9789186485061

Back to Pompeii was voted one of the best youth books of 2009 by booksellers on Iceland.

ISBN 978-91-86485-06-1

9 789186 485061

Roslagstext

Back to Pompeii

Back to Pompeii is Kim M. Kimselius´ first book. It has enjoyed great success and been translated into many languages and is popular with readers of all ages. Kimselius skilfully brings the history of Pompeii to life and takes the readers­on a thrilling journey back in time. It´s a book you won´t want to put down!

Kim M. Kimselius

R

amona can hardly believe her eyes! She stares at Theo and a sense of dread starts to well up inside her. What began as an eagerly-awaited school trip to Italy has now turned into a nightmare.

The class has just visited the museum in Pompeii­, the ruined Roman city that was buried beneath volcanic­ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly two thousand years ago. Ramona is feeling queasy from looking at the casts of people who died in the eruption that destroyed the city. Suddenly, a strange sensation comes over her and she sits down to rest. Within minutes, she falls into a deep sleep.

When she wakes up, she finds that everything is different. Pompeii is no longer in ruins. The city is bustling with life and Ramona realises that this is Pompeii before the eruption! She also knows that Vesuvius­ will soon undergo a terrifying transformation. Glowing lava and choking­hot ash will come raining down and bury the entire city and its inhabitants. Will she and Theo be able to get away in time? Ramona has no idea when the vulcano will erupt. It could happen in a hundred years´ time, in ten years or in ten minutes...

Back to Pompeii

Chapter 1

“Ladies and gentlemen, we will shortly be landing in Rome and would kindly ask you to fasten your seat belts.

The captain and his crew thank you for travelling with us and wish you a safe and happy onward journey.”

Ulrika leaned against the window to have a better look.

“Oh, this is so exciting, let me see. Look, you can see the airport down there. COOL!” Ramona did not think it was exciting at all. She thought it was awful. It was the first time she had flown and she was sure it would be the last too. The flight had been very bumpy, with lots of air turbulence and Ulrika had been laughing and shouting COOL! all the time.

At this moment, she hated Ulrika. Why wasn’t she afraid of the air-pockets? Didn’t she want to throw up every time the floor of the airplane appeared to drop away beneath her feet? And now Ulrika was pressing Ramona against the window so that she could see as much as possible.

This meant that Ramona couldn’t help seeing the ground far below. I hate this, she thought.

If it wasn’t for the fact that we are going to see the ruined city of Pompeii, I would take the train back home as soon as we land.

7

“Look, Ramona, do you see how small the cars are? My God, it’s COOL!” “Excuse me; you have to fasten your seat belt now.”

Ramona turned and saw a friendly smiling stewardess putting her hand on Ulrika’s arm. Thank goodness, thought Ramona, when Ulrika finally sat back in her seat with the safety belt fastened tightly around her body, now she won’t be able to push me out through the window.

Ramona leaned back. She appeared calm to other people­, but lots of scary thoughts were tumbling around in her head. She was very nervous about the landing.

She knew that most air accidents happened on take off and landing. What if the plane crashed? What if the pilot didn’t manage to stop the plane before the landing strip ended? Her body stiffened as she waited for the crash.

“Oh, look! We’ll be on the ground soon. COOL!” Ulrika tried to lean as far as she could towards the window, despite the safety belt.

This word COOL is driving me mad thought Ramona.

If she doesn’t stop soon I will strangle her. What if the brakes don’t work, what if… A small thud and a screech from the wheels confirmed that the plane was now on the ground.

The plane slowed down and she suddenly realised that her classmates around her were cheering and clapping.

She opened her eyes and looked across the aisle. Had they also been afraid? Was that the reason they were all so happy? Ramona looked at Ulrika with a gentle smile on her lips and got a big smile back.

“That went well,” she said relieved. “Very well!”

Then she sank back exhausted into her seat.

8

“Keep together! Do not run away!”

Ramona heard her teacher, Elisabeth, calling to her classmates. She almost felt sorry for Elisabeth.

The teacher kept on calling to keep the class together.

Although­she had three parents along to help her, she was still the one who carried the responsibility.

Ramona saw her classmates running around like maniacs­in the airport terminal. They were certainly as happy as her to get off the plane, but her feet were as heavy as lead and she did not feel like running at all.

“Come on, hurry up,” said Ulrika.

Grabbing Ramona she started to force a way through the crowd of passengers.

“What is the matter with you today?” Ulrika asked.

“Nothing, I am just tired,” said Ramona.

Her stomach felt uneasy and her legs felt like jelly, they just would not stop shaking. Otherwise everything was fine, just fine.

