Page 102 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
‘I need a doctor, now!’
Shouts erupted throughout the ward as it turned to mayhem, with men everywhere they could fit them and nurses who’d already worked twelve hours straight standing alongside surgeons who were on call twenty-four hours a day. If she could survive being in this ward, then she could survive anything. Or at least that’s what she was going to keep telling herself.
A few days later, Grace gave Eva a quick kiss and a long hug goodbye, not sure whether to be relieved or sad that she wasn’t coming with them. They’d been overrun with patients, the beds full and their surgeons working around the clock to save the lives of so many young men, and Eva had been grounded.
She hurried after April and Dr. Evans, her pack thumping against her shoulders, helmet clutched to her chest with one hand. She saw the doctor pause after helping April up into the army truck, and she gratefully took his hand and climbed up after her. There were only grim faces to greet her when she stepped into the canvas-roofed deck, taking her position beside her sister.
‘It’s just us?’ she asked. ‘No other nurses to help these doctors?’
April shook her head and shuffled over for Dr. Evans to sit beside her. ‘They couldn’t spare any more, but nurses have landed with soldiers directly onto the beach today.’
‘Did anyone see if the mail came today?’ she asked. ‘I meant to go back and check.’
April nodded. ‘It came, but there was nothing for you. I’m sorry.’
Grace nodded and rubbed her hands together, still not used to the change in weather. It had been so wet her boot had disappeared into a mud puddle and her foot had come up without it on her way to the hospital this morning, and she hated to think how cold they’d get if they were forced to sleep out in the open. They’d all been told to start wrapping in newspaper now beneath their blankets, to stop the cold bite of nighttime from freezing them half to death. All she’d wanted was a letter from Teddy to keep her going, something to tell her that he was all right, but she hadn’t heard a word from him since he’d left that night, posted to God only knew where. And she’d been too mortified to write to him first, unsure what to say after what had happened.
She held hands with April as the truck rumbled on and as children ran after them when they passed through town, calling out for chocolate and cigarettes, their little hands extended on skinny arms. She would usually have moved farther toward the back of the truck, calling back to them, but today felt solemn. Grace wondered how she, the nurse who was scared of blood, who’d made Eva laugh when they’d first met over her confession, had ended up volunteering to go to the front. She shuddered just thinking about what they might encounter.
She glanced at April, at the strong side profile and tight pull of her mouth, clearly deep in thought. All these years and months she’d slowly started to resent her sister; she’d resented her for telling her to stay at home and not become a nurse, for always being the mother, for making it clear she was the older sister, for telling her not to go on that date that night; and she still hadn’t told her she was sorry. That she should have listened to her. That she wanted more than anything for her sister to take over and look after her again. But she couldn’t, because April needed to live her own life without having to mother a sister who was barely eighteen months younger than she was. It was her turn to support her sister and show her that she could be there for her too.
‘What is that?’ April whispered beside her after they’d been bumping along the road for some time.
‘The sound of war,’ Dr. Evans muttered. ‘We’re getting close, ladies.’
Grace stared at April, holding her hand tighter as the sound of bullets being fired became louder, as the feeling in the air changed and everyone went deathly still in the truck.
‘It’s going to be hell out there, isn’t it?’ Grace whispered.
April had tears in her eyes, and Grace reached forward to brush her sister’s cheeks as they started to slide down her face.
‘We’re going to get through this,’ April whispered back. ‘We’re going to save lives, and we’re going to be fine.’
Grace nodded as the truck lurched to a stop and someone yelled at them to get out. She went down right after Dr. Evans, relinquishing April’s hand, and soldiers were waiting for them, holding guns. She stared at them, the enormity of what they were doing hitting hard as she eyed their rifles.
A bomb seemed to erupt around them, and Grace instinctively doubled over.
‘Stay low!’ a soldier yelled. ‘It’s crawling only on the beach, and get to a beach hut if you can. We need to save as many men as we can here before they’re moved!’
The soldiers took the lead, and Grace, her sister, and four doctors followed, with more soldiers bringing up the rear. She ran low, holding her hat with one hand, her pack containing all the supplies she needed.
Ping!
She dropped to the ground as a shell whizzed past her helmet, her body shaking. Soon, earth gave way to sand, and Grace crawled beside her sister, trying to remember to breathe as she saw men on the ground up ahead, her helmet constantly sliding down. Shells were firing from every direction, her head pounding as loud as her heart as she frantically followed the soldiers and doctors.
‘Nurse!’
April was beside Dr. Evans, so Grace stopped, hauling her pack off. She kept her head low as she took out morphine, fingers fumbling at the sight of the young man lying beside them, his body convulsing, covered in sand that made it almost impossible to know what was even wrong with him.
And then she saw a doctor bent low, his face covered in splatters of blood as he looked up, glasses foggy.
‘We need to tourniquet it before he bleeds out!’
Grace’s stomach heaved at the sight of the man’s leg, in tatters below the knee, his foot gone completely. She scrambled to help the doctor, both fighting to tie it off tightly enough, forgetting the shells firing over their heads.
‘Stop!’ she screamed at the sky. ‘Just stop!’
‘Let’s go.’
