Page 26 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
Grace forced herself to walk all the way to the other end of the ward before passing him to a corpsman.
‘He alive?’
She shook her head. ‘Straight to the morgue, please,’ she managed, her voice cracking as she choked on her words. Grace dropped a kiss to the baby’s little dark head. ‘But put him down carefully when you get there, would you? His mother thinks he’s still alive, and I want him treated with care.’
The man nodded, his big arms engulfing the child, carrying him as Grace had, as if he were still alive, still a precious little bundle of life. As he disappeared from sight, Grace slowly turned, watching as a stretcher was carried past, yet another body on its way to the morgue, this one covered by a bloodstained sheet. But as she walked past, a flash of yellow caught her eye.
‘Stop!’ she called, staring, shivers running through her as she stepped closer, hand trembling as she reached to lift the sheet back. That yellow, that shade of color, the pretty cotton fabric, it looked so like ...
‘No!’ she screamed, seeing Poppy’s dark hair streaked with red, her mouth twisted, blood tracing a line down her chin.
Not Poppy. No. No, no, no!
The room spun as Grace’s legs buckled beneath her and she crashed to the hard floor below, her arm the only thing to break her fall as she wailed, as everything turned shades of swirling red and purple before falling black.
‘Grace! Grace, what’s wrong?’
April was on the floor with her, holding her, stroking her hair.
‘What happened to her?’ she heard April demanding. ‘Why did she fall?’
And then Grace felt her sister stiffen, knew she’d seen what she’d seen too.
‘Poppy’s dead,’ Grace whispered.‘She’s dead.’
‘Cover the body, and take her away,’ April ordered, sobbing as she bent low and cradled Grace again, as they cried together.
They were at war.
Poppy was dead.
And nothing was ever, ever going to be the same again.
CHAPTER SIX
EVA
‘Command battle stations!’
Fear sliced through Eva like a hot knife through butter. It was the vibration that made her look up first, the heavy rattle in the air followed by the sickening noise of something thumping down from above. Over and over again.
She looked in horror at the sky, at the planes flying too low in the distance, raining bullets or bombs orsomethingfrom the sky. Eva couldn’t even make it out. Was this a training operation gone wrong? What on earth was happening? Why were those planes flying so low?
Then she looked at sailors nearby, in their dress whites, waiting to go ashore in the liberty boats for a normal day out.
‘Command battle stations!’
There went the call again. The sailors all looked at one another; she saw the confusion register, their eyes wide, before they all started moving, some running back down the deck and others commanded to go into the boats still. Where were they going? To shore? Now?
Eva braced herself as a plane whirred closer, and she stared up, watching as the pilot raised one hand in a wave, his smile visible, before flying past and unleashing a torrent of bullets on a nearby ship.
‘Take cover!’ a sailor screamed as he ran past her. ‘Take cover!’
Cover?Where was she supposed to take cover? And who on earth were they taking cover from?
Boom!
The noise was so loud it reverberated through her, a cold chill spreading down her spine as her teeth rattled. She clenched them tight, braced for another explosion, and watched a nearby ship seem to rise up and then smack back down again, red balls of fire shooting upward as things flew overboard and into the water.