9

Chapter 2

“In the showcase to the right, you can see a cast of a dog that belonged to the House of Primus. As you can see from the animal’s posture, it must have been struggling for air as the ash was burying it. The dog was chained, which explains why its head is lower than the rest of its body.

You can imagine what pain the animal was suffering as it was fighting for its life. And over on your left…”

Oh, how terrible. What an awful experience it must have been, Ramona thought. Poor, poor dog. Why couldn’t the owners have unchained their dog so it had a chance to escape? Some people shouldn’t have dogs. Ramona wished she’d been there to save the defenceless creature.

Everywhere they wandered, there were plaster casts of people who had died when the volcanic ashes rained down on the city of Pompeii. None of the inhabitants had ever imagined that peaceful Mount Vesuvius would become active and bury their city under deadly ashes.

Ramona could see by the way they held their hands and arms over their faces that they had tried to protect themselves from the ashes. Many of the people looked as though they were sleeping.

For others, the end had not been so peaceful. One man sat on the ground, his knees pulled up to his stomach, 10

his hands held over his mouth and nose. But to no avail.

The air had run out and the man had died in that position. A pregnant woman lay face down, her feet straining against the ground and her hands covering her face. She had probably been trying to protect her unborn baby. But her brave efforts were futile.

Some reached towards the sky, their hands out­ stretched in anguish. Were they trying to hold back the ashes or were they praying to their gods for help?

Others lay with their mouths open in a last desperate attempt to breathe air into their lungs. Their features were contorted. Ramona could sense their terror. She was deeply saddened and upset by what she saw.

What a terrible way to die. What were they thinking when the ashes started to come down on them? Did they feel any pain as their mouths and noses were gradually filled with choking ashes? That was a question no living person could answer. But Ramona was sure that it must have been a terrifying experience.

“Elisabeth,” Ulrika shouted, waving her arms to attract the teacher’s attention. “Elisabeth, I know we read that there were four earthquakes before Vesuvius erupted.

But how long after the last earthquake did the eruption happen?”

“The volcano erupted on the following day. I thought you had learned that before we came on this trip,” Elisabeth­said reproachfully.

“What date did it erupt?” Ulrika whispered in Ramona’s ear. She didn’t dare ask Elisabeth any more questions as she was sure to get another brusque reply!

“It was the 24th of August, 79 AD,” Ramona answered. It 11

surprised her that she could remember the date so well.

Numbers were not usually her strongest point. But this was a date that seemed to have become etched in her memory because of all the dreadful things she had seen.

As Ramona was thinking about that poor dog, chained up outside the house, and the mother who had been trying to protect her child, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a smack on her head.

“Ouch, what are you doing?” she said turning around to face Mathias, who stood there smiling at her.

“You seemed lost in your dreams, so I thought I’d bring you back to earth,” he said.

“I was thinking how terrible it must have been for these people when it all happened. I’m glad that we don’t have volcanoes in Sweden,” Ramona said.

She was feeling sad because of all the things they had seen. But Mathias seemed to have a different view.

“Sure, it was terrible for them. But think how exciting it is for us to see how it looked in their time. How they lived, what they ate, what tools they had. I think it’s good the volcano erupted, otherwise we’d never have known about any of this,” Mathias said.

“You are horrible!” Ramona said and hurried away from Mathias.

How could she ever have thought that he was cute?

How could he think it was good that thousands of people had died, just so that he could see what it looked like before the eruption?

“Elisabeth, can we go to see the excavations soon?”

Per was eager to get away to the excavation site.

“Yes, soon, but first we have to see the rest of the 12

museum, so you can get an idea of how people lived in Pompeii,” Elisabeth said.

Ulrika pushed Per teasingly.

“Listen to the genius, always eager to learn new things, aren’t you?”

“Leave him alone, Ulrika.”

Ramona grabbed Ulrika and pulled her away from Per. “Don’t take any notice of him. Come and look over here instead. Look!”

Ramona pointed at a showcase containing food which had been found during the excavation of the site.

“Can you believe that this food is so well preserved after all these centuries?”

“It is only a bluff, surely you can see that? Even I know that food doesn’t last that long,” Ulrika said, shaking her head at Ramona’s unbelievable stupidity.

“It’s true. It was preserved because of the sea of mud that swept in and covered the city. But Pompeii was buried in ash so it must have been the other city which wasn’t that far away from here. What was it called?”

“Herculaneum.”

Per was walking just behind Ramona and his stage whisper reached her ear at the right moment. She turned and looked at him. He’s fun, she thought. It’s a pity that everyone teases him because he’s a bit of a swot..

