Prose

For long moments Maria Ramos looks at the rising sun through the kitchen window of the villa, where it hangs in almost a romantic atmosphere over the bush-veldt landscape.
 
She pours herself a cup of hot coffee and watches the river, through the lenses of a pair of binoculars where it is about three hundred meters from the villa.

It is fast becoming light and two hippopotamuses draw her attention where they are swimming in the pool in the river and she is again astonished about the grace of those big animals in the water.
 
Earlyer on she had made some rounds at the two wards of the hospital and then went through the day’s routine with the three black nurses, but she a have not seen her two assistants yet.

The villa had originally been build as a holiday home of a Portuguese businessman but with the MPLA-government taking over the country, he had gone back to Portugal and the house had remained without an owner for some time.

Originally Maria had used a motorboat to sail along the river and had given medical attention and counselling to some people living on the shore.

It was on one of those excursions that she had noticed the villa next to the river and immediately she had known that she had found the perfect place for a bush hospital.

Within minutes she had tied the boat to the neglected mooring place and then had walked carefully up to the villa.  She wasn’t astonished to find the place deserted, but to find it fully furnished and in an almost perfect condition was unexpected.

That the local population did not plunder it was a small miracle and she could hardly believe her eyes, as she walked around the building in the overgrown garden.

The doors was locked and she could not open them and through the thick curtains at the windows she could not see much, but it was clear that it was quite a grand place.

It wasn’t difficult to force one of the windows open on the porch and she climbed through.   The thick layer of dust that was covering everything, made it immediately clear to her that the house had not been used in a long time.

It felt odd to sneak around in someone else’s house like a burglar and it was almost as if she could feel the previous owner looking at her.

Most of the cupboards were empty and all of the furniture had been covered in dustsheets and in some of the kitchen cupboards she found tinned food that had left the impression that the owner could come back at any moment.

There are some patients who arrive early and she treats them for cholera, malaria and several other diseases and ailments.   It is however the sound of two approaching helicopters, that draws her attention at about eleven o’clock.

She notices the helicopters landing in a cloud of dust and how twelve soldiers bulge out of one of them and four soldiers are carrying a man on a stretcher into the direction of the villa.

She immediately recognizes the man on the stretcher.   What have they done to him she wonders and identifies the soldiers as members of the feared PUMA.

There is a sallow faced Lieutenant with the group of soldiers and he marches in front of the stretcher up to her.  “Good morning comrade doctor.  Lieutenant Josè Fernandez at your service,” he remarks, bows forward and smiles gallantly at her.

”Good morning Lieutenant.  Why are you and your soldiers visiting us,” she wants to know rigidly as if his charm has got no effect on her.

”It looks like a cosy place that you have got here,” he remarks and smiles significantly.  “There was a sniper active at the camp.  Two of the visiting officers had been killed and the Brigadier has been wounded.”  “Follow me,” she orders the soldiers with the stretcher who had stopped next to her.

When they look questioning to the young Lieutenant she explodes angrily:  “Come on!  Why are you still standing?  Let us get this man to the theatre as soon as possible.”

They follow her when she turns around with lightning bolts blazing in her eyes, as she heads to the villa.  Her theatre is somewhat primitive, but she has everything that she will find necessary and her two assistants are already waiting when Dumisani is carried in.

”Get out of here!  Go and wait on the outside,” she chases the young Lieutenant and his PUMA soldiers away.  “But we have got to be shown to our quarters,” Lieutenant Fernandez protests.

”It can wait till later.  This is serious business that immediately will have to take my attention and I need a sterile environment,” she explains and the young officer marches out angrily with his soldiers.

She sends her two assistants to scrub their hands and arms again, when the Cubans walk out.  “But we have already washed doctor,” they protest in a choir and something in her eyes convinces them to go and wash again.

”What has happened?  I thought that, that secret agents have laid their hands on you,” she asks while she is examining him and notices that the wound is less serious than she had thought.

Dumisani shakes his head.  “No.  It was the Boer that they had sent.  That Recognisance commando sniper could have killed me, but he did not.  He had to let the assault on my life look realistic.”

”Are you certain,” she wants to know urgently.  He smiles at her.  “Well, I am away from the camp...”   “It does not mean much.   The PUMA soldiers are still here with you.”

He suddenly laughs hoarsely.  “Oh, them.  They are here to protect me.”  She shakes her head.  “You really believe that they have been sent to protect you?  Why are you so certain that it’s the work of a South African Recognisance commando?”

”Your friend Roberto came to visit me.   He brought a message from the South Africans,” the Brigadier says with a secretive expression on his face.

”Good gracious Dumisani, it is more difficult to get information from you than to draw teeth,” she remarks impatiently.   “You worry far too much, dear Maria.   Do not break that lovely head of yours over me.   I was ordered to daily accompany the intelligence officers to the women’s quarters, until some contact was made.   The flat wheel of the vehicle was the sign that he is active in the aria.”

”What did happened to that Recce,” she wants to know worried.  Dumisani draws up his shoulders denial and she sees pain written all over his face.

”Enough of this.  It is time that we start with your treatment,” she orders suddenly quite strictly.   “My dear Maria, you do not think that the Boer is going to be captured,” he utters her worst fear.

”Then we will really have trouble,” she says somewhat husky.   “Let me assure you.  They have set up stopping groups and sweeping lines and what have they got?   They only did find a few crocodiles and a rock rabbit that they did shoot and further nothing.   He did disappear like a spectre and at this time they are still searching for him.”

”What do you think happened to him?  Did one of the crocodiles come across him,” she wants to know and shudders at the awful thought.  “Do you really think that they would have sent any idiot to help us?  No, Maria I am quite certain he is one of those ultra-elite Recognisance commandos that can live in the veldt and can sneak in and out of enemy camps without being noticed.

”Do you think that he is going to help the South African prisoner escape,” she wants to know sceptically.   “I do not know.  What would you have done in the place of the South Africans,” he wants to know tiredly and follows:  “It is very funny that they did not contact you by radio, to prepare you for my arrival?”

She shakes her head in a denying way.   “The batteries of the radio have gone flat and the power generators have unexpectedly broken down.”  Suddenly she hears the voices of her two assisters.   “Put a drip in his arm,” she orders before she walks out of the room.

”Lieutenant!”  She calls upon the young officer to where he and his soldiers went to find shade under the massive Msasa trees.

”You can use the top rooms as your quarters.  After stowing your kit I want you to go and see if you are able to repair the two power generators.   I will ask one of the nurses to show you around and to give you some cool drinks or tea if you like?”

Again there’s a smile on his face.   “For you doctor we will fix the generations quickly.”   When he leaves he mumbles that he is willing to walk through hell to be able to know her better and she smiles spontaneously at that remark.

She scrubs her hands and arms thoroughly before she returns to the theatre and gives Dumisanin a injection, that suddenly makes him sleepy and which causes everything to go black before his eyes.