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What Will People Say?

What Will People Say?

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Chapter 1 No.1

Word Count: 1725    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

nearly every corner a policeman succeeded where King Canute had fai

is last few years keeping savage tribes in outward peace. When he was away or asleep the Moros rioted at will. And so the traf

ivering back into position. But once the vista ahead was free of uniforms all the clutches leaped

time a higher speed than thirty miles an hour; and never a man that o

spirit of truancy and adventure. All this grown-up, sophisticated world seemed to be run like a school, with joyous deviltry whenever and wherever the teac

cess of slicing off the sidewalks and repairing their losses at the expense of the houses. The residences on both sides of the once so stately corridor looked to him as if a giant ha

once come down from the vestibule to the street with the sweeping gesture of a hand of welcome. No

ed the choke of traffic. Or else the traffic had swollen more fiercel

shed him even less than their luxury. The designers had ceased to mimic hansoms, broughams, and victorias following invisible

s were lustrous and many-colored, sleekly tremendous. They had not yet entirely outgrown the imitation of the wooden frame, and their sides looked frail

the weaklings they looked. They, too, like their cars, only affected fatigue and ineptitude, for they also were built

the many things

hauffeurs, the policemen, and a few men whose trades evidently fetched them to this lane of pleasure-the throng

ry: "There is one I could love! I never shall forget her beauty!" And be

g else there, so beauty canceled itself here by its very multitude. For the next mile only the flamboyantly gorgeous or the fl

was like. In the slow and fitful progress up the Avenue it chanced that his stage kept close in

g, though his documents were scant. Her head was completely hidden from his v

make triumphs of. It bore no ornament at all except a filmy white bird-of-paradise feather stuck

ensive. It had a sort of success of impudence, alone there, and it

hat flower-face was hidden under that

urious felicity of her left arm. Seen thus detached, they fascinated him and kindled his curiosity. By and by he was swept near enough to glimps

earned at least the color of her hair, and probably she would have lifted her startled face to view like a reverted rose. He was a fearless soldier, but he

l, and it had the metallic glitter of the New York voice. He

said. "I was bored stiff. Yo

em like a green hippopotamus. Forbes began to feel a gnawing anxiety to see what was under that paradise feather. He assumed that beauty was th

his passenger. Great expectations seemed to be justified by the fact that nearly every policeman s

on the sidewalk seemed to be important people, and yet to be pr

while a contemptuous teamster, perched atop a huge steel girder, drove six haughty stallions across

s. This officer paused to pass the time of day with the mysterious woman, and the horse put his n

ar, I wish I had

that she spoke, but

you, ma'am, is

e lady laughed again. She was evidently not afraid of a c

ur pairdo

dy, and his interest redoubled just as the young woman leaned forward to speak to her chauffeur. She had plainly seen that the

made a mental note of the number

the records for his own purposes. He must know who she was and how she looked. Meanwhile he

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What Will People Say?
What Will People Say?
“Rehana Rossouw's unique voice gives life and drama to this family saga. Hanover Park. The heart of the Cape Flats. It is 1986. Michael Jackson and Brenda Fassie rule every hi-fi. Princess Di and George Michael hairstyles are all the rage. There are plans to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 1976 student uprising. Neville and Magda Fourie live in Magnolia Court with their three children. They are trying to 'raise them decent' in a township festering with gang wars and barricaded with burning tyres. Suzette, the eldest, is beautiful and determined to escape her family's poverty. Nicky, the sensitive middle child, has ambitions to use her intellect as a way out. Anthony, the only son, attracted by power and wealth, is lured away from his family by a gangster. In What Will People Say? a rich variety of township characters – the preachers, the teachers, the gangsters and the defeated – come to life in vivid language as they eke out their lives in the shadows of grey concrete blocks of flats. Which members of the Fourie family will thrive, which ones will not survive? Generously spiced with Cape Flats slang; lots of vivid and gritty description that give an authentic feel to the story; plenty of plot – the writer draws us in and makes us curious about what will happen next; and very human characters we come to care about.”