“I remember it now. Herculaneum was the name,” Ramona said and turned smiling towards Ulrika.

“Don’t you think I heard Per whisper to you?”

Ulrika was jealous. It seemed that everyone liked Ramona; they were all so kind to her. If they teased her it was only to get her attention, which is what good13

looking Mathias did. I wish he would tease me instead, Ulrika thought.

“And in this showcase you can see a bulla of gold. The bulla was a symbol worn from birth by men to show they were born free and were not slaves.”

The guide pointed at a big, round medallion in the showcase.

It must have been very heavy to wear, Ramona thought.

Couldn’t they have had something lighter to show that they were not slaves, a bracelet around their arm for example?

The guide kept on talking: “These small ivory pins with their decorated heads were used by women to put up their hair. And if you look over here…”

Ramona walked closer to the showcase to look at the hairpins. They were beautiful!

“Look!” she said to Ulrika, pointing at the head on the end of one of the pins and the figure of a woman on the other. I wonder why they were made like that. Do you think it was simply for decoration?”

“Yes, I suppose it was because they wanted to look nice and pretty. Think of all the hair grips and hair slides with flowers and other things we have today,” Ulrika answered.

“Now we are heading to the furniture section.”

The guide kept on talking in a monotonous voice as the group entered the next room.

“The people in Pompeii did not use as much furniture as we do today. They moved their chairs and tables around as they needed them, which I personally think is a very economical and highly practical way to live,” the guide 14

said. He turned around and pointed at a sofa made of wood and leather.

“This well-preserved sofa was found at Herculaneum.

As you probably know, most of the wooden furniture was destroyed, but the excavators discovered imprints in the ash and from these they have been able to make castings and reconstructions of the furniture. Now, look at this…”

Ramona thought it was boring to look at the furniture.

It was more exciting to look at the casts of the dead people, even if they were rather scary. As long as she thought about them as plaster casts she was all right. It was when she thought about them as living people who had died and left imprints in the ash that she felt awful.

Ramona’s conscience was bothering her because she was fascinated by the casts of the bodies. What Mathias had said earlier contained some truth. If Pompeii had never been struck by this disaster, she and her class would not have been able to see all this.

She tried to push these thoughts away. How could she think like this? These were once living people. They had lived, eaten, played and had families just like her. But everyone dies, a little voice said inside her head, even you. Is it not good that these people were preserved for posterity, so that later generations could get some idea of how people used to live all those years ago?

Ramona struggled with her thoughts. She was quite exhausted with the weight on her conscience and from walking through these great rooms. Both her head and legs felt weary. It was so noisy. Voices reverberated off the stone walls and echoed in the big halls. If only she could sit down for a minute.

15

“Now we are back at the entrance, and I would like to thank you all for the pleasure of showing your group around,” the guide said in a loud, pompous voice.

Tremendous! At last, it was time to go in and see the actual ruins of the city of Pompeii. They were about to step into the past. The excitement was high as they walked towards the gates to Pompeii Scavi, as the ruined city was called in Italian.

“Elisabeth, aren’t we going to buy ice-creams first?”

It was Ann who asked.

“Of course, those of you who wish to buy an ice-cream can do that. The rest of you can sit on the benches and take the weight off your feet,” Elisabeth said.

Good idea, Ramona thought as she sat down on a bench in the sunshine.

“Don’t you want an ice-cream?” Ulrika asked her in a surprised voice.

“No, I don’t think so. I’m still rather full up from breakfast,” Ramona said.

“But that was ages ago. Are you sure you are all right? You normally love ice-cream. And this is Italian ice-cream,” Ulrika said, looking bewildered at Ramona.

“I just don’t fancy one right now!”

It was as though yesterday’s air travel was still affecting Ramona’s body. Her stomach didn’t want any food, especially ice-cream.

“You go. I’ll sit here and wait for you,” Ramona said.

“I can buy you one if you don’t feel like getting one yourself,” Ulrika said.

Ulrika is so kind, Ramona thought and smiled at her.

“Thanks, but I don’t want one at the moment. Thanks 16

anyway, you go now and get yourself an ice-cream. Go!” Ramona said.

Suddenly, Ramona felt a strange tingling sensation run through her body. It felt as if she was sitting in an electric field and as though her hair was standing on end. Slowly she lifted her hand to her head to touch her hair. She tried to make the movement look as natural as possible. As if she just wanted to put her hair right. No, there was nothing wrong with her hair, but it still felt like it was standing straight up.

Ramona looked round at her classmates. None of them were looking or acting differently and nobody else was touching their hair. Was she the only one who was feeling this way?

