The Butterfly Heart (17 page)
Read The Butterfly Heart Online
Authors: Paula Leyden
Madillo looked up at her and her foot stopped tapping. “I’ll do that, Sister, then I’ll think three times and maybe four. I might just carry on thinking about it right outside the classroom door. Anyway, I like puff adders, so I wouldn’t mind helping one out in her hour of need.”
The room went silent, but I heard Winifred next to me trying hard not to laugh. Sister heard her too, and looked across at Winifred, and for the first time since I’ve known her I saw her give a little smile and a large wink.
It was then that I knew everything might just be all right.
The
old man stirred. He felt as though a burning fire separated his head from his body. He sat up and tried to speak. No sound came out of his mouth except for a weak hissing noise. His heart beat faster as he stood up on legs that were shaking. He lifted his hand to his neck and face and felt smooth dry ridges all over them. He pulled his hands away in horror and looked around the street. It was empty apart from a man crouched down watching him. The man was still and silent and the old man recognized him from somewhere. He felt fearful of him and started walking slowly and stiffly down the road. He needed to get out of this town, away from here. Back home to where he would be safe.
The dawn light strengthened as he made his way towards the main road. At one house that he passed a small boy opened the door to bring out the crumbs for the chickens. He saw the old man and stared at him in terror, then ran back inside shouting for his mother. “Ma, I saw a devil man with a snake crawling up his neck and into his mouth. A white snake.”
This young boy was known to make up stories, especially if he wanted to get out of jobs that had to be done.
“There’s no such thing,” his mother scolded. “Let me see.”
She went to the door and looked outside at the retreating figure of a shuffling old man.
“Poor old man, to have a small boy making up stories about him. Get back inside to wash yourself for church. I don’t want to hear anything more about it. A white snake? That’s impossible.”
Lots of thanks due…
To Tom, for everything. Without you this would not have progressed beyond a passing (and idle) thought. To Mum and Dad, for making sure we grew up happy, curious and with our minds open. To my girls, Amy, Christie and Kate, for inspiring me, reading and always believing in me, and to Aisling and Maurice for your encouragement and support. To John and Claire for reading and for banging the drum so enthusiastically. To Julia for first making me think, why not write? To my other readers, Bryony, Caroline, Eileen, Anne, Bryan, Mary, Pat, Sibh, Louie, Alice, Kiwi John, Becca, Ruth and Dieter, I hope you enjoy the finished product. And to Karen: Happy Reading.
More thanks…
To Sophie Hicks, a Wonder Woman among agents, and to Edina Imrik and the rest of the staff who make the Ed Victor Literary Agency such a good home for an author. To Siobhán Parkinson, teacher extraordinaire and inspiration. To Kate Thompson for knocking my beginning on its head and making me start over. To Gill Evans and Emma Lidbury at Walker Books for showing faith in my writing and for making this first publishing experience so good. And to Katie Everson for her beautiful design. To my writer’s group, Crab Apples – Jean, Gemma, Una and Geoff – for friendship, support, criticism and entertainment! And to Amnesty for the work you do and for endorsing this story.
And finally…
Thanks to Zambia and its people. It is a beautiful country, and anyone reading this book who has not been there should put it on a list of places to visit. I wrote
The Butterfly Heart
for many reasons: one of them was that Zambia occupies a very special place in my memory and I feel privileged to have spent my childhood there; the second is that I once knew a young girl who was taken out of school and married off to an old man. I know now and I knew then that this stole away her childhood and her life. This should not happen to anyone, anywhere, ever. So this book is also for her.
Amnesty International
We all have human rights, no matter who we are or where we live.
In
The Butterfly Heart
, Winifred very nearly becomes a victim of forced marriage, while her mother endures what we call “violence against women”. These are terrible abuses of our human rights, but they are not confined to fiction – they happen to girls and women all over the world.
Human rights are what every human being needs to live a life that is fair and respected, free from abuse, fear and want, and free to express our own beliefs. Human rights belong to all of us, regardless of who we are or where we live. They are part of what makes us human. But they are not always respected.
Amnesty International works to protect our human rights, all over the world. We are a movement of ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights. Our purpose is to protect individuals wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied.
To find out more about human rights and how to start one of our very active Amnesty youth groups, go to:
Amnesty International UK, The Human Rights Action Centre
17–25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA 020 7033 1596
[email protected]
www.amnesty.org.uk
“Amnesty’s greetings cards really helped me in prison. In total, I received more than 4,000 – amazing! I read each one: the best, I think, were those from children and other student activists… It amazed me to see that those children know about human rights. What a good omen for the future!”
Ignatius Mahendra Kusuma Wardhana
, an Indonesian student who was arrested at a peaceful demonstration in 2003 and spent two years, seven months and ten days behind bars, where he was beaten and threatened
.
Paula Leyden was born in Kenya and spent her childhood in Zambia. As a teenager she moved with her family to South Africa, where she soon became involved in the struggle to end Apartheid. Since 2003 she has lived on a farm in Kilkenny, Ireland, with her partner and five children, where she breeds horses and writes.
The Butterfly Heart
is Paula’s first novel.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated, as they may result in injury.
First published 2011 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © 2011 Paula Leyden
The right of Paula Leyden to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-4244-4 (ePub)