My brother, Jonathan Lionheart
Crusty Lionheart is nine years old, and he knows he is going to die soon. He heard his mum say this to one of the women for whom she makes dresses. Jonathan is Crusty’s older brother, and one day he tells Crusty about Nangijala, the place you go when you die. “There you can take part in adventures from morning to night,” says Jonathan. And perhaps, Crusty will come and visit from time to time, as a snow-white dove, just like in the song Mum used to sing. But Crusty won’t be first to reach Nangijala.
A violent fire breaks out in the brothers’ flat. Jonathan takes his brother on his back and jumps out of the second-floor window. He saves Crusty’s life but dies in the garden after the fall. Now Crusty is just waiting to see Jonathan again in Nangijala, that is if the Nangijala story wasn’t just one of those silly things Jonathan often made up? But one day, sitting on the windowsill is a snow-white dove. Behind the dove’s cooing, Crusty hears Jonathan’s voice telling him about Nangijala. So, it was true after all!