“Are you all right, Ramona?”

Ramona felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head. With the sun in her eyes, she peered up to see who was standing beside her. It was her teacher Elisabeth.

“I’m OK. I’ve got a slight headache and I’m still feeling­ a bit tired after the flight. Otherwise I’m fine. It’s all really­ interesting and I’m so happy that we came on this trip,” Ramona said.

She felt like standing up and hugging Elisabeth out of gratitude. She always felt that way when she liked someone. Sometimes she would hug people she didn’t really know that well. But this time she resisted the urge.

Ulrika would tease her to death if she hugged their teacher!

“Yes, almost everyone seems very pleased. I certainly am. Everything has gone much better than I thought. You are all fantastic. But are you sure you are feeling well?

17

Don’t you want an ice-cream? You’re not thinking about your figure, are you?”

Elisabeth gazed with some concern at Ramona.

“No, I just don’t feel like having one at the moment,” Ramona said.

“All right, I will leave you here to rest. I’m off to buy an ice-cream for myself,” Elisabeth said and smiled at Ramona before she went to join the ice-cream queue.

“What was all that about?” Ulrika asked as she threw herself down beside Ramona on the bench.

“She was wondering why I didn’t want an ice-cream; she thought I was thinking about my figure!”

Ramona giggled. She never needed to think about her figure. She could eat whatever she wanted and still look the same. But perhaps not feel so well.

“Well, we can’t sit here all day!”

Ulrika jumped up from the bench, grabbed Ramona’s arm firmly and pulled her up.

“Hold this!” she said, pushing her ice-cream at Ramona.

“Why? What are you going to do?” Ramona asked as she took the ice-cream.

“It’s these blasted sandals. The straps have come loose again. Thank goodness for trainers,” Ulrika said, rolling her eyes heavenwards. “My mother is hopeless. She insisted that I should have sandals for the trip. She said my feet would get too hot in trainers. Mothers!”

“Yes, I agree with you.” Ramona had also been forced to wear sandals.

She watched as Ulrika undid the straps and then tightened them again.

“Well, if everyone is ready, let’s go! We don’t have all 18

day and we haven’t come here just for the ice-cream. Let’s move on,” Elisabeth said.

Ulrika held firmly on to Ramona’s arm and marched off with her.

Why does she always have to pull me like this? Ramona thought. She noticed that she was feeling easily irritated.

It must be because of her headache. Or was it because of the strange feeling that she was standing inside a gigantic electric field.

If there was anything that Ramona hated, it was walking arm-in-arm. She wondered why she had never told Ulrika that she didn’t like being pulled about all over the place. Why did she always have to put up with every­ thing that everyone else did? However, since Ramona didn’t want to offend Ulrika, she said nothing.

She simply walked unsuspectingly with Ulrika through the gateway to the ruined city of Pompeii. Ramona was totally unaware of the inexplicable event that she was about to encounter inside the walls of Pompeii.

19

Chapter 3

Entering the gates to Pompeii was like going back centuries in time. You could almost smell the excrement that the donkeys had left behind as they struggled up through the steep paved tunnel which brought them through the city walls and into Pompeii itself.

Ramona stepped out into the sunshine at the other end of the tunnel and was almost surprised by the ruined city in front of her.

Everything had felt so alive in the long, dark tunnel which led through the wall. It had felt as though the city would still be there, intact and shimmering in the heavy heat.

Ramona caught her breath. In a strange way she felt so close to the people who had lost their lives here. As if in a trance, she followed her group along the main street which led to the heart of the city.

Elisabeth was reading aloud from the guidebook, “And here we have the Forum. Around the Forum lay many important temples, the court Basilica and a large market hall�.

Elisabeth pointed to a long row of pillars. “Before the volcano erupted, this building would have had two floors with pillars. The merchants would have 20

had their stalls within the huge stone pillars that you can see here. This is also where teachers would have sat with their students.”

Ramona tried to imagine it, bustling with life and activity, but she found it hard to concentrate.

Her headache had become worse since she had enter­ ed­the city. The funny tingling feeling inside her had returned.

Perhaps she was sickening for some foreign illness?

“Look down at the street,” Elisabeth said and stopped.

“They had boardwalks even as early as the year 79 AD. If you look very closely you can also see the water pipes which were laid underneath them.”

Elisabeth was beginning to sound like a very experienced tour guide now. It was obvious she had read up on the subject before the trip.

Ramona looked down in amazement at the boardwalks and water pipes!

“Look at the street again. Can you see the big stones there?”

Elisabeth pointed.

