Page 106 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
‘You need to help me; we need to move him.’
She did a quick assessment, seeing the bullet wound. ‘Come on—we need to get him back there,’ she said, gesturing to what was left of the beach hut. ‘Harry—I mean Dr. Evans—he’ll know what to do.’
‘I owe him, April. He saved my life, and now I need to save his,’ Grace cried.
‘What?’
‘I should have listened to you, I should have let you take care of me, I should have ...’
She had no idea what her sister was rambling about, but she did know they were going to lose Teddy if they didn’t do something fast.
‘Enough! Pull yourself together, would you?’ April got hold of his upper half, fingers under his armpits, willing Grace to compose herself. ‘Get his legs. We’re going to have to make a run for it, or we’ll never get him back there.’
Grace did as she was told, and April started to count.
‘Three, two,one!’ she shouted, and they hauled him up, tripping and stumbling as they tried to run. Bullets whooshed past, but April breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped backward into the house and—
‘Grace!’ she screamed.
Her sister’s body jerked backward, her arm flying back as she dropped Teddy and fell.
‘Grace!’ she screamed again. She dropped Teddy’s shoulders and jumped over him to get to her sister, then grabbed her by the other arm, hauling with all her might to drag her to safety.
Grace moaned but started to move, her feet stumbling as she fell into the open doorway.
‘What happened? Who’s in worse shape?’ Harry yelled. ‘Make the call, fast!’
April grabbed Grace and saw the hole from the bullet in her upper bicep, but it had gone straight through, which meant she wasn’t in as much danger.
‘Morphine,’ she muttered, quickly getting out the syringe and administering it to her sister.
Then she left her and crouched over Teddy, ignoring his eyes for a moment to inspect his wound. ‘There’s no exit,’ she said as she examined him. ‘Bullet must be lodged there, and I can’t tell what damage it’s done.’
‘Douse your hand in whatever alcohol you have left, and reach in. You need to get it out.’
She sucked back a breath and did what Harry said, plunging her fingers into his flesh as Teddy hollered, then went silent.
‘I can’t find it, I can’t—’
‘Breathe, April. Just breathe and concentrate. You’ll feel the metal soon.’
She pushed farther, fingers deep inside him now, and then finally she felt it. ‘What if I can’t get it?’
‘You will,’ he said. ‘There’s no other way.’
Her fingers closed more tightly over the slippery bullet, and she tried three times to slide it out, finally succeeding on the fourth attempt. She threw the bloody bullet to the ground and started to panic.
‘I can’t do the stitches—I don’t have anything left,’ she cried, after searching her sister and seeing her pack wasn’t with her. ‘I can’t let him die—I know this man—I have to save him.’
Harry was silent for a moment before yelling out, ‘Your hair! Quickly—it’s thick; it’ll work. Pull out a strand and thread it.’
She knew it was insane, that it might not work, that it was stupidly unhygienic, but one look at Grace’s face and she knew she had to try.
April yanked at her hair and quickly threaded the needle, surprised how easily it worked and how steady her hands still were. Teddy was crying out again now, his hands over his eyes, but she blocked everything else out and slowly stitched, then used another strand of hair to make sure it would hold.
‘He’s going to live,’ she said, crawling over to her sister. She ripped at her skirt to tie around her bleeding arm. ‘Teddy’s going to live, Grace.’
April’s body started to shake then, and she lowered herself down beside Grace and wrapped her arms around her as shock set in, as bullets continued to fire around them.
