“Don’t think about it anymore,” she advised. “Come, sit, eat,” she invited, indicating a vacant seat at their table.
“I have several things to do,” he hedged, still feeling foolish. “We will talk later?” he asked meaningfully. He meant to get to the bottom of things. This, this woman, this child was far too young to be a surgeon of some note. He had been promised a specialist. Doctor D. Cooper was an expert on tropical diseases and a surgeon to boot. He had expected the doctor to arrive by plane, but they had called and said the doctor had been delayed and would be arriving in Lamish. He had assumed that Lakesh would pick him up! Someone, somewhere, was pulling his leg and he intended to get to the truth!
She nodded and smiled again as he left, his face flaming. She continued her conversation with the locals as though it had never happened. The noise level of the tent slowly resumed.
Magda had whispered the translation from French to English so that the two nurses would be apprised of what had just happened. Maddie was grateful. Her student French wouldn’t hold and she only caught a word here and there, but she hoped to improve it with practice. She looked at the young woman across the tent thoughtfully. The blonde was leaning on a hand, her fingertips rubbing along her brow absentmindedly, occasionally tugging at the hairs. Maddie didn’t realize how long she stared and then blushed as the blonde suddenly looked up, directly at her. Flashing a friendly smile, she resumed her conversation.
Bonnie and Leida, along with Magda and Lenny, took a tour of the camp. There were brush huts that housed some of the local relief workers. Their various nationalities were a dizzying array of tribes from the African countries. So many were now homeless due to the wars in this part of the world. Mamadu was in what was now a relatively safe area after years of conflict between the various nations.
Some of the sturdier buildings housed the makeshift hospital, the school, and a meeting place of sorts. The village elders used it for meetings and in a pinch it could be used as an outreach of the hospital. They had been fortunate that only twice in the ten years since Mamadu came to be had they had to use it.
“Don’t drink any water that has not been filtered,” Magda advised.
“And don’t sit down without looking first,” Lenny added.
“Why is that?” Maddie asked.
It was Leida who answered instead of the other two who had been in country longer. “Snakes and bugs,” she answered the second statement first. “I assume the water has been tainted somehow?”
“With all the mining and war, they have poisoned the water for human consumption. You’ll get a case of dysentery that could kill you if you aren’t careful,” Magda answered.
Maddie had known that. The classes she had attended back in the States had prepared her for coming to Africa. She had been given shots, education, and a crash course in some medical training beyond her normal nursing duties. Being here, seeing it first-hand, was a lot different. She looked out at the countryside, seeing the beauty and wondering at the ugliness she had heard about including possible war, soldiers, and bandits. The locals she had met had all been pleasant and friendly and she felt comfortable around them.
“How big a snake are we talking here?” she asked to make a joke.
“They have all sorts here,” Lenny smiled, seeing this nurse was made of sterner stuff. She went on to describe a few, but basically most of it was common sense. Don’t sit under anything that had an overhanging branch. Don’t kick at a log and cause it to roll, you didn’t know what you might disturb. Don’t drink the water. “You also don’t want to go out unless you are in pairs,” she advised. “The natives are friendly,” she said smiling at some of the children who came to hang around them, “but you never know. Don’t go too far without telling someone.” She spoke rapidly to the children in a dialect that sounded pretty, but which the two newcomers had no hope of understanding. The children laughed and went running off.
The woman showed them the entire camp. It wasn’t too large, but it wasn’t small either. The natives that lived there were all smiling and inviting. They looked so different; not only from each other, but from what Maddie had previously seen. The beads and jewelry they wore was quite exotic. Leida, who had worked with Aborigines back in Australia, would later confide how much more exotic these people were from her natives back home.
As the sun set, they headed back to their tent together. The sixth bed was obviously to be occupied by this mysterious and young Doctor Cooper. Maddie wondered at who occupied the fifth until Magda mentioned it was for one of the locals who felt she should be with the doctors and nurses. She was a magician among the tribes and insisted on this courtesy. She embraced everything that was white and this included a cot, a mattress, sheets, and a pillow. “Her name is Hamishish,” she explained. The name sounded foreign and pretty to the American.
“Where is she now?” Maddie asked. They were gathering their bathing suits to wash up in. Magda had promised to pour water for the newbies and both Maddie and Leida had embraced the idea after their long, hot trip and the work they had already done.
“Oh, she comes and goes. If she doesn’t get ‘honored’ into sleeping with some young buck, she’ll be back,” Magda told them airily. They exchanged looks, wondering what she meant by that.
She took them to the showers and dipped a bucket of water out of the large barrels. “Don’t drink the water,” she cautioned for the umpteenth time, “but you can bathe in this,” she explained as she climbed the steps behind the shower and poured the first bucket into the trough that would allow it to shower down.
Maddie took the first ‘shower.’ She rinsed her body with the first bucketful. Quickly she lathered up with the soap she had been advised to bring. The next bucket allowed her to rinse that soap off.
“If you want to wash your hair, it will take two more buckets,” Magda told her. The tone said she didn’t want to keep lugging up the heavy buckets and there was still Leida’s shower to arrange. Maddie took the hint and finished quickly, drying herself down briefly, but allowing the air to evaporate the moisture quickly. She wrapped the towel around her hips like a skirt.
“You may want to buy one of those,” Magda told her as she indicated what the locals were wearing—colorful and beautiful clothing in this wilderness—the wrap around their bodies was like a sarong. The more colorful the better it seemed. It matched their jewelry and beads. The beads were carefully woven into their hair and in long necklaces around their necks as well as bracelets around their wrists, upper arms, and ankles.
Leida took the hint and only allowed Magda to pour two bucketsful for her shower too. They quickly returned to their tent.
Brushing out her hair, Maddie quickly felt the fatigue of the day, a full stomach, and the stress of travel envelop her. She finished brushing and put her things away in a footlocker next to her bed. She lay down for ‘just a minute’ and was soon asleep. Leida followed suit. They never heard the blonde known as Doctor Cooper come in. Later, much later, Hamishish returned and fell into her cot, snoring blissfully from her full day attending her people.
If you have enjoyed this excerpt from DOCTORED, you can buy it at all major retailers in both e-book and paperback format. Please check out more at www.shadoepublishing.com or www.kannemeinel.com.
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