Finders Weepers, by Penny Lorimer

Finders Weepers, by Penny Lorimer. Random House Struik Umuzi. Cape Town, South Africa 2014. ISBN 9781415206829 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0682-9

Penny Lorimer's novel Finders Weepers reveals much about rural school and state education in South Africa in the twenty-first century.

Penny Lorimer  

Friday May 15th, 2009 - a.m.

'Sit down, Sibahle,' ordered my mother, without preamble. She has always refused to use 'Nikola', the name I presume my German father gave me before disappearing out of our lives forever, although everyone mostly calls me Nix. 'God, what have I done now?' That had been my thought ever since the previous evening's phone call, summoning me to the house she had been managing for its owners for twenty-three years, to the home where I'd done most of my growing up. Obediently, I took a seat at the kitchen table. My eyes roamed the familiar, farm-style kitchen with all its gleaming retro appliances. The door of the huge creamy fridge was covered with family photos, most including me: taller than all the other kids, single braid down my back as always, a dark face among white ones. My feeling of not quite belonging was so embedded that I hardly noticed it any more. 'What's up?' My voice sounded tentative in my own ears. 'Princess is worried,' said my mother. I relaxed a fraction; this was not about me, then. She was referring to her closest friend who lived in the township of Langa and travelled daily into the white suburbs to do domestic work for a variety of employers. She and Ma met regularly at weekly meetings of the Mothers' Union and at Sunday services. Ma ran water into the sink to wash the breakfast crockery. Despite its availability, the dishwasher is a piece of equipment she views with deep suspicion. I waited. Though quick and efficient in everything she does, Ma refuses to be hurried when she has something important to say. I heard an Egyptian goose honking morning opinions to the world from the chimney. Hadedas yelled nasally at each other and hooting riffs and gentle quacks drifted up from the vlei nearby. I used to curse this chorus when it woke me before it was properly light, but now that I'm not living here I kind of enjoy it. 'You know about Princess's daughter, Boniswa?' 'What about her?' 'At the beginning of this year she went to be principal at Girdwood College.' Before she could ask, I got up, grabbed a dish towel, and began drying crockery, still warm from its rinsing. As long as I could remember, my mother had held up Princess's daughter as the epitome of intellectual brilliance, a model of all that a truly dutiful child should be. She was a year older than me, but - unlike me - she'd grown up in a rural area in the care of her grandparents. Even then, Princess had worked in the city, sending money home to support them and to pay for her education. Her father, like mine, was not in the picture. Boniswa's academic gifts had been noticed and she'd been mentored through her years at a Catholic high school by an elderly white couple. She'd rewarded their faith in her by performing well enough to be granted a full bursary by an NGO to attend a liberal arts college in the US. From there she'd returned to university in Port Elizabeth and graduated with an MA in Education. Next to that, my BA in English Literature seemed insignificant. Boniswa went on to land a job at some prestigious private school, rising to become its deputy head. I, on the other hand, wasted what meagre talent I had chasing news for a regional radio station. For someone from a struggling family in a rural area, dependent on others for an education which had probably been fairly poorly resourced, I had to concede that this was an achievement worthy of admiration. [...]

This is an extract from the novel Finders Weepers, by Penny Lorimer.

Title: Finders Weepers
Author: Penny Lorimer
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Random House Struik
Imprint: Umuzi
Cape Town, South Africa 2014
ISBN 9781415206829 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0682-9
Softcover, 14 x 22 cm, 304 pages