Sweef | Jana se selfoon | English Summary

Sweef en ander Verhale

Jana se selfoon

Teenage Jana is a young girl feeling the pressure of being the only one in her class without a cellphone. She begs her dad to get her one; she’s even prepared to get it herself. Her father is mostly concerned with the costs of owning a cellphone, but since he is weakened by his daughter’s puppy dog eyes, she gets a phone. Since Jana was adamant about getting a phone and finding a way to maintain it. She had several ideas, including babysitting, but the prospect of taking care of naughty children stresses her to no end.

Finally, Jana gets herself a job walking dogs in her neighbourhood: two dachshunds, an excitable spaniel (belonging to Lodewyk Steyn, a rich kid in her class) a German Shepard with excellent manners and later, she gets hold of the Jack Russel owned by the widow living at 14 Amandel Street. About a week into her business, Jana starts getting weird messages from an unknown number commenting on the walk she had with the dogs that day. They read as if one of the dogs was texting her. The texts are detailed and often suggest things that Jana could do to make the walks better for the dogs, like bringing water on hot days, or even snacks. One evening, Jana also received a text about another dog in the neighbourhood belonging to one Mrs Gertsen, a recently widowed woman whose Jack Russel has become lonely after the death of Mr Gertsen. One of the texts even complimented Jana on the shirt she wore that day, which piqued her interest, as well her concern – dogs are meant to be colour blind after all!

One day, she decides to interrogate her doggie contingent about the text messages, and because they’re just dogs, they have no idea what she’s even talking about, and Jana reminds herself that she stopped believing in fairy tales a very long time ago. While she’s in thought, she hears a sound behind her that sounds like the clip-clop of a horse’s hooves. To Jana’s surprise, a big black dog comes barreling towards her and the other dogs, growling with contempt. Frightened, Jana’s clients all dash, which prompts the big dog’s hunting instinct to lock onto the easiest target – one of the sausage dogs, Marmite. In a fit of panic, Jana tries to help the little dog escape, but she’s too slow, Marmite’s fate seemed sealed, at least until a rock made the perfect contact with the big dog, distracting him from his little meal. Lodewyk appears out of nowhere and chases away the big bully. Jana starts asking questions about why he was there in the first place. Lodewyk blushes a little bit, forgetting about the pair of binoculars hanging around his neck. Before he can answer, Jana asks him for help gathering the rest of the dogs.

Later that night, Jana received messages from the mystery number about the tightness of leashes, but also commenting on the lack of a feeling of safety brought on by the attack from the wild dog in the afternoon. The text suggested that Jana gets herself an assistant to avoid such things from happening again – it can be assumed Lodewyk is trying to get closer to Jana with this suggestion.

Back home, Jana brags to her father about how good she’d be if they were to get a dog; however, he explains that it wouldn’t be a good idea with their household budget. Jana persists, and we can only guess if she managed to sway her father on this matter too.

SummariesKeroshan PillayComment