III. Post-reading
3.1. Feelings.
Enter the house together with Sammy Scarlet. Describe Sammy's fears and apprehensions (and some of yours, too) when inside the building.
e.g. When Sammy approached the house...
3.2. Look or see?
Can this proverb, All of us look but not all of us see, be applied to Sammy? Why do you think it could - or couldn't?
3.3. Touch of humor.
Though it's not for Halloween, try to disguise yourself as a ghost, Belinda by name. Do you feel comfortable in your spooky outfit? Now say why exactly you displayed so much ghost-pitality to that little boy Sammy?
3.4. Discussion.
To your group mates, prove that ghosts do exist. No more, no less!
3.5. Alternatives.
Let's think of a different scenario. What do you think would have happened, had Belinda:
told Sammy she was ... er, she was... yeah, she was - a ghost?
transformed into a bony skeleton in front of his panicking eyes?
read and enjoyed the story by Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost?
3.6. Dreams, dreams, dreams.
Speaking about houses, let's discuss one point. If you had heaps of oney to burn, would you buy a gloomy old building to turn it into a glamorous palace where you'd receive those rich friends of yours?
3.7. Project work: SPOOKY BOOKIE.
Teens all over the English-speaking world read thrillers by R.L.Stine, an American author. He writes some Franken-STINE (see left) sort of stuff. Here comes a selection of 13 titles. Trembling in groups of three, think about the horrible events described!
HIDE AND SHRIEK
WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY GRAVE?
NIGHTMARE IN 3-D
FRIGHT KNIGHT
REVENGE OF THE SHADOW PEOPLE
THE BOY WHO ATE FEAR STREET
NIGHT OF THE WERECAT
HOW TO BE A VAMPIRE
BODY SWITCHERS FROM OUTER SPACE
FRIGHT CHRISTMAS
HOUSE OF A THOUSAND SCREAMS
THREE EVIL WISHES
STAY AWAY FROM THE TREE HOUSE
THE SANDWALK
by Mary Caraker
I. Pre-reading
1.1. SHARE your experiences as readers of science fiction. Is the list of sci-fi stories read by you long or short? What attracts you to sci-fi literature? What do you find less attractive?
1.2. PRESENT one particular book that belongs to the genre in question. Say why you enjoyed reading the book.
1.3. WORK OUT a list of some twenty sci-fi writers — British, American, Belarusian, and Russian — whose works can be on the list of compulsory reading for every school and/or college student.
II. Reading
2.1. Understanding the title.
The title of the story reveals little of the contents. Nevertheless, it makes sense to try to figure out what the story is about. Can you do that?
2.2. Reading for pleasure and enrichment.
Read Part One of the story and answer the question: Why did Caleb decide to walk the sandwalk?
The following words will be helpful to understand the events better.
Mesa — a hill with a flat top and steep sides
Gnawing — painful or worrying slightly but for a long time
Barren— soil with no plants on it
Burrow— a hole or passage in the ground
Quicksand — sand that pulls you down into it
Arid —extremely dry
Seething — extremely angry, but not showing it
Chant — to sing or say a religious song
Stray - to leave the place where you should be without knowing it
Caa-leb!" came the shout from across the mesa. Caleb Laurent continued to crouch in the shade of a tall, chimney-shaped rock. He could see his mother's tiny figure as she stood in the doorway of the stone hut, but he did not answer her call. When she disappeared inside, he slumped against the rock's hard surface and tried to ignore the gnawing pain in his empty stomach.
Inside the hut, his father and mother would be sitting down to their evening meal. They wouldn't worry too much when he failed to appear. He was a Space Service kid, after all, although he was only thirteen, his parents knew he could take care of himself. They would simply put his dinner in the warmer, and he could get rid of it later. His parents need not know that he hadn't eaten.
Caleb groaned and doubled himself over a closed fist. He had to quit thinking about food. Think about the walk, he told himself. Think about Tyset and how everything would change for both of them if his plan worked. He gazed down into the canyon below the mesa. Barren rock and dry sand, with occasional patches of vegetation. At one green splotch he could see the roof-mounds of Tyset's village.
Tyset would be there with the other twelve-year-old Sauroni boys who were preparing for the sandwalk. He would be fasting, too, but he would be in a cool, dark, underground burrow. He would have music and dancing and stories to take his mind away from hunger pangs.
