Nganakati

"Sit still," she giggled. "You do damage when you move about."

We sat next to the table with our plates on our knees for the simple reason that the table was at normal height but the chairs were loungers. Eating from a plate at face level is unflattering....

The wine was exceptional but Cathy's cooking out in the bush over an open fire needed some work. It was fine but lacked that elusive 'something'. Once again she read my mind.

"Cooking is not my best ability and cooking like this is a little challenging," she said with droopy eyes and I laughed.

"It is fine. Really. With what you had in the way of provisions and preparation, this is commendable."

She laughed softly and held up her glass in salute. "At least you won't die."

This was dangerous ground and I changed the subject. "You have an unusual accent?"

"Scottish."

"Macwhat?"

"McDonald."

Those eyes... "Family of Amy?"

She giggled. "Cousins of sorts apparently but we only met once at a concert a few years ago. Like her music?"

"You bet. I need to know something."

"Yes?"

"Technically the Lodge is closed. I am part of a team tasked to repair it again but for the life of me I cannot picture you as part of this refurbishment effort. Why in all that is unholy are you even here?"

She shrugged. "On and off I've been staying here for a few years now. I saw it going to hell but a large part of my work is in these parts. I got here two days ago and I cried. It used to be such a beautiful place but it seems someone was out to destroy it. In less than a month they trashed it! It went from lovely to bad to uninhabitable!"

I nodded. "Malice."

"Malice?"

"Retribution, getting their own back, vengeance. Call it what you like."

"But why?"

I snickered. "Here the list is long but in short it comes down to appalling mismanagement, political interference, blatant corruption and a lack of concern. I spoke to some of the personnel when I was here for the quote. Some of them had not been paid in more than six months, some almost to a year. Those who could, left. Those that were unable to leave survive on theft. Pilfering supplies, selling pieces of equipment and poaching."

I heard her take a deep breath. "Rhino horn and the like."

I chuckled. "Ol' Jacob has been on this reserve from when he was a young man and he keeps things low key. Rhino and Elephant have been poached but chances are it was done by people from outside. Jacob may be an old man now but his authority still holds sway and an ivory poacher may just find himself turned into lion feed if he is caught. It is more the abundant small game that are taken and that is for food." I shrugged. "How do you tell the father of a hungry child that he may not kill a rabbit or impala?"

She sat there looking into the fire with screwed down eyes. After a while she mumbled; "I hate traps."

"So do I. They are bad."

"I come upon them often. I destroy what I can but sometimes all I find is the rotting remains of an animal that died an agonising death."

"You spend a lot of time in the bush?"

Happy eyes looked up at me. "I am a field worker for National Geographic."

"Oh?"

"Yes! I am part of the programme on the Ground Hornbill and liaise with a number of other programmes that tie in with it, such as the Saddle Billed Stork, Wild Dogs, Cheetah and many others. What I see matters to them and what they see matters to me. I am here at this lodge because of two very well studied families of Ground Hornbill that have now increased to five families. We need to know why they prospered while some established families in the Kruger and surrounds declined and even disappeared. In Hluhluwe I have four families with the same predicament. Two are stable, one may pair off soon because of numbers and the last group's female tags behind a flock of Guinea Fowl. Her entire family is gone."

"Predators?" I asked, trying to sound informed and she grinned at me as I got up to put the used eating utensils together.

"Of course. They've always been preyed upon but we need to find out why some families lose their chicks to predation every year while others do not. Are they just stupid, the predators wiser or more in numbers? An alarming thing is infertility as well. Here in the parks and large reserves it is not as prevalent as further north. In places like Tanzania and Kenya it is as high as fifty percent of eggs that do not hatch. The birds are having a tough time and we suspect pesticides. A large number of eggs are taken by some locals as food as well."

"Do you go up north?"

She laughed. "You think this lodge is bad?"

I chuckled. "Been there. The lodges that are habitable are unaffordable and the affordable ones are almost uninhabitable."

She giggled. "Back home I am the 'African' and sometimes subjected to close scrutiny and even awe. What I consider as 'fine' scares them to death. My parents came to visit once. My dad was okay and enjoyed it but my mom freaked out. Her fears were not unfounded but I maintain a point of view. If you are unduly terrified of something, it will get you. Mom is terrified of the African bush. It's very heat and bushiness makes her cringe."

