Page 45 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
Grace shot him a smile as April started pacing, and Eva just stood there as if waiting to be told what to do. A small lurch made her wonder if they were about to get blown apart, but nothing happened, and she let out a breath she hadn’t even known she was holding. The attention was nice, though, and she knew they wouldn’t even have been notified about the sub if she hadn’t known so many of the soldiers so well. She only wished April were enjoying the voyage more.
‘Thanks. Maybe we’ll see you soon,’ she said.
He stepped away, and she smiled back at him, knowing how embarrassed he’d be if he could see how pink his cheeks were.
They’d departed America for Morocco in the converted luxury liner days ago, although at the time they’d been told no details about where they might be going. They’d all speculated about staying in the Pacific with most of the other Pearl Harbor nurses, but with so few nurses with surgical experience, they’d volunteered to go farther abroad. It had been pleasant enough sailing, other than the fact that it had rained for the past two days and they’d been forced to stay cooped up. Nurses weren’t allowed on the decks after sundown, which meant they were stuck inside until morning now unless they managed to sneak out.
The ship they were sailing on was enormous, and it was filled to the rafters, with more nurses and soldiers on board than she could ever have imagined. They’d had a number of drills, rain or shine, but Grace wasn’t one of the nurses complaining. She was excited about where they might be going and what they might be doing; her father had hugged her goodbye and told her to make the most of everything, to soak up every part of her experience and commit it to memory to share with him, and that’s exactly what she was going to do. Not a day went by that she didn’t think about Poppy, wishing her friend could have been by her side, but her daddy had been right: she needed to find joy in whatever it was they were doing, and she was determined to find it in Africa. And Poppy’s mother had told her the same, writing a short letter to her that Grace had committed to memory, she’d read it so many times.
Live life for her, Grace. Go to all the parties, smile at everyone, find happiness in whatever it is you do and wherever you’re sent. And every time you smile, remember that a little bit of Poppy will always be with you. Stay safe and come home to me. You and April are all I have now.
She brushed away a tear and looked skyward, smiling as she wondered if Poppy might be looking down on them. She took a big lungful of air before turning to face the other two, fixing her smile in place.
‘Why don’t we see if there’s something to do?’ she said. ‘Maybe we could join in with the craps game or start something else or ...’
April still looked like she was about to start hyperventilating, and Grace stifled a laugh. It wasn’t that she was finding her sister’s suffering funny, but she’d never had to calm her down before or be the levelheaded one. It was as if the tables had turned as April’s fear of sailing took hold, and she wanted to help her.
Grace took April’s hand. ‘You know, it could be fun to play. Take our minds off what could be going on beneath the water,’ she said gently. ‘They sound like a fun group of guys, but I’m happy to do whatever you feel like doing.’
‘Aren’t you worried at all?’ April asked.
Grace held firm to April’s hand on one side and Eva’s on the other. ‘No. Because when our time is up, our time is up. Right now I’m choosing to trust our captain, so if he says we’re safe, then we’re safe. He wouldn’t have let that soldier tell us if he wasn’t confident in our safety, now would he?’
‘Fine, let’s go for a walk. I need to do something; otherwise I’m going to drive myself crazy with worry,’ April said.
‘My thoughts exactly,’ Grace replied.
Maybe it was losing Poppy and surviving Pearl Harbor, but whatever it was, she wasn’t going to waste time crying or hiding from whatever life was throwing at her. She shuddered as she remembered how everything, every nook and cranny and patient, had been covered in blood that day.Thatwould make her want to cry and hide, if she had to see that all over again, but everything else she felt that she could face. All she could do now was pull herself up by her bootstraps and get on with life.
‘Come on, Eva,’ Grace said as she dragged them both toward the mess room, which had once been a no-doubt glorious library. ‘How are you feeling today?’
‘Um, I’m fine,’ she replied. ‘There’s nothing wrong with me.’
‘Well, let’s see if a hot cup of coffee and a game of craps perks you up, then.’
She wasn’t sure who was rolling their eyes more at her lately, her sister or Eva, but whatever Eva said, there was definitely something wrong with her. They’d all grieved for their losses in their own ways, every single nurse and soldier who’d lived and lost that day, but not Eva. Eva had just seemed to steel herself and keep going, never talking about Charlie, never mentioning what they’d lost. And Grace knew that one day she’d crack; she just wanted to make sure she was there for her when she did.
Two days later, Grace stood at the railings and looked back at the boat, rather than out to sea as she usually did. She couldn’t stop thinking how strange it was that their ship had once been a luxury liner reserved only for the very wealthy, because despite the grandeur of her bones, she was very much a workhorse now. The staircases were built from timber that had once upon a time been polished within an inch of its life on a daily basis, and the size of the swimming pool alone, which was now filled with beds, showed how extravagant everything must have been, and Grace wished she could have traveled on her before she was converted. Now, the once two-person rooms were crammed with fourteen nurses each, packed into bunk beds like sardines, with barely space to stretch without connecting with the sagging mattress above, and it was often stifling from so many women breathing the same confined space. But it was almost over now, and suddenly the ship felt safer than the unknown.
She couldn’t help but wonder if conditions might be worse wherever it was they were going. She knew nothing about Africa, other than the fact that some of the people there had skin as dark as midnight, and all types of wild, exotic animals lived freely there. But now they were within hours of arrival, and she couldn’t ignore the tremors of excitement running through her body as she turned back to face the water and the land they’d been told they would see soon.
‘How are you feeling?’ April asked, placing a hand on her shoulder as she stood beside her.
Grace looked over at her, smiling at her sister. April looked so young and fresh faced standing there. And she also looked a whole lot more relaxed than she had in days.
‘Nervous,’ she admitted. ‘I’m excited, but my stomach is twisted into knots.’
‘I know the feeling. Something about being stuck on this boat has rattled me. I just want to get my feet firmly on the ground again and get back to feeling in control.’
They stood staring out to sea together as the boat moved slowly toward their final destination.
‘I think I’ve felt more comfortable on this boat than I usually feel on land,’ Grace admitted, stroking her fingers back and forth across the wooden handrail. ‘It sounds stupid, but I feel like, I don’t know, the unknown doesn’t scare me. I’ve liked being on here and being part of the anticipation, having so many people around us. It’s kind of like when we first arrived in Hawaii, before ...’
April nodded. ‘I know. ButIcan’t stand the unknown, I can’t plan for it, so I’ve been a hot mess! All I want is to see a hospital and set it up and get on with our job.’
Grace shuddered at the idea of having to set up the hospital and deal with bloody and dying patients again; she and April were definitely on different sides of the table there. Why was it that her sister was so capable when it came to things like that, and yet they put the fear of God into her? If they hadn’t looked so similar, she would have wondered if they were actually related sometimes.
‘Do you think Eva’s coping?’ April asked, her voice low.
