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The
story "The Dare", written by Beverly Naidoo, deals with a
girl called Veronica who has to persist a trial of courage. The
parents of her friend, Marika, own a farm to which Veronica and her
family travel every year. Marika has got three brothers who use to
tease the two girls.
The
two girls do not want to accept the insults any longer and try to
obtain acceptance, finally.
One
day the boys want Veronica to do a dare to belong to them. She has
to go to their neighbour Meener Venter who is known as a very unfriendly person
and is said to have killed his own wife. Veronica has to go
over into his garden to get one of his poinsettia flowers. On the one
hand she does not want to do it but on the other hand there is no
other resort for her because she has nobody else to play with.
Arriving
at her neighbour's house, she suddenly realizes sounds of
running and other people coming outside. Although trembling, she
is curious about what is happening.
| Veronica sees her neighbour
standing in front of a black child, torturing him with a cane
till he can't take it any more. Veronica can't bear that sort of
inhumane treatment but has to observe the scene
until the boy's cry is "reduced to a soft
whimpering". |
Realizing her neighbour walking in her direction,
she is scared at first, but then it turns out to be a
harmless situation for her, because her neighbour thinks she is
Marika, whose (white) father has repaired his fence. Veronica hurries
back to the gang with the flowers.
Written
by : Anke Paulsen, Silvia Rusu, Simon della Malva
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