"She had a snake sail over her foot in camp one night soon after they arrived. I think it is airborne as we speak and her scream is still reverberating in the mountains. A bat flew into her hair. That had the entire holiday resort wide awake. The resident vagabond hyena crept up to her at this very Lodge one night and howled almost right next to her. You know how loud that is and what it sounds like. She hyperventilated for hours and the wretched animal nearly killed itself running into a wall in its attempt to get away."

"She stepped on a scorpion and got stung. She was convinced she was going to die and I laughed so much I could barely help her. After having warned her numerous times, she still neglected shaking out her shoes. An African king cricket or as we call it, a Parktown Prawn, took shelter in there. Getting your foot out of a shoe while rolling around and screaming tends to spoil a lovely early morning. I think she scrubbed her foot until it bled. She burned the shoes."

"The final straw came when their game viewing vehicle broke down and a curious elephant ambled over to give everyone on board an inquisitive sniff. Mom's perfume must have intrigued it as it spent a lot of time exploring her head and upper body. She regained the ability to speak, albeit a trifle slurry, late that night after numerous tots of neat whisky."

This time she had to wait for me to stop laughing. When I could speak properly I leaned back in my chair. "Any siblings?"

"Two brothers," she said with a drawn out sigh. "Tommy, a musical nerd and William the complete opposite. Tommy sings, plays just about every instrument known to man and writes songs. William likes listening to music sometimes but cannot even figure out how to hold a guitar. Here in the bush he comes alive though."

"Is he here?"

She chuckled. "Sadly, no. At least not yet. Final year at university studying to be a Vet. Both have been down here to visit me a couple of times and they love it here. Tommy sat down at the dam on Kwanyoni lodge , watched the sun set and for days he was furiously writing poems and turning it into songs. Two made it to the top ten back home."

"And William?"

"He leaves camp early morning and you will not see him until dark. He can sit at one singular spot and not really move for hours. It is astonishing what he sees happening around him. He tells of a day he had been sitting under a tree for hours when a female leopard came up, gave him a curious look and lay down so close to him he could hear her breathing. I believe him. Those at home think it is an urban legend."

"Leopards do that sometimes," I mumbled and she grinned at me.

"Happened to you?"

I took a deep breath. "Twice, although not so close but close enough for me to suffer from constipation for a few days. Those kitty cats are just a little too fast and strong to wrestle with."

"Any idea why they do it?"

"I had a conversation with the one that was closest. She twitched her ears a few times but never uttered a word. I guess she was not in a talkative mood."

Cathy laughed. "How long did you sit there?"

"I sat there forever," I grinned. "If I got up she may have taken my movements as an imminent attack. She may have run off. She may have mauled me. I asked her about it a few times but she possibly considered my chattering as dull and not worthy of an answer. She left when it became cooler and did not even look back at me." I chuckled. "I was quite peeved about it. I had started to think there may have been a little spark of something happening between us."

Cathy laughed and then shook her head. "Just let me get that image out of my head."

I grinned at her. "They bite and scratch when mating."

Once again I had to wait for her to stop laughing and when she did she tilted her head to one side. "Your family?"

"Mom and Dad were a little busy. There are five of us. My eldest brother Thomas, is a Professor at Bloemfontein University. Eldest sister, Judy, moved to Texas and has a company that organises adrenaline sport for the bored wealthy. Middle sister, Dianne, breeds horses and lives near Cape Town. Fourth in line is another son, Mike, who wheels and deals in anything and spends a lot of energy staying a step or two ahead of the cops. And then there is the 'One more time for old time's sake' Kevin who is almost eighteen years younger than Thomas and he scratches around in sewers for a living."

"Your parents?"

"Vegetating in a retirement village or travelling wherever the fancy takes them. As we speak they are visiting Judy in Texas and I have heard of plans to rent a small RV and drive to Alaska."

"Do you see them often?"