“Pelle, Mats and Tobias, get off the stones please so the others can see them. Thank you. As you can see, there are three, large, flat stones. They were laid there as stepping stones so that people could cross the street without getting dirty. Now, can you see those deep imprints beside the stones? They were made by wagons which had to drive in exactly the same place every time they needed to pass the stones. Isn’t it amazing?” Elisabeth said fascinated.

“Come on! Let’s jump over the stones,” Ulrika said.

“No, you can. I don’t feel like it,” Ramona said wearily.

21

“You’re not much fun today. What’s wrong with you?

Has something annoyed you?” Ulrika asked.

“No, I’ve got a terrible headache. Please, just leave me alone!” Ramona answered.

She was surprised at how bad tempered she sounded and that she had dared to say something like that to her friend.

“All right, sourpuss. I can manage without you,” Ulrika huffed and skipped over the flat stones to the other side of the street to talk to Ann and Maria.

That’s fine by me, Ramona thought, shrugging her shoulders as she turned away from them. Yet at the same time she felt a pang of conscience because she didn’t want to be unfriendly towards Ulrika.

They walked slowly along the stone street. The air was shimmering with the heat. A light dust of ash swirled around their feet and made them black.

Elisabeth carried on talking, pointing out one building after another. It was very interesting but the heat was exhausting.

All Ramona wanted to do right now was to sit down in a cool, shady spot and just gaze at the scene before her.

She also wanted silence, but that was impossible with a whole school class around her.

“The building in front of you was a bakery.”

Elisabeth pointed to a building with a beautiful vaulted arch.

Looking inside, they could see a huge oven made of stone. It was big enough for a grown up to sit inside.

The front of the oven also had a vaulted arch, edged by 22

upright bricks, which were a different colour to the rest of the oven. It was beautiful.

Inside the bakery, Ramona caught a glimpse of some cone-shaped stones that reminded her of up-side-down mushrooms and had square holes in the middle.

Elisabeth pointed to the stones and said, “These stones were used for grinding corn. A wooden pole would have been placed in the holes and then two men, one on either side, would have pushed the pole to turn the stone. Or a donkey, strapped to the pole and led by a boy, would have turned the stone to make the flour.”

Elisabeth pointed to the beautiful oven.

“When they excavated the bakery, they found eighty loaves of bread inside the oven. They were as hard as stone, but otherwise perfectly preserved by the ash that had penetrated the oven. The amazing thing about this bread is that it looks just like the bread they bake now­ adays, hundreds of years later. Have a look inside if you want. The bread isn’t there any more, we saw it earlier at the museum, but take a look around and see what a bakery was like in those days,” Elisabeth said.

Ramona looked longingly at the dark oven and the stone bench beside it. It seemed the perfect place to sit down and rest.

She hung back from the group as they entered the bakery and while her school friends were looking around, she slowly withdrew into a dark corner.

She looked around. No one seemed to have noticed her there. Quickly she bent down and crawled under the stone bench where it was cool and dark.

Ramona leaned against the cold bakery wall. She 23

longed for a few moments of peace and quiet. I’ll just rest here for a short while then I’ll go and catch up with the others again. Just a short while, until my headache’s gone, until my headache…

24

Back to Pompeii was voted one of the best youth books of 2009 by booksellers on Iceland.

ISBN 978-91-86485-06-1

9 789186 485061

Roslagstext

Back to Pompeii

Back to Pompeii is Kim M. Kimselius´ first book. It has enjoyed great success and been translated into many languages and is popular with readers of all ages. Kimselius skilfully brings the history of Pompeii to life and takes the readers­on a thrilling journey back in time. It´s a book you won´t want to put down!

Kim M. Kimselius

R

amona can hardly believe her eyes! She stares at Theo and a sense of dread starts to well up inside her. What began as an eagerly-awaited school trip to Italy has now turned into a nightmare.

The class has just visited the museum in Pompeii­, the ruined Roman city that was buried beneath volcanic­ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly two thousand years ago. Ramona is feeling queasy from looking at the casts of people who died in the eruption that destroyed the city. Suddenly, a strange sensation comes over her and she sits down to rest. Within minutes, she falls into a deep sleep.

When she wakes up, she finds that everything is different. Pompeii is no longer in ruins. The city is bustling with life and Ramona realises that this is Pompeii before the eruption! She also knows that Vesuvius­ will soon undergo a terrifying transformation. Glowing lava and choking­hot ash will come raining down and bury the entire city and its inhabitants. Will she and Theo be able to get away in time? Ramona has no idea when the vulcano will erupt. It could happen in a hundred years´ time, in ten years or in ten minutes...

Back to Pompeii