Sammi and Dusty Read Free Page B

‘I know you’ve been finding it hard at school, but your English seems really quite good to me.’
    He shook his head. ‘It’s not,’ he said, and lapsed into silence again. He knew that Kerry was hoping he’d say more, but he didn’t know what to say. Suddenly, all his English words seemed to have flown out of the window.
    ‘Well, it’s a big challenge, learning in another language,’ said Kerry eventually. ‘Can you understand everything I’m saying to you?’
    Sammi shrugged. ‘Most,’ he said.
    ‘Well, that’s something. And you’ll soon pick up more, once you’re busy working. Practice makes perfect, that’s what we say.’ Kerry stood up and came around her desk. She placed a hand on Sammi’s shoulder and led him out of the barn. ‘Most people who come here usually find one special animal to care for,’ she told him, as they went outside. ‘Which animals do you like best?’
    Sammi shrugged again. Even if he could have thought of an animal, he wouldn’t know how to describe it in English. He’d seen chickens, but they didn’t need much looking after. He’d heard a sheep somewhere, but he only knew the word in Pashtun.
    ‘Well, perhaps you can start by looking at the rabbits and guinea pigs,’ said Kerry. ‘I’ll find Jack to show you where they are, and what we do for them each day.’
    They started off down a garden path. Sammi wondered what sort of animals they were going to see. He hadn’t understood either of the words that Kerry had said. Rab-bit, gwidypig . He rolled the words round in his head, trying to remember them.
    The garden was really pretty, with lots of lush vegetables growing. It reminded Sammi of his grandmother’s garden in Afghanistan, where she’d grown lots of onions and spinach and herbs. There had been lots of grape vines growing at the bottom half of it, but he couldn’t see anything like that here. He felt a pang of sadness. She had died not long before they were forced to leave their village – not long after his dad had disappeared. They’d had to leave her house behind, so there was no saying what had happened to it.
    ‘Sammi?’ said Kerry. ‘We’re going this way.’
    Sammi realized he’d stopped walking, and was lost in his own thoughts, back in the village with his family. He tried to concentrate again as Kerry pointed out an old apple tree at the bottom of the garden, and a pond with ducks quacking around it. Then she spotted a boy of about Sammi’s age, busy digging something in one of the vegetable patches.
    ‘Jack!’ she called. ‘Can you come over, please?’
    The boy had his back to them, but he stuck his spade in the ground right away and brushed some mud off his shirt. Sammi frowned. There was something strangely familiar about him.
    ‘Jack, this is Sammi,’ Kerry was saying. ‘He’s the new member of the Harvest Hope project. Would you mind helping him to settle in? I thought you could take him to see the rabbits and guinea pigs – could you show him how to feed them and clean them out?’
    The boy was closer now, and Sammi could see his face, his sandy hair and his freckles. His heart sank. He didn’t need an introduction because he knew exactly who he was. He was the boy from his class, the one whose books he’d knocked to the floor. The boy who’d looked really cross about it. The one he’d gone and called ‘Stupid’...
    * * *
    Jack got a bit of a shock when he saw Sammi. Kerry had told him about an Afghan boy arriving on the Harvest Hope project, but he’d never imagined it’d be the boy in his class! Sammi had gone bright red. Jack stared at him, thinking about what had happened in class. He hadn’t liked him much, right from the start – he’d always been rude and moody, never bothering to answer Miss Crawley properly. Then he’d caused a right scene, storming out and knocking all Jack’s books down... And he couldn’t believe what he’d actually said !
    The thing that Jack hated more than anything else was