To the Sauroni the sandwalk was a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. It was no easy stroll: ten kilometers, barefoot and naked under the burning sun, along a trail edged with deadly patches of sinking sand. Last year, Tyset said, three boys had not made it. Sometimes the odds were worse, but sometimes, in a lucky year, the walkers all emerged safe and touched with wisdom.
As would he and Tyset, Caleb vowed. He rose and stretched, then moved toward the edge of the mesa. He would make one more practice run down the slope before heading back to outcropping where he had hidden his clothes. Once he got into his rhythm, Caleb ran with ease. Already his feet had toughened so that he barely felt the sharp stones. After weeks of conditioning, his leg muscles were hard and lungs capable of taking in great gulps of the thin air. He kept up a steady lope for a quarter of an hour, then returned to dress.
As he retraced his way up the slope, Caleb fingered the spiked black lorq feather in his pocket. It was a rare find, for the great birds seldom flew so far from the mountains. He would give the feather to his mother, to bribe her out of a scolding for his lateness.
Elena Laurent was dictating into her recorder when Caleb entered the hut. He stood quietly and listened.
"Of these Sauroni rituals, the sandwalk is the most important," she was saying. "After fasting for four days, a Sauroni youth must undergo a physical and mystical journey in which his companion animal spirit is revealed and his future decided. Even though the participants know that they may not survive the ordeal, no one ever refuses."
His mother looked up at Caleb. "Isn't there any way you can see Tyset?" she asked. "What I wouldn't give to know what's happening to him now!"
"You know I can't," Caleb said.
Caleb's parents were xenologists, Space Service scientists assigned to Sauron to study the inhabitants. Unfortunately, the Sauroni village was closed to them until after the sandwalk.
But you just wait, Caleb thought. After another day he could tell them everything. He could help them finish their report, and if his plan worked, Tyset would still be alive.
Caleb knew that Tyset, with his crooked leg, could never complete the walk. And he had to go on it if he wanted to take his place as an honored man in the tribe. He'd told Caleb that he would glimpse his future path on the walk and that afterward nothing could ever worry him again. Not the teasing of the other boys, because of his limp, or the screaming of the night criers when they circled the village.
He had been so sure as he explained it all to Caleb, his chameleon eyes glowing with shifting colors. Caleb had found it much too strange to believe at first, as Tyset himself had been strange with those eyes and lizard crest and his rippling skin that changed colors, too. His blood, though, was as warm as Caleb's, and so was the friendship he offered.
Although Elena and Bill Laurent had encouraged their son's friendship with Tyset, Caleb knew they would lock him in the hut if they knew what he was planning to do.
Caleb looked away from his mother as he took his food from the warmer. "I'll eat this outside," he said.
He emptied the plate on a flat rock behind a thorn bush. Something would eat the food during the night. After pumping water from the well, he drank deeply. His stomach no longer hurt. Maybe, he thought, it was finally through protesting, thumped its hardness and flexed his muscles. Physically, he is ready. Mentally, though ... He knew he should be preparing himself as Tyset and the others were doing. He stared at the horizon, into the changing colors of sun trying to let his mind go free of his body. To enter the spirit world.
He and Tyset had attempted it often, after exhausting days of following the tribe's herdbeasts. Perched on cliffs above arid rangeland, the boys had sat motionless and stared until darkness swallowed the last fiery finger of sunset.
The last time, Caleb had had to lead a shivering Tyset back to the herders' campfire. "I came close," Tyset had whispered. "I felt something wanting to enter me, but I was afraid and pushed it back."
Caleb and Tyset had found a spot away from the other boys to spread their bedrolls. "Before you came, I was always over there." Tyset pointed to the fringe beyond the fire where Dak, who smelled bad, and Ongali, whose family was in disgrace, dug themselves sleeping hollows. "How could you stand it?" Caleb seethed with anger for his friend. "Did your father know how they treated you?"
"Of course. He said it would make me strong," said Tyset.
Tyset was smaller than the other boys. He never complained, but Caleb could see that his leg often pained him. In the sandwalk, it was usually the weakest who fell from the trail.
Tyset would never make it. Caleb had thought it before, that night he had known it for sure. He had seen something in the sunset, too: a frail figure, arms extended above his head sand bubbling around him as he slowly sank into its depths.
