About this story
You play Lyndall, a child here with Em, with Otto the overseer and his son Waldo, who takes arithmetic into the veld with the sheep. Waldo comes back at evening under red dust, with swollen eyes and an empty food bag: he built an altar beyond the kopje and waited for a fire that never came. By supper a stranger wants lodging.
Who you’ll meet
Waldo, the farm boy you grew up beside, coming in behind the flock with red dust and tear-tracks on his face, and Em waiting at the kraal gate with her hand out for his empty food bag and the game already laid out.
How it opens
Moonlight made the Karoo farm beautiful enough to hide its red dust and hard distances.
In the next bed, Em slept while the watch in Otto's room counted a darkness you could not hear.
EmLyndall, why are you awake when even Tant Sannie's bad dreams have gone quiet?
EmTomorrow Waldo promised to play near the sheep kraal after his work.
Tant SannieChildren whispering after midnight will rise before the servants.
Choose
The moon made the room look like somewhere else.
I was wondering why adults fear questions after dark.