Text 2: From bad to worse

This is an intermediate-level comprehension exercise.

This is the true story of 18-year-old Marie a young woman living in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is the second part of Marie’s story.

Marie was adopted by a good family, but still slipped into a life of crime and drugs. In this episode of her story, we’ll read about how she went off the rails...

“I was a spoilt child,” Marie explained. “My adopted mom and dad had a farm in North West, down Fochville way and I had a perfect life. I had everything I wanted.

“When I was about ten, while I was supposed to be playing Barbies (with Barbie dolls), I would go into the farm workers’ cottages and steal their dagga, (cannabis) and smoke it and get high and I would take alcohol from my dad’s liquor cupboard.

“At school I was a naughty child, too. You know - smoking, the usual stuff. I failed Grade 8 twice, and got thrown out of school in Randburg for drinking and skinny-dipping (going naked) in the school pool. Then I went to another school, but I was always playing truant and staying away anyway, and eventually I just dropped out. So finally, at 16, I ran away from home.

“By this time you need to know, my adopted mom and dad were divorced. My dad had re-married and I went to live with him, but he was just too strict. He never allowed me out. He was away working all day and there I was stuck with a stepmother and stepbrothers... all just so boring and routine. So I ran away.  “That was when I moved in with my boyfriend, Justin, who was a drug addict. It was Justin who introduced me to drugs - the hard stuff, like crack and heroin. But I was experiencing all sorts of new and exciting things, so maybe it was a good time all things considered?

“Justin was a computer technician, and I got work as a waitress, but neither of us earned a lot of money so it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we’d get into crime to pay for our drugs. At first it was quite small stuff, but then it was anything. I’d steal my mom’s jewellery, I’d steal from people we knew, I’d steal from strangers - it didn’t matter. I’d take the stuff to a guy I knew in Turffontein and sell it cheap for cash.

“Then we got into the bad stuff, like hijacking cars. No violence or anything, but we’d use a gun to threaten people. We also spent weeks at a time living on the streets in Hillbrow, sleeping in dark, filthy alleys so we could be close to the drug dealers. During the day we’d break into flats to shower and to steal things.

“You have to realise that there’s quite a heavy price to be paid when you’re on crack and heroin. The side effects, I mean. For example, I was a major hygiene freak, needing to feel clean all the time, yet I cared nothing for food. I also got paranoid. I kept thinking the cops were following us all the time.

“Eventually, of course, the cops were following us. In the end I was arrested and busted (charged by the police) for being in possession of heroin. I ended up in court and was put in prison, then sent off to rehab. Not once, but three times! And all the time I was still taking drugs, thinking I was smarter than the authorities, trying to beat them at their own game. I was foolish, you see, I just didn’t want to learn.

SEE NEXT WEEK FOR THE FINAL EPISODE OF MARIE’S STORY

Answer the following questions:

1. Marie says she was a ‘spoilt child’. What does she mean?
2. What bad things did she start to do when she was 10?
3. At school Marie was a naughty child. Describe her school career.
4. When did she move in with her boyfriend? Why did she leave home?
5. Marie lived on the street with her boyfriend. How did they survive? Where did they sleep? What did they do to get money for drugs?
6. What were the side-effects of crack and cocaine?
7. Why was Marie sent to prison?

Answers

1. A ‘spoilt child’ is someone who expects to be given everything they want.
2. She started to smoke cannabis and drink alcohol.
3. She was a poor student. She failed Grade 8 twice and was expelled from one school for swimming naked in the school swimming pool and drinking alcohol. At another school she kept playing truant – not going to school – and eventually stopped going to school completely.
4. She moved in with her boyfriend when she was 16. She left home because she was bored and did not get on with her stepmother and stepbrothers.
5. They lived in alleys – a narrow passage between or behind buildings - stole money from people and broke into apartments to steal things which she would sell to buy drugs.
6. She wanted to be clean all the time, didn’t care about eating and was anxious all the time.
7. She was caught by the police and charged with stealing.