Couldn't you wait a year? Caleb had wanted to ask. Until you've grown taller? Until after I'm gone? But he had said nothing.
"If only you were a Sauroni," Tyset had said, grasping Caleb's arm. "If only we could go together!"
It was then Caleb had decided. He had said nothing to Tyset, to anyone. But he had pledged to himself that he would follow Tyset on the sandwalk and see him through to safety.
2.3. True or false?
Let us think about Caleb. The boy...
made up his mind to compete in the ritual for his own sake.
was not sure if his friend Tyset would cope with the sandwalk.
vowed not to tell anyone about his plan.
knew his parents were eager to learn about the ritual.
understood the sandwalk was both hard and dangerous.
thought he would be able to make it without effort.
did not understand that the ritual was also a spiritual one.
had a vision that pushed him to make his final decision.
2.4. Ready to walk the walk?
If you are ready, go on to Part Two of the story and read it to the end. Though you are not a xenologist, try to understand well what exactly happened to Caleb during the sandwalk.
PART II
On the day of the sandwalk, Caleb crouched on a rocky butte that overlooked the beginning of the route. He gazed down at the circle of chanting elders and the boys standing as motionless as statues. Beyond, an expanse of dry lake bed extended into the distance. Heat waves shimmered over its cracked white surface, almost hiding the faint path that wound between darker patches of bubbling sand. A single misstep would mean a suffocating death.
Caleb shivered in spite of the burning sun. All morning he had fought waves of dizziness. His empty stomach no longer hurt, but there was a ringing in his ears. Through it he could hear Tyset's voice: Why should I be afraid? If the sand takes me, I'll only be free that much sooner. If it doesn't, I'll have my spirit brother to help me along the longer way.
If only Caleb could believe it! His fasting had brought him no comforting visions, no hints of an animal brother to watch over him.
On the sand plain below, the first of the boys removed his vest and loin wrap and took a swallow of water. The thin, chanting voices of the elders drifted up to Caleb as the Sauroni boy started down the trail and disappeared into the heat haze. Caleb could just make out Tyset standing at the end of the line.
Crouching, Caleb ran along the bluff until he came to a slope where he could scramble down. The walkers would be ahead of him, but he knew he could catch up with Tyset. He removed his clothes and began to run.
The path was firm and clearly marked, and Caleb ran for what he guessed must have been an hour. The blanket of heat hung on him, sapping his energy until his feet were almost too heavy to lift. Surely, he thought, he should have seen Tyset ahead by now. Could the trail have branched, and he have missed it?
He backtracked sideways, then stopped, the heat settling over him until he almost felt its weight. Sweat rolled off his body and the dizziness came again. When it passed and his mind was clear, he decided that he couldn't possibly have strayed. Looking around, he saw that the lake bed wasn't as flat as it had appeared from above. Mountain peaks rose in the distance above the heat mists, and the lines that he had thought were mere surface cracks, he saw now were fissures as much a foot deep. Caleb wondered how he could have missed seeing them when he was running. A misstep would have sent him sprawling to the side of the trail and the patches of deadly quicksand.
Caleb started off again, more slowly this time. Breathing was difficult, and his feet seemed heavier than ever. When at last he sighted Tyset, relief flooded him.
Although he knew he could easily catch up with Tyset, Caleb hung back. He didn't want to interfere yet, not until there was real danger. Matching his pace to his friend's, Caleb kept a good ten lengths behind. When the Sauroni boy stopped to rest, Caleb dropped to the ground and flattened himself. Tyset, however, did not look back. He started off again at an awkward half run and in minutes was stumbling from one side of the path to the other. Watching him, Caleb thought of a hop-gaited mountain ergip, darting from cover to cover.
The sun filled Caleb's eyes, and when he blinked, he saw an ergip on the path ahead of him. In a flash of speed, it dashed off the trail toward a patch of low brush. "No!" Caleb screamed. The heat haze shimmered and lifted, and the ergip disappeared. Caleb saw Tyset running directly toward a dark patch of bubbling quicksand.
The dizziness came over Caleb again, and the ground went out from under him. He fell backward into darkness.
He was falling, falling. Eventually, he knew, he would crash. He beat the air with his arms and leveled off into smooth flight. His arms had become strong wings, and he was looking out through the eyes of a black-feathered lorq. He circled down, nearer and nearer to the glistening plain.
