Soryelle is the “wild girl” in ECHOES OF A WILD GIRL’S DRUM. After watching her mother burn as a witch when she was four years old, she found herself condemned to the same fire when she was seven. Her life was spared by the village drummer, a boy raised in the Commander’s house. Readers love Soryelle: she is mentioned frequently in the reviews . This interview gives us a chance to get to know her, and her world, better.

What is Kavaru? Where is it and how did it make you feel when you were younger?

Kavaru is the part of the forest that knows me; the hidden part near the village. Its doorway is on the side of the meadow where wild belly roots grow. There’s two very tall pandanus trees and you open that door and step in. I live with the tree kangaroos, the cuscus, the birds-of-paradise; there are banana trees, sugarcane stalks, and many fig trees. There are also dragons–huge ones–and wild pigs with tusks the size of my arm! My favorite part of Kavaru is the tree Maikel and I slept in. At the top of it, you can see a million hundred stars–they stretch from one side of the sky to the next. Kavaru is the only place I love.

Were there days in the forest when you felt free, or was survival always louder than freedom?

What is freedom? Is it the flutter I get in my belly when I stare at the cassowary and the cassowary stares at me and somehow I just know he’s not going to charge at me? Or maybe it’s more like when Noma the mosquito shows up and I kind of forget where I am because I’m watching her? Once, Maikel let me sit beside him at a table full of food–you’ve never seen so much! There was taro, pig roast, plantains–more food than you could ever eat in a whole day, and I could get whatever I wanted from the table. Is that what you mean when you say freedom: having so many things spread out in front of you and knowing you can eat them all? Isn’t that surviving, too, though? Don’t we choose that?

What do you miss most about being a child?

Nangi. She put me into this big bilum one time and swung me back and forth, back and forth. I thought I might touch the sky. She let me gather herbs with her and she laughed when I rolled down the hill and she called me her little star. I didn’t know her very long: they burned her at the stake a summer or two after I was weaned. But I remember her songs and how she smelled and her smile.

What did love mean to you before Maikel found you again?

One time, Clan Mother gave me a blanket. Well, she didn’t give it to me because I was tied to the stake, but she left it at my feet. And Bigman gave me one too. Nangi told me to close my eyes so that I wouldn’t see her turn to ash. When the tree kangaroo was hurt, I helped it get better.

So – love was protection?

I guess so.

What did love mean to you after Maikel found you again?

Oh, I don’t think that word is strong enough for how I feel about Maikel. He made me laugh. He danced with me. Even when I told him it wasn’t safe to touch me, he did anyway. Maikel made me… how do you say… he made me think of a different world. A world where maybe I was something more than I really was.

That sounds kind of like freedom.

I like that! I see now what you mean when you say freedom. Maybe that works but loving Maikel is more than even that–when I rest my head on his chest and hear his heartbeat, I sleep. We laugh. And we sleep but sleep comes late because I’m afraid that if I close my eyes he might disappear.

When he looked at you, did you believe what he saw?

It was really strange. It was like I was looking at someone who looked like me but wasn’t me. I knew he spoke truth–his eyes told me that–but it was hard to understand how it was true. When I think of myself, I see the flaws. He doesn’t.

When he called you beautiful, did you believe him?

I’m laughing because there’s nothing beautiful about me. Have you seen my lip? But if Maikel had a dozen boils on his skin and an ugly scar running across the center of his face, I would not see those things because what I see when I look at Maikel is my sanctuary, my home.

You often describe yourself through damage: poisoned blood, broken body, cursed girl. Was there ever another name you wished someone would give you?

Maikel calls me ‘little one.’ It makes me feel special, like something he would protect with his life. He is something I would protect with mine. Little one makes me think of being gathered up and held close. If you are held close, darkness can’t get you. If I were poisoned I don’t think he would call me that.

But there is a different name that I’ve never been called that I dream of sometimes: Nangi. It means “mother” or “mama.” I’ve sometimes pretended Salu calls me that.

You’ve talked about Kavaru as though you love it. You said it is the only place you do love. Yet, it is where you were violated, beaten and left to die. Why does the forest feel safer to you than the village?

It was the second winter. He had hurt me before, many times. I dreamed in nightmares. But the second winter, I slipped in the ravine and fell down the slippery slope. I screamed. He heard me screaming and he pulled me out. Sometimes he bought a whole gourd of fresh water. I got very sick once with fever and he left my body alone until the fever was gone. He tried to break my spirit but we were in Kavaru. And everywhere in that forest are memories of Maikel: running from the dragon, swimming in the pool, crossing the log. One time he called a fairy–she flew around between his cupped hands and lit up when he showed me. Wherever Maikel is, there I go. What no one understands is that, no matter how many times anyone else broke into me or hurt me, he couldn’t get rid of the memories of Maikel I had in the same place. And if I was ever held down, I closed my eyes real tight and told myself the story of something me and Maikel did together. We never played in the village. It was always Kavaru. He could hurt me there but he could not take Maikel out of the trees. Pain couldn’t eat the happy things.

What did the drum sound like to you after Maikel changed the beat?

Like the whole village was saying die, die, die, and then Maikel’s hands said no

Do you think you were brave?

I think I am Soryelle.