Page 50 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
‘I don’t know why I didn’t just throw it out,’ Eva muttered. ‘But something made me keep it.’
April took it and read the scrawl on the page, hand flying to her mouth as she recognized the cruelty of his words.
Your mother wanted to send a parcel to you, but there will be nothing coming from us, Eva. No words of comfort, no parcels, nothing. I told you if you said yes to marrying that man and going off nursing that you’d be banished from this house and nothing has changed. You don’t make a fool of me and get away with it, so don’t come crawling back and expect to be welcomed. And don’t try to contact your mother, she no longer has a daughter and neither do I.
April looked up, carefully folded the letter again, and gulped as she passed it back to Eva. ‘I’m so sorry. That’s just ... I don’t even know what to say. And your mother won’t help? I mean, she wouldn’t defy him?’
Eva shook her head. ‘My mother’s never stood up to him before, so I don’t expect it to start now.’
April knew she had to tread carefully. Charlie had been a good man with a strong sense of duty from what she’d gathered, and she knew that his parents had sent parcels to Eva after he’d died, so surely it wasn’t Charlie who’d caused the rift?
‘Can you ask Charlie’s family for help? If you ever need to?’ April asked gently. ‘Or your brothers?’
Eva shook her head. ‘I couldn’t. Going to them, it would just be so painful without Charlie. And my brothers will stand by my dad; they’ll believe whatever he tells them.’
April took Eva’s other hand and held tight to both of them, not blinking as she looked into her friend’s eyes. ‘Well, whatever happens, you have me, and you have Grace. We will never turn our backs on you, and you willalwaysbe welcome in our home. I mean it, Eva; I’m not just saying it.’
She hugged Eva and rubbed her back, expecting her to fall apart now that she’d confessed some of her story, but when she finally pulled back, she could see that Eva hadn’t cracked even an inch.
‘Come on,’ she said, linking arms again as they started to walk. ‘Let’s go see what we’re dealing with here.’
‘Wait up!’ Grace called, running up behind them and catching April’s free hand.
‘Well, you look excited,’ April said, laughing as Grace swung her hand like a little girl.
‘I am! It might be stinking hot and the middle of nowhere, but I’m not going to waste a second when we can be exploring!’
April liked her sister’s enthusiasm, so she decided not to point out that however exciting it might seem to land somewhere new, they could be posted for months with no running water and more people in one field than should ever be permitted. Not to mention the fact that any day now they could be overrun with patients that would make Pearl Harbor seem like a cakewalk.
‘Take cover!’
April dropped the tray she was carrying to the ground with a clatter as she crouched down low, cringing at the unmistakable noise of shells being fired. Since they’d arrived, she’d become used to hearing loud noises without completely losing her composure, but as bullets peppered the roof of the hospital, she tucked low beneath the hospital bed and held on to the legs, bracing herself for the worst.
‘What in God’s name is going on!’ she called out. ‘Don’t they know we’re a hospital?’
Eva crawled up beside her, pushing a flashlight in front of her. ‘Apparently they still haven’t painted the white cross on top yet.’
April’s skin burned as anger pulsed through her. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
She knew from the serious look etched on her friend’s face that she wasn’t joking.
‘Come on,’ April said, forcing her trembling legs to work and picking up what she’d dropped. ‘If we think this is bad, imagine how our boys are going to feel.’
‘If we’re hit, we’re hit—there’s nothing we can do about it, right?’ Eva said matter-of-factly. ‘Hiding under flimsy beds isn’t going to save any of us from a direct hit.’
April didn’t know where Grace was, but she was less worried about her sister than she’d ever been. From the moment they’d set sail, her little sister had seemed to come into her own, blossoming as she flirted her way through their days at sea. It might not be the case after some tough days and weeks nursing, but for now she seemed to be coping just fine. Then again they hadn’t been fired at before; she could be a basket case by now.
‘Don’t let them take me,’ one of the men wailed. ‘Give me a gun—let me protect us.’
April took a deep breath, shutting her eyes as more shells zoomed over them but trying hard not to jump this time. Eva was walking down the row with her, and she gave her a quick smile.
Some of the patients were hysterical at the noise, others were crying or silently rocking back and forth, and as April looked around, she wasn’t even sure where to start. Dealing with wounds and breaks, she’d been trained for that, but the psychiatric ward was different. These men weren’t right in the head; they’d seen things and done things that had affected them so badly it broke April’s heart. And aside from medicating them to induce sleep and reading them stories or feeding them, there was little they could do to make life any easier for them.
‘Hold me,’ one of the men cried. ‘I want my mama.Mama!’
She saw Grace then, huddled beside a bed and holding someone in her arms. It was one of the youngest soldiers they were treating, barely nineteen, and she could see that he was half tucked under the bed, half clinging on to Grace. April gave her a little wave and received a smile in reply. Grace might not be great with blood, but she was proving to be excellent when it came to bedside manner and treating their patients with love and compassion.
Another flurry of bullets pinged overhead, and April set down her tray and clenched her fists to stop them from trembling.
