Page 88 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
She recoiled, his anger so raw she could feel it radiating from him.
‘You don’t want anyone to help you?’ She seethed, digging her nails deep into her palms as she balled them even tighter. ‘You want to sit here all on your own? You want your skin to fester as sores spread across your body from being stuck in here? Your stomach to scream out in hunger when no one brings you food? To suffer here, alone?’
Tears were silently dripping down her cheeks, some of them curling into her mouth, tasting like salt as she caught them with her tongue. All these months she’d been desperate to cry, to just feel something instead of being numb, and it had taken the worst patient in history to finally push her over the edge. She’d thought she was okay with Arthur, that he at least respected her enough to let her do his work, but he was just bullying her all over again, and she wasn’t going to accept it, especially not on Charlie’s birthday!
‘Leave me,’ Arthur said, but his voice lacked weight this time. ‘Just leave me.’
‘No!’ she snapped, marching over to the wheelchair she’d had sitting there waiting for him, the chair that he’d refused to use. ‘You’re getting in here today whether you like it or not.’
He stared at her, and she stared straight back at him. All her anger and all her frustrations were pouring from her as if from a cloud finally bursting with rain.
‘I saved you. I sat beside you. I cared for you,’ she huffed, yanking back his sheets as she ranted. ‘I refused to let you die, and I didn’t do that to let you sit here and rot!’
For the first time, he didn’t snap back at her. He just stared, wide eyed, as she gestured at the wheelchair. She probably looked like a madwoman, flinging her arms around and verbally assaulting him, but she didn’t care. She was not going to see a capable, strong, handsome man wither away and die just because he wouldn’t try.
‘Get in,’ she ordered, holding his arm and preparing to drag him out of his bed if she had to. ‘Or I can get a corpsman to come and help.’
‘I’ll do it,’ he said, his words low as he pushed himself up into a straight sitting position. ‘I don’t need your help.’
She hesitated, her anger slipping away as he lifted up, grunting with the effort and shuffling over to the side of the bed. He was using his leg, which was almost completely healed now, doing what he should have been trying to do weeks ago. She quickly reached out, grabbing his arm as he slipped.
‘Let go of me!’ he snapped. ‘I said I’ll do it.’
Eva recoiled, breathing a sigh of relief as he lowered himself, almost in the chair, almost safe.
No!
Eva lunged forward just as Arthur tipped forward, grabbing at him and tripping over the tilted chair as he crashed toward the ground. She half broke his fall, but even without one leg he was a big man, much too heavy for her to catch on her own.
They landed with a thump, her breath punching out of her lungs, winded as she lay in a tangled mess with Arthur.
‘Get the hell away from me!’ he yelled. ‘This is all your fault!’
‘My fault?’ she gasped, shoving at him, her hands to his chest as she pushed him back, all sympathy she’d felt for him disappearing. ‘My fault?’ she repeated, louder this time.
He glared at her.
‘This is allyourfault,’ she screamed. ‘It’s your fault that you’ve been stuck in that bed for months, acting like a spoiled, petulant child!’ Hysteria took over, rising inside of her, and she wished she could clasp her fingers around his neck and strangle him. ‘You think losing a leg is the worst thing in the world? My Charlie would have doneanythingto live, but he’s dead, Arthur. Dead!’ she yelled. ‘As innevercoming back!’
Arthur didn’t move. His eyes fixed on hers, staring at her as if he were seeing her for the first time.
‘Iwould have