ShadowChild (BWP110.00)

Kuda was furious. 

If she never saw another male face again it would be too soon. 

How dare he deliberately overlook her? 

She was so wrapped up in her fury that she burst through the swing-doors like a miniature hurricane on legs and promptly crashed into nearly two meters of solid male flesh. When strong hands rose automatically to support her she brushed them aside impatiently and glared at their owner. The man who stood before her watched her expectantly, waiting for her to say something. When he realised that the bundle of fury in front of him was not about to apologise for nearly knocking him off his feet, he spoke.

"Good afternoon. I'm looking for Doctor Aaron Campbell. Do you know where I can find him?" he asked, his American accent drawing out his words.

Kuda listened to the man's cultured voice and her anger boiled over. There he stood in his three-piece suit and crocodile skin shoes, with his brown eyes sparkling and his black hair cut short and neat. His chocolate coloured skin was blemish free, his nose slightly flared out at the nostrils. His plump lips would have been alluring at any other time but now they just irked her more despite how kissable they looked. A package deal, complete with briefcase and tie. He was the epitome of everything Kuda despised and for some unknown reason she felt like slapping him.

"Ha o mmatla, rra, mo itshenkele," she spat out.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't speak Tswana," the man said, pointedly disregarding the woman's rude voice.

"Mo ga se mathata a me," she replied even more rudely. That's not my problem.

The man's eyes narrowed and his lips thinned. Kuda noted with perverse satisfaction that his knuckles seemed to tighten on the handle of his briefcase. She wanted to laugh like a little child who had pulled the wings off a fly just to watch it wriggle helplessly on the ground. When the man spoke again, his voice wasn't as amicable as it had been before and Kuda was perversely pleased with that result. 

"I think it's rude of you to speak in a language I don't understand," he snapped. "Especially when you know I don't speak it."

"Rude?" the woman snapped back. "First of all, it's called Setswana. Because, you know, we live in Botswana. Secondly, where were you when we were learning Setswana?" She stressed the "SE" to make her own point and put her hands on her hips, glaring bloody murder at him. "If you resent the fact that I speak a language foreign to you, how do you think I feel about being forced to speak somebody else's language in my own country? You come all the way from America with your fancy ideas and teach us your crazy ideologies without bothering to learn ours. Well, exc-uuse me for wanting to talk in my native tongue, in my own country."

"Kuda! That's enough."

Kuda spun around and ran her eyes over Doctor Campbell as he came through the swing doors. His weather-beaten face was red and he looked as angry as Kuda felt. His thinning, blonde hair, which was now more white than blonde, stood up in tufts on his head, as though he had been running his fingers through it in agitation. Kuda looked away from his green eyes, wondering how he still managed to get sunburnt despite having lived in Botswana for more than twenty years. She tossed her head defiantly and pushed her hands into the pockets of her pants, the movement drawing the khaki material tightly across her hips and causing her blue t-shirt to tighten over her chest without her noticing.

"I'm really sorry about this, Jake. She's not normally like this and I don't know what to say," the other doctor said. The man he had called Jake nodded without saying anything. He was careful not to turn away from Doctor Campbell because he didn't trust where his eyes would involuntarily look. He was appalled but kept it hidden by making sure his face was expressionless. Or at least he hoped it was.

"Don't apologise for me, Aaron. I'm not a child." Kuda glared at the doctor and she felt her teeth clamp together as she struggled to hold back some of the things she really wanted to say to him. She so badly wanted to let loose and scream at him but it really wasn't the time right now. Not in front of Mr Three-Piece-Suit anyway. He probably thought she was a lunatic; not that she gave two squirrels’ ears what he thought about her anyway. Still, she didn't need him looking at her like she was an escapee from the local asylum. Again, not that she cared what he thought.

"If you didn't behave like one then I wouldn't have to," the doctor replied sharply. "Could you please go check if the supplies have come in yet. They should have arrived by now."

"Like I told you before," Kuda replied icily, "I'm not your lackey. Thapelo's the one who's being paid to be at your beck and call, not me."

With that, the woman stormed out of the clinic before either man could say anything, disappearing around the corner of the building.

A muscle jumped erratically in the tightly-clenched jaw of Doctor Jake Dawn and he held onto his temper with an extremely thin thread. The flight had been long and tedious and he had been desperately tired when he had arrived in Gaborone. The flight to Francistown had been short, only an hour, and hadn't afforded him the rest he had so badly needed. Once in Francistown, however, he had been hit by an unexpected second wind and now he seemed to be on an adrenaline high. Jackalas had just been a breath away and instead of spending the night in Francistown as originally planned, he had driven down right away. He had been anxious to see Aaron and the place he had been away from for so long. Not even driving on the left side of the road had been a deterrent.

He just hadn't bargained on the spitfire. Or perhaps the “The Little Demon from Hell” might have been a more apt description.

"Why do you let her speak to you like that?" he asked grimly. Aaron sighed.

"She's upset about something," he mumbled. "She'll be alright though. Besides, it was partly my fault."

"That is no excuse. No matter what you said to her she has no right to talk to you that way," Jake insisted. He loosened the tie around his neck, barely aware that he was doing it. "Who is she anyway?"

Aaron smiled with something like sincere and unexpected humour. The wrinkles around his eyes deepened and genuine mirth flashed across his face.

"That," he told Jake, "is Doctor Kuda Chilume. My daughter. And your new associate."