I shrugged. "Not really. Mike and I are not friends. I dislike his way of living and he used to bully me when I was small. Thomas and Judy are so much older than me that they may as well be part of another family. I hardly knew them as a kid and still don't. Dianne and I are rather close. I was her living doll for a few years and then as I outgrew that, she basically became my pseudo mother. She protected me fiercely from anybody, especially Mike." I grinned; "I also had more hidings from her than anybody else."

"I meant your parents."

"Oh, sorry. I make time to see them. It is less than I would like but they live far from me and I am still scratching out a mentionable living, so time is limited."

"You work for a big company?"

"Nope. We are a group of accidental friends who became partners because of skills. I started the whole idea and consequently find myself in a position where I am considered the senior member but that means nothing. We devised a rather unique system of profit sharing and apart from driving our bookkeeper and accountant into black depression, it works well."

I opened my mouth to say something more but a surprise yawn overtook me. Cathy giggled and got up.

"Shall we do the dishes and go to bed?"

I simply put everything together in a sealable container in the back of my truck and indicated the dark ablutions. "No hot water at the moment. Tomorrow morning I will heat up some and then wash up. Where are you camped?"

"Near the main building. I thought there may be more amenities but alas, no."

"Wanna join me?" I asked and saw her whip her head up.

"A little fast?"

I stood there looking at her for seconds before the meaning of my words got to me and I laughed. "Tempting idea but I meant moving camp. Tomorrow I will have lockable doors and hot water in this block. The others will have to wait until such time as I find out who will be the project manager and how things will swing."

She giggled. "For a hot shower I will move camp but only tomorrow. Right now I am ready for bed as much as you are by the sound of it."

"Walk you home?"

"Thanks. It is a bit dark and last night the resident Hyena vagabond kept following me around. I know it is simply curious or hoping for scraps of food but it is creepy."

I saw her off at her little camp and as I walked towards my camp I heard plates, pots and glasses fall. I yelled at the top of my voice and started running to the sound of Cathy laughing behind me as I saw a honey badger slinking away from my camp. It hissed at me but thankfully ran off without me having to face down one of the toughest animals on earth that evolved to high intelligence but missing the part that installed fear.

I cleared up the mess, made everything Badger-proof (sort of) and crawled into bed. It had been a pleasant evening. Before nodding off I sent a few messages to the team and grinned in the dark. Cathy may be a happy chappy tomorrow afternoon. It would be fun to see her face....

***

It was still dark when I poured my coffee and sat staring at nothing in particular when I heard boots crunching on the gravel in my direction. Thinking it was Cathy I called out; "Come and get it!" but the rough male voice that chuckled a friendly greeting nearly had me diving onto my face again. The voice was familiar and as I got upright and turned to the visitor, I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Mnumzaan Kevin!" he roared and I almost dropped my coffee.

"Richard?"

He cackled with pleasure and we bear hugged. As he let me go we stood staring at each other for seconds before we both broke into happy laughter.

"What brings you here?" I asked, showing him to my other chair. "Coffee?"

"Thanks. That would be lovely. I came past last night but I saw you had already reeled in the only female within a thousand sea miles so I decided to give you two lovebirds some space."

That made me laugh again and I quickly told him about my fumbled ejection from my chair upon Cathy's arrival while I poured him a large mug of coffee laced with a goodly dollop of sweetened condensed milk. He took a careful sip and sighed with pleasure.

"Long time since the two of us shared this," he chuckled and put the mug down next to him. "Reason I am here so early Kevin...."

"I assume it is not to surprise me with a gift."

"I hope you will be happy to know that I am the Project manager for this whole upgrade."

I sat back and looked at his smile in the dim pre-dawn light. "Does that mean the scams I could almost hear running will be limited?"

Richard sat back and rolled his lips as his voice dropped to just above a whisper. "This remains between us Kevin. I tripped up a blatant scam and within less than an hour I had two death threats and a call from a certain cabinet minister. Fortunately this whole thing has serious political pressure so I am supplied with a red telephone to the top. I will not be able to stop them all but I already cut the mad budget to pieces so the easy money is less. Hopefully this will discourage blatant theft of funds and scams."

"Will I get my money?"

