Page 27 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
She stared, her feet rooted to the spot. They weren’tthings; they were people!
Eva gulped and forced herself to move closer and watch as the plane roared back overhead and sent more bombs into yet another ship while sailors bobbed around in the water like debris, as if a tree had fallen and was broken into limbs in the ocean. Only these limbs belonged to human beings, and the screaming that was echoing off the sea was the men calling in terror as they died.
‘We need to help them!’ she screamed, her body shaking as she fisted and unfisted her hands, heart beating so fast she wondered if she was having a heart attack. ‘We need to help them!’
Were they next? As another plane came, she looked up in horror, running to the railings and staring out, hand clamped across her mouth now as she looked at the shore, at the decimated buildings smoldering, at the carnage she could only glimpse from where she was standing.
And then she looked back, struggling to breathe, gasping as she drank in the sight of her own ship. Surely the giant red cross on each side of their enormous white boat was like a target, marking them to be bombed? How had they not been hit yet?
‘What’s going on?’
Eva turned at the cry behind her and saw a handful of nurses watching, huddled together. She’d been so paralyzed with her own fear she hadn’t thought to run down and alert the other girls.
‘I think, I think ... ,’ she stuttered, looking up again, trying to expel the words as she gasped. ‘I think we’re at war. I think we’ve been bombed by the Japanese.’
Was that their emblem? The big red sun on the side of each plane? Was that who was bombing their beautiful harbor, killing their men and destroying their buildings and boats by the dozen?
‘We can’t be at war! Someone would surely have told us!’
Eva just shook her head. ‘If this isn’t war, then I don’t know what it is.’
‘What do we do?’ asked another nurse, sobbing as she ran forward and grabbed Eva’s hand. ‘Tell us what to do. How do we get to shore? We need to get to somewhere safe!’
Some of the other nurses were crying hysterically now, and Eva stared back at them as a wave of calm rolled through her, as serene as the overhead scene was violent. She took a deep breath.
‘There is nowhere safe,’ she said, raising her voice so they could all hear her over the drone of planes and the shouting of men. She turned back to the water and watched as their own sailors dragged people into the small liberty boats. They were going to be bringing them back to theSolace, and that meant they were about to be inundated with patients. The reality of what they were about to face sent a quiver through her. ‘Those men out there? They need our help. We need to get the ward ready for an influx, and we need the operating theaters prepped too.’
‘They’re howling in pain,’ one of the nurses said, moving close to Eva and leaning out over the railings. ‘Do you think it’s from being shot?’
Eva looked at the water and saw the curious sight of fire whipping across the water in patches. And then she noticed the bright swirls of oil, and fear clutched at her throat.
‘They’re burning,’ she whispered. ‘It’s the oil in the water ... it’s ...’ She choked on the words, hating to imagine what they were about to deal with, how horrific the injuries would be.
‘Do you think anyone’s alive on the island?’ the same nurse said. ‘Look at the smoke.’
Eva followed her point, refusing to give in to the panic that was bubbling below the surface of her mind, trying to draw her in. She had to stay focused; she had to lead these women right now and try to save as many lives as they could. But knowing that her Charlie was there on land? That his base might have been hit? She gulped. And what of her new friends? Were they among the dead, or were they bravely preparing to save men right now too?
The youngest of the nurses, a young girl named Sally, was crying so hard she started retching, bright-yellow vomit pooling at her feet and running across the deck as she bent over.
‘Sally,’ Eva said, marching over to her as the ship suddenly jerked. ‘Sally, you need to pull it together. We’ll need someone to man the phone lines—do you think you can do that? You need to keep trying to make contact with Tripler General Hospital to see what the situation is there, and Schofield or Hickam. Do you hear me?’
Sally looked up and nodded, her eyes swimming with tears.
‘This is your job. We’re counting on you, but you need to go now.’
Sally nodded furiously, her head bobbling, before she gathered her skirt and ran down the deck just as the first men were being hauled up.
‘I could have done the phones,’ another nurse offered.
‘We need everyone in the ward,’ Eva said. ‘But Sally would have fainted at her first patient, I think.’
She’d done the right thing in sending her off, but it had also been selfish. She wanted to know what had happened to the people she cared about, and as soon as she got a moment, she’d be calling herself to try to speak to Charlie. She swallowed her emotions as she thought of him, imagined him being gunned down, what that would mean for her if she lived and he didn’t. But she needed to ignore the voice in her head. She might not survive the morning; they could all be taken prisoners of war if theydidlive. The only thing she had control over was her ability to care for others and save lives, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
‘We need help over here!’
The noise hit her then. It was as if she’d been blocking everything else out, focused only on what she needed to do, on how she could help. Suddenly all she could hear were explosions and the whirring of aircraft, the screaming of men, the yells for help, the smaller boats being hauled in against their ship.
‘Bring them straight to the ward!’ she called back. ‘We’re ready for them.’
