before turning around
and getting dressed.
Tiaan doesn’t know what got into his mom, but when she saw
him enter the house with his wet hair and bodyboard under the
arm, she burst into tears. He got such a fright at !rst,
thinking someone died again or is getting divorced, but it
turned out not to be so.
Tiaan thinks that now he will go sur!ng again. Hermann will
probably be pretty upset if he ?nds out that Tiaan went
without him. They have become good friends and he
doesn’t want Hermann to think that he hides things, so he is
going to tell him about the whole episode anyway, which
means Tiaan will have to go sur?ng with him as well
especially since he had been asking so many times.
Tiaan writes that he will also surf with Corré again: he is as
weird as one can be, but Tiaan actually likes him. He hopes
that Yvette isn’t going to also now want to start sur!ng, but he
doesn’t think she will. She will probably just come watch,
which Tiaan thinks makes it absolutely worth while !
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He writes that he seriously has to start studying now. There is

no way that he wants to be stuck with Henko Wiese’s Life
Science for Amateurs again: it’s time that he becomes a pro
and ?nish school.
He says it’s hard to think that it’s been a whole year without
Dirkie, but that Dirkie shouldn’t worry because he will never
forget him. Nobody will ever be the kind of friend that
he was: nobody! There was just one Dirkie Lawrence and
that’s it. He is really going to miss him, Tiaan writes.
Tiaan !nally says good bye and writes that it was great
knowing Dirkie.
(This is how the reader 6nally knows that Tiaan has
made peace: he has accepted and made peace with the
fact that what happened to Dirkie, was just an accident
and that it wasn’t his fault. He made peace knowing
that not everyone who goes in the ocean, will die. He
made peace with the fact that he can move on because
at the end of the day: life goes on and he will never
forget Dirkie, of course not! But he needs to start living
again because he is still here, he is still alive and can’t
keep dwelling in the past because then what happened
to Geyer, could happen to him and he doesn’t want to
do that to himself or his family and friends. Tiaan is a
strong young character who showed progression
throughout the book and enabled the reader to
experience his journey with them as he used narrative
therapy to make sense of the loss of his best friend.)

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