Sweef | Die Slot van die verhaal – Marietjie Vos | English Summary

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Die Slot van die verhaal – Marietjie Vos

Susan is an eccentric high schooler who dresses a bit weirdly with her long skirts and messy hair. She’s practising hard to participate in an eisteddfod, performing a poem selected by her teacher, Ms Malherbe. The poem is a little bit depressing, according to Susan, but she also isn’t sure she quite understands what the point might be. “Waiting is the alternation of hope and despair, sometimes a combination of the two” – a line in the poem that catches the brunt of Susan’s attention. Lara, Nicolaas and Gideon are three friends who seem to harbour contempt for Susan, calling her a freak and all sorts of names. We are also given clues to the possible relationship between Susan and Nicolaas pertaining to the upcoming Winter Ball. When Nicolaas is separated from the other two, he turns out to be someone who knows Susan rather intimately; in fact, she blushes at the sound of his voice. He asks her about the poem, and she tells him she isn’t too sure about how she performs it even though Ms Malherbe tells her it is decent. Nicolaas reminds her of a time in grade 7 when she forgot her words at an eisteddfod. She asks Nicolaas if he’ll be watching her perform and he makes some excuse about helping Gideon with his maths homework. He wishes her luck and quickly exits.

The current poem’s subject seems to cause Susan to freeze up a little bit, and she comments that maybe it would be easier to remember something written after 1980. We’re only given the impression that the eisteddfod is over when it skips to Susan sitting outside on the sidewalk, waiting for her mother to pick her up. Three voices are in earshot, and Susan can hear them talking about a movie they just saw. It gets tense when one voice says, “I can’t believe you told that freak girl that you had to help me with my maths homework – good one!”. At that moment, Susan realises what the poem she performed was communicating: “She was always the conclusion of the story; her silence and power purer than the thing she was waiting for”.

SummariesKeroshan PillayComment