NERVOUS, lewis hamilton

13

Seraphina's eyes fluttered shut as the heat of the sun warmed her, shining freely on the cloud-free sky. It was so hot, making her skin sting even if she had applied sunscreen not too long ago, so that spoke volumes about the strength of the sun rays.

The worst part was the mixture of sunscreen and the enormous amount of sweat her body produced because of the scorching heat. It was so uncomfortable and made her not want to let her hands, arms or legs accidentally brush against her body. She knew the skin would feel clammy and would uncomfortably stick to each other.

At least the sheen on her skin made her look hot.

As the pickup truck—or bakkie as they called it there in South Africa—switched from the regular asphalt road to the more sand-like road, everyone could feel the difference in terrain, the bakkie shaking slightly as it drove on the sand before it started to 'get used' to the change.

The oddest thing about the heat wave was that August wasn't even the hottest month South Africa had. So she didn't know where it came from, she just knew that she wasn't made for it. No one could blame her when she grew up in England. Her ancestors though probably weren't that proud of her.

Oh, well. It was what it was.

It didn't take long from them driving off the regular road to their arrival at the shelter, the car parking next to some of the other bakkies. The driver came out of the front of the pickup, hurrying to open the tailgate so they could get off.

Her crew did just that, one of her bodyguards holding out his hand for her to help her get off the cargo bed. She accepted the help as she placed her hand in his and jumped off, landing on the pressed-down, red sand. The same man grabbed the suitcase that was placed under the benches they had sat on and jumped back down, giving it to her since it was common knowledge she liked carrying her own stuff.

They moved into the main building of the shelter and Seraphina looked up at the name written over the entrance. Her last name with 'safety' in Zulu. So, Hills Ukuphepha. All her shelters had technically the same name just in different languages aka the ones most spoken in each country since most of them had a bunch of different languages. That's what a bunch of different cultures did... that and colonisation.

She wanted it to be easy for people to understand what the place was and she didn't want it to be in a language that maybe not everyone spoke. If magic existed she would have spelled it so it was in the language of whoever laid their eyes on it so literally everyone could read it. But magic wasn't real, so she stuck with finding the closest thing.

The main building was made of wood with pillars, walls coloured in light beige, glass windows to welcome nature into the inside space and a roof made of straw grass. The building had two stories. The first one consisted of the foyer that led to the back door, a few restrooms and the kitchen. The second one had a few bedrooms and two bathrooms, which was where Seraphina and her crew were staying for the next two days.

That was a part of her schedule since she was only in Africa for a week so she had to make all the visits short. She did try to make the most out of them anyway, trying to talk to everyone there and spending time with them.

She refused to set up shelters and then never visit them. She didn't want to be one of those people who did good things only for their reputation and for people to like them.

She didn't post pictures of the people there either, especially not the kids. There might be some aesthetic pictures she'd post or if someone wants to be posted she might do that, but otherwise, she wouldn't.