Page 52 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
She nodded. ‘Of course. I was only trying to understand. I’m very passionate about nursing.’
His face was hard to read, but she saw him exchange glances with the anesthetist. ‘April, your job is to listen to what I need and make sure I get what I ask for, but I appreciate your interest.’
Her face burned as if she’d been slapped. Why hadn’t she just kept her mouth shut? But as she prepared to assist the doctor, she couldn’t help but look down at the patient’s strong, muscular legs and wonder if the right decision had been made. Even if there was a risk of having to amputate later, wasn’t it better to do anything possible to save a man’s limbs so he could walk again?
‘I’m sorry for being so forthright,’ she said, apologizing again. The last thing she wanted was to be taken off his service. ‘I truly am grateful to be assisting you.’
This time his smile reassured her, and she wondered if perhaps she’d imagined his irritation.
‘Of course. I can see that you enjoy the procedures and that you’re learning; it’s why I like working with you so much.’
April nodded and breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
‘Saw,’ Dr. Grey said, all business again as he held out his left hand.
April inhaled deeply and reached for the instrument as her heart banged in her chest. ‘Saw,’ she repeated.
And strong stomach or not, she almost heaved all over the floor when the metal teeth snagged flesh on the operating table in front of her. Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked them away as she listened to Dr. Grey issue instructions, his brow slick with sweat as he carved the bone, back and forth, back and forth.
Perhaps she’d been better soothing men on the psych ward.
It had been a quiet night, and April carefully carried cups of water outside for Grace and Eva, balancing the three between her two hands. She’d put as many lemon cubes in the water as she could find to rid it of the hideous chlorine taste, but she doubted even that would make it bearable.
‘Here we go, ladies,’ she said.
They’d all worked ten hours straight so far, with another two to go, but all was quiet on the ward. Some days she went to assist Dr. Grey if he requested her or if there wasn’t a lot to do, but they hadn’t been overrun with injuries so far. And despite the heat and the sticky humidity during the night and her itchy red skin from insects, it hadn’t been as bad as she’d expected.
Although she knew that maybe it was simply the calm before the storm.
‘Don’t you think they’re being a bit overcautious on the chlorine?’ Grace asked, pulling a face. ‘This is revolting.’
‘I know,’ April replied. ‘It’s disgusting. I’d rather not drink, but I think we’d expire over here if we didn’t.’
Eva was staring at the sky, and as April followed her gaze, she slowly lifted an arm, finger pointing.
‘Look.’
There was a noise, something crackling in the air, and as she opened her mouth to ask what it was, the sky lit up in the distance.
‘Oh my lord,’ she whispered, clasping her cup tightly.
‘Should we run?’ Grace asked.
Eva’s hand fell over her arm, and April glanced sideways. ‘No,’ Eva said. ‘It’s miles away. We should watch.’
April was transfixed as the dark night sky was suddenly illuminated by what she could only imagine were their antiaircraft guns shooting at German reconnaissance planes. The bullets seemed never ending, a constant supply of blasts over and over again as they pressed together and watched, sipping their water while planes ducked and dived to escape the torrent.
‘It’s like the most incredible Fourth of July display I’ve ever seen,’ Grace whispered. ‘Is that an awful thing to say?’
April wondered about the pilots, about the young men bravely shooting the enemy down. It brought that day back to her, the sight of the pilots’ faces as they smiled before unleashing hell on everyone, how it felt to be caught up in the terror.Get them,she thought.Get every last one of them.
The sky might have been inky black before, but everything was bright now, the night sky more like a brightly colored child’s drawing than the star-filled darkness of only a few minutes earlier. And April couldn’t take her eyes off it.
But as she took her final sip of water, her arm circling Eva as she thought about the fiancé her friend had lost, the sky suddenly went silent again. No more colors, no more noise, no more fighting. The odd stray gunfire echoed, and then there was nothing.
They stood, silent, still staring, until Eva stirred beside her, clearing her throat and moving away from April’s touch.
‘We need to check our patients,’ Eva said. ‘I’ll bet none of them are asleep now.’
