Tuimeltrein – René van
Zyl
Chapter 1: Abby
The story starts with the three main characters, Abbegail Mynhardt, Henri van
Leempitte and Jasper Barkhuizen who are bunking (woon nie klas by nie) their
last two LO-periods since they have been tasked to do a group project
(groeptaak) which entails coming up with an idea for a Halloween-stall as
instructed by their grade 11 (graadelf) LO teacher, juffrou Makou. Abby finds this
grouping (groepering) odd (vreemd) because she believes (glo) they are galaxies
(sterrestelsels) apart (verwyderd).
Key facts pertaining to each character thus far:
Abby
Thinks she is Earth (Aarde) since she is more realistic and practical
(realisties en prakties).
Very pedantic (baie gesteld) about information (p6).
Red hair and green eyes.
Fits in (pas in) with the cool girls, yet she can still wear (dra) jeans
and tekkies.
Very sporty (sportief) and has a strong winning mentality (wenner-
mentaliteit) = p10.
Good in athletics (atletiekster) and studies hard so she can get a
bursary (beurs) to go to varsity.
PROPERTY OF M SOUNES NO COPYING, SHARING OR DISTRIBUTION
1
ALLOWED
, Believes (glo) she can do everything that a man can, or at least (ten
minste), she has been trying to reinvent (herskep) herself since her
father left them because he was having an affair with a younger
woman. Abby is very bitter about this.
Father is an insurance agent (versekeringsagent).
Mom runs a doggy parlour (hondesalon) from their garage
(motorhuis) over weekends.
Henri
Believes he is Venus because he is dramatic and bubbly
(sprankelend).
Skinny (skraal) with blonde hair, brown eyes and a caramel brown
skin (karamelbruin vel).
Does not like anyone touching (raak aan) his hair.
Is very artsy (kunstig).
On his purple (pers) phone quite a lot.
His father is in the police force (polisiemag).
He is gay and open about it.
Jasper
He is Mars.
A very calm individual who loves to play computer games
(rekenaarspeletjies).
According to (volgens) a cheerleader called Tammie who is besotted
(mal oor) with Jasper, he loses his mellow vibe when playing
computer games as he becomes very energetic with some big
outbursts (vulkaniese uitbarstings).
Has grey blue eyes and has a stubble (stoppelhaartjies) which often
(gereeld) gets him in trouble (moeilikheid) with the prefects. Abby
thinks it looks cool.
His parents are engineers (ingenieurs).
Jasper is of the opinion (van mening) that the teacher only put them together
because they live (woon) in the same security complex (sekuriteitskompleks),
Magaliesberg Eco Village in Hartbeespoort, where people don’t even (eens)
have fences (heinings) in front of their houses as they feel so safe (veilig) there.
He believes they’ll be finished (klaar) under an hour and thinks they can be
compared to (vergelyk word met) a PUG, a Pickup Group, which is a group of
PROPERTY OF M SOUNES NO COPYING, SHARING OR DISTRIBUTION
2
ALLOWED
,players formed randomly (ad hoc basis gevorm word) to achieve (bereik) a
common goal (doel te bereik).
Abby does not want to be seen with the two boys as she thinks they are misfits
with them being unpredictable (onvoorspelbaar) and definitely (beslis) trouble
(moeilikheid) with a capital T.
She suggests (stel voor) that they do the project at her house because the garage
is clean (skoon) and there is enough (genoeg) space to make their stall’s
(stalletjie se) nameboard since her dad took all his tools (gereedskap) when he
left. Abby also helps her mom wash and cut (sny) dogs over weekends (naweke).
The name of the grooming service is Pet’s Pamper.
It seems as if the three also still have an Afrikaans essay (opstel) to do for their
teacher whom they call Totius about something in their lives that is problematic
to them (‘n taai toffie).
Abby quickly cleans the table with Wet Wipes as she has flashbacks of the
pandemic. Her eye catches her mom’s magnet collection (magneetversameling)
with one sporting a quote from Rebecca Wells: It’s life. You don’t figure it out.
You just climb up on the beast and ride. This quote mimics the foreword of the
book and is therefore important for the novel.
Suddenly they hear the tune (deuntjie) of an ice cream van in their complex and
Abby decides to buy them each one when the van comes past since it is a very
hot day in October.
They have a discussion (bespreking) about what Halloween entails. Abby explains
that it is a festival (fees) that dates back to the Christians during the Middle Ages to
celebrate (vier) All Hallows Eve which is the evening (aand) before All Saints Day.
They visit (besoek) the graves of the deceased (oorledenes) to celebrate (vier) their
lives. Henri answers Jasper’s question about the witches (hekse) and skulls
(kopbene) by saying that it is also a festival that celebrates the end of the Celtic
(Keltiese) summer which is the struggle (stryd) between winter and summer, life and
death, therefore the presentations (voorstellings) of skeletons. Henri thinks that a
skeleton (geraamte) is an artwork (kunswerk) made by God and that it is nothing to
be feared (gevrees).