He grunted in a way I got to know meant he was serious. "That is the reason I am here Mnumzaan. I want you and your men to start as soon as possible. I know you have a stipulation in your contract and I will see to it that the money is deposited but it may still take a week or more. I want this thing done at the speed of white lightning. Bring in extra men if needed."

I grinned at him. "I ignored my own stipulations. Half my teams are most probably busy packing to be on their way already. One small team have to do some procurement that was not part of the original idea but at worst they will be here three hours later than the rest. Two teams are busy at another lodge and will not be here at all."

Richard sat back and drank his coffee in silence, obviously thinking. He smacked his lips as he lowered the empty mug and put it down on the table. "Your quote is for the entire electrical and plumbing job. Will you be able to liaise with the building guys so you don't trip over each other?"

"Who is doing it?"

"Sboro construction."

I nearly took off. "Those fools do not know the difference between cement and talcum powder!"

Richard nodded. "I know but he is politically well connected and got the contract that way. He, of course, is not here and simply sent a few teams. The guy in charge, a certain David Madonsela and I had a beautiful run-in yesterday afternoon. He came primed to call the shots and do as he pleased. I nearly made him meet his forefathers but now he is willing to do as I say. He had a gripe with you and your company being white but that was sorted out as well. To keep things clear, you tell me what you want and I tell him. We know the type. He WILL look for trouble and I will not tolerate it. You were chosen as much as a result of your track record as well as some heavy pressure from others."

"Thanks."

He shrugged. "Time for some pay-back Mnumzaan."

"You deserved it."

"Maybe. Maybe you saw what no-one else did."

I was uncomfortable on this subject and waved it away. "My electrical foreman is bigger than a mountain, quite sharp and would kill for me. I know. Mind if I use Mike as direct contact between us and your builder? We can play the boss game."

"Sorted."

I stretched and got up to pour myself another mug of coffee. I did not even ask Richard. In all the years I have known this man he only drinks coffee with me out in the sticks and has only one large mug of it. Other than that he is a water cart. As I sat down I grinned at him. "André is coming on this job."

He jumped up and I could see the glitter in his eyes. "Serious?" He thought a bit. "Only working or cooking as well?"

"Both. Join us tonight?"

He rubbed his hands together with glee. "Wild horses will not keep me away Mnumzaan. My white brother can turn chicken entrails into food for the gods."

"Want some?" I asked laughing and saw the smile leave his face.

"I grew up poor Mnumzaan. I do not flaunt my current affluence but chicken entrails can pass me by. It used to be what we could get sometimes but no. I think I outgrew the texture."

We both laughed and then chatted about what had happened in the years since we had last seen each other. He was genuinely sad about Maureen. Years ago, in another life, he had spent days upon days with the young city girl, teaching her the way of the veld. By the time he left my employ to go and study, she could identify edible plants, find water where none was expected and knew just about every type of animal found in the African bush.

"Remember her first Mopani worm?" I asked and Richard almost fell out of his chair. He tried to pull his face to mimic hers that day but it only led to us laughing even harder although it left me with an ache I still had problems with.

A while later he made moves to leave and turned a quizzical eye to me. "I am having a get-up-and-go meeting with all the role players at ten in the conference hall. I don't need you there but you're welcome to join."

I shuddered and laughed at him. "You know how I hate meetings. Especially those attended by people who want to be heard. You're the boss here. If it's all the same to you I will keep an invisible profile and you fill me in on what is needed."

He grinned and started to walk away when I called him back. "I am fixing this ablution today to supply at least a few showers with warm water. Anybody may share but Miss McDonald has preference until we have more ablutions going. Any horseplay and I lock it."

Richard grinned and winked at me. "So the pretty one is a Lassie?"

"Full blown Scottie."

"I'll tell them. See you tonight?"

"This afternoon you buffoon," I joked. "I will keep your presence quiet as a pleasant surprise. Some of my guys would love to spend some time with you again. It has been a long time...."

With a nod he walked away and I ambled over to 'our' ablution for some serious inspection and planning. Not knowing where the project will be starting it was difficult to make hard and fast decisions but I made some quick plans to temporarily get the block up and ready as soon as possible. I may get Richard to swing it as a last project. That would give us a working ablution while we fixed the others.