Caleb came to his senses at the edge of the path, flat on his back, beating his arms against the ground. A tiny black speck circled above him, and to the side, not far off the trail, Tyset was waist-deep in the sinking sand.
The lorq still circled overhead. Caleb concentrated all his attention on it. Help me, he begged soundlessly.
Everything shifted around Caleb again. His paralysis continued, but now he was back in the other world, the spirit world He watched as the ergip sank slowly into the quicksand and the lorq circled down until it was directly overhead. The bird hung low for a moment, huge and black, with taloned feet and eyes like jewels. Then it swooped and plucked the small, furry animal from its deadly trap.
Released, the ergip hopped out of sight. With a rush of wings, the lorq, too, was gone.
Caleb's world shifted one last time. When it settled, he found himself standing on the flat, dry lake bed. The quicksand pool was empty, and a naked figure ran limping up the trail. Tyset's body was covered from the waist down with drying dark sand and on his shoulders were long, bloody scratches.
At the end of the sandwalk, Caleb walked proudly just behind Tyset through the ranks of solemn, chanting Sauronis. Bill and Elena Laurent waited at the end of the line, both of them wide-eyed and unnaturally pale.
"I can't believe it!" his mother gasped after assuring herself that Caleb was unharmed. "What a thing to have done!" She alternated between hugging him and shaking him. "You might have warned us!"
Caleb grinned. "If I had, would you have let me do it?" "Of course not! When I think what might have happened!' Her voice trembled.
Bill patted his wife's shoulder. "At feast he didn't fast with the other boys, but still — the heat and the quicksand—" He shook his head, unsure how to react.
Caleb held crossed fingers behind his back. "You needn't have worried. I wasn't in any real danger."
Elena looked unconvinced. "Well, thank heavens you're safe." She hugged him once more, then gave way to her curiosity. "So what did go on?" She held out her palm with its tiny recorder. "I'm still mad at you, but what a break for our report!"
Caleb looked at the recorder, and then at the worried faces of the Sauroni elders. After all, it was a secret ritual. "I don't know what the others went through," he said. "For me, it was just a long, hot walk." Maybe someday, he thought, he would understand exactly what had happened and write his own report. Someday, when he returned, a scientist himself, to Sauron.
Now, though, he had to see Tyset.
"Over here, come." Tyset waved from within of his admiring family.
"Come share our celebration," he said pulling Caleb in. He squeezed Caleb's hands and whispered, "as we will share our futures." Tyset's eyes shone with brilliant colors. "My spirit companion is the swift-running ergip. And you - you are my great flying friend!"
2.5. Understanding points of view.
Scan the story and try to explain what the characters meant.
Caleb told himself, "Think about Tyset and how everything would change for both of them if the plan worked."
Caleb's mother exclaimed, "What I wouldn't give to know what's happening to Tyset now!"
Tyset whispered, "I felt something wanting to enter me, but I was afraid and pushed it back."
Tyset said, "If the sand doesn't take me, I'll have my spirit brother to help me along the longer way."
Caleb's mother exclaimed, "I am still mad at you, but what a break for our report!"
Caleb admitted, "For me it was just a long hot walk."
Tyset whispered, "My spirit companion is a swift-running ergip. And you are my great flying friend."
2.6. Storing vocabulary.
Paraphrase the following sentences using the expressions from the story.
The mother rushed forward and pulled the child away from the fire.
She tired to talk her sister into doing some chores by promising money.
Many believers abstain from food during Lent.
The hikers camped at the edge of the forest.
He left the job as he had lost all the interest in it.
To distract my attention from the scores, I went to see a movie.
Some religious groups practice mysterious ceremonies.
The lawmaker gave a public promise to adopt a new law.
Young doctors are sworn to respect their patients' privacy.
Choose from the following: to quit, to fast, to take one's mind away from, a rite, to vow, to bribe, a fringe, to pledge, to dart.
2.7. Grammar.
It was not without reason that Caleb's mother was worried. Together with her, let us think of all the disasters that might have happened.
If Caleb's parents had known about his plans...
If Caleb hadn't trained enough...
If Tyset hadn't been able to make it...
If the lorq...
2.8. SAURONI ENGLISH IN FOCUS.
Strange creatures are mentioned in the story. Now try to be an accomplished cryptozoologist and describe the ERGIP and the LORQ.
Find all the necessary details in the text, and use your imagination well.