PROPERTY OF M SOUNES NO COPYING, SHARING OR DISTRIBUTION
3
ALLOWED
, Jasper doesn’t buy into any of that and says he will just join (aansluit) the Church
of the Flying Spaghetti Monster since it has far less (minder) rules than what
other churches force (forseer) down your throat. Their followers like to eat pasta
in all forms and to them heaven is full of beer volcanos (biervulkane).
Ideas for their stall include:
Abby: selling toffee apples (toffieappels). Henri shuts it down, saying he
hates them since it is too sticky (taai).
Henri: suggests (stel voor) candy floss (spookasem) but shoots it down
himself as he thinks it’s too childish (kinderagtig).
Jasper: pellet gun shooting. He wants to make a poster of their principal
whom they call Jakkals and everyone gets a chance at trying to shoot
him. Abby shuts it down as Makou hates violence (geweld).
Jasper: boxing where they get a boxing ring (bokskryt) because most
teenagers have anger issues and are always in the mood (lus) to beat
each other up (mekaar op te neuk).
Abby: grooming pets.
Henri: he wants to design (ontwerp) a board from a horror movie where
you leave an opening where the actor’s head would be so you can take a
picture of your face on that actor’s body and have you be part (deel) of
the scene (toneel). Jasper shoots it down, saying the taking of pictures
and printing them would entail too much admin but Abby suggests the
learners take pictures with their own phones at a fee (fooi). Jasper buys
into this, asking if Henri will design all the boards so Jasper himself does
not have to do anything, but Henri quickly nips that in the bud, saying each
one of them will design a board and also contribute (dra by) to making a
banner (banier) for their stall.
Now that they’ve decided (besluit) on an idea, Henri suggests they contact the old
traffic cop (spietkop), oom Willie, who had a video shop in Hartbeespoort years
ago as he might still have some of those big movie pop up posters.
Abby hears the ice cream van in front of her house and runs towards it. Jasper and
Henri follow. At first, the ice cream vendor does not see them because he is
focussed on one of the neighbours (bure) approaching him from across Abby’s
house. It’s the principal, meneer Adrianus Vos. Jasper wonders what he is doing
home so early and judges the principal’s couch potato-body. Henri is worried that
if the principal sees them, he will know they are bunking class, but Abby says
they’ll just tell him that they got sent home to work on their project. She also
PROPERTY OF M SOUNES NO COPYING, SHARING OR DISTRIBUTION
4
ALLOWED
Zyl
Chapter 1: Abby
The story starts with the three main characters, Abbegail Mynhardt, Henri van
Leempitte and Jasper Barkhuizen who are bunking (woon nie klas by nie) their
last two LO-periods since they have been tasked to do a group project
(groeptaak) which entails coming up with an idea for a Halloween-stall as
instructed by their grade 11 (graadelf) LO teacher, juffrou Makou. Abby finds this
grouping (groepering) odd (vreemd) because she believes (glo) they are galaxies
(sterrestelsels) apart (verwyderd).
Key facts pertaining to each character thus far:
Abby
Thinks she is Earth (Aarde) since she is more realistic and practical
(realisties en prakties).
Very pedantic (baie gesteld) about information (p6).
Red hair and green eyes.
Fits in (pas in) with the cool girls, yet she can still wear (dra) jeans
and tekkies.
Very sporty (sportief) and has a strong winning mentality (wenner-
mentaliteit) = p10.
Good in athletics (atletiekster) and studies hard so she can get a
bursary (beurs) to go to varsity.
PROPERTY OF M SOUNES NO COPYING, SHARING OR DISTRIBUTION
1
ALLOWED
, Believes (glo) she can do everything that a man can, or at least (ten
minste), she has been trying to reinvent (herskep) herself since her
father left them because he was having an affair with a younger
woman. Abby is very bitter about this.
Father is an insurance agent (versekeringsagent).
Mom runs a doggy parlour (hondesalon) from their garage
(motorhuis) over weekends.
Henri
Believes he is Venus because he is dramatic and bubbly
(sprankelend).
Skinny (skraal) with blonde hair, brown eyes and a caramel brown
skin (karamelbruin vel).
Does not like anyone touching (raak aan) his hair.
Is very artsy (kunstig).
On his purple (pers) phone quite a lot.
His father is in the police force (polisiemag).
He is gay and open about it.
Jasper
He is Mars.
A very calm individual who loves to play computer games
(rekenaarspeletjies).
According to (volgens) a cheerleader called Tammie who is besotted
(mal oor) with Jasper, he loses his mellow vibe when playing
computer games as he becomes very energetic with some big
outbursts (vulkaniese uitbarstings).
Has grey blue eyes and has a stubble (stoppelhaartjies) which often
(gereeld) gets him in trouble (moeilikheid) with the prefects. Abby
thinks it looks cool.
His parents are engineers (ingenieurs).
Jasper is of the opinion (van mening) that the teacher only put them together
because they live (woon) in the same security complex (sekuriteitskompleks),
Magaliesberg Eco Village in Hartbeespoort, where people don’t even (eens)
have fences (heinings) in front of their houses as they feel so safe (veilig) there.
He believes they’ll be finished (klaar) under an hour and thinks they can be
compared to (vergelyk word met) a PUG, a Pickup Group, which is a group of
PROPERTY OF M SOUNES NO COPYING, SHARING OR DISTRIBUTION
2
ALLOWED
,players formed randomly (ad hoc basis gevorm word) to achieve (bereik) a
common goal (doel te bereik).
Abby does not want to be seen with the two boys as she thinks they are misfits
with them being unpredictable (onvoorspelbaar) and definitely (beslis) trouble
(moeilikheid) with a capital T.
She suggests (stel voor) that they do the project at her house because the garage
is clean (skoon) and there is enough (genoeg) space to make their stall’s
(stalletjie se) nameboard since her dad took all his tools (gereedskap) when he
left. Abby also helps her mom wash and cut (sny) dogs over weekends (naweke).
The name of the grooming service is Pet’s Pamper.
It seems as if the three also still have an Afrikaans essay (opstel) to do for their
teacher whom they call Totius about something in their lives that is problematic
to them (‘n taai toffie).
Abby quickly cleans the table with Wet Wipes as she has flashbacks of the
pandemic. Her eye catches her mom’s magnet collection (magneetversameling)
with one sporting a quote from Rebecca Wells: It’s life. You don’t figure it out.
You just climb up on the beast and ride. This quote mimics the foreword of the
book and is therefore important for the novel.
Suddenly they hear the tune (deuntjie) of an ice cream van in their complex and
Abby decides to buy them each one when the van comes past since it is a very
hot day in October.
They have a discussion (bespreking) about what Halloween entails. Abby explains
that it is a festival (fees) that dates back to the Christians during the Middle Ages to
celebrate (vier) All Hallows Eve which is the evening (aand) before All Saints Day.
They visit (besoek) the graves of the deceased (oorledenes) to celebrate (vier) their
lives. Henri answers Jasper’s question about the witches (hekse) and skulls
(kopbene) by saying that it is also a festival that celebrates the end of the Celtic
(Keltiese) summer which is the struggle (stryd) between winter and summer, life and
death, therefore the presentations (voorstellings) of skeletons. Henri thinks that a
skeleton (geraamte) is an artwork (kunswerk) made by God and that it is nothing to
be feared (gevrees).
PROPERTY OF M SOUNES NO COPYING, SHARING OR DISTRIBUTION
3
ALLOWED
, Jasper doesn’t buy into any of that and says he will just join (aansluit) the Church
of the Flying Spaghetti Monster since it has far less (minder) rules than what
other churches force (forseer) down your throat. Their followers like to eat pasta
in all forms and to them heaven is full of beer volcanos (biervulkane).
Ideas for their stall include:
Abby: selling toffee apples (toffieappels). Henri shuts it down, saying he
hates them since it is too sticky (taai).
Henri: suggests (stel voor) candy floss (spookasem) but shoots it down
himself as he thinks it’s too childish (kinderagtig).
Jasper: pellet gun shooting. He wants to make a poster of their principal
whom they call Jakkals and everyone gets a chance at trying to shoot
him. Abby shuts it down as Makou hates violence (geweld).
Jasper: boxing where they get a boxing ring (bokskryt) because most
teenagers have anger issues and are always in the mood (lus) to beat
each other up (mekaar op te neuk).
Abby: grooming pets.
Henri: he wants to design (ontwerp) a board from a horror movie where
you leave an opening where the actor’s head would be so you can take a
picture of your face on that actor’s body and have you be part (deel) of
the scene (toneel). Jasper shoots it down, saying the taking of pictures
and printing them would entail too much admin but Abby suggests the
learners take pictures with their own phones at a fee (fooi). Jasper buys
into this, asking if Henri will design all the boards so Jasper himself does
not have to do anything, but Henri quickly nips that in the bud, saying each
one of them will design a board and also contribute (dra by) to making a
banner (banier) for their stall.
Now that they’ve decided (besluit) on an idea, Henri suggests they contact the old
traffic cop (spietkop), oom Willie, who had a video shop in Hartbeespoort years
ago as he might still have some of those big movie pop up posters.
Abby hears the ice cream van in front of her house and runs towards it. Jasper and
Henri follow. At first, the ice cream vendor does not see them because he is
focussed on one of the neighbours (bure) approaching him from across Abby’s
house. It’s the principal, meneer Adrianus Vos. Jasper wonders what he is doing
home so early and judges the principal’s couch potato-body. Henri is worried that
if the principal sees them, he will know they are bunking class, but Abby says
they’ll just tell him that they got sent home to work on their project. She also
PROPERTY OF M SOUNES NO COPYING, SHARING OR DISTRIBUTION
4
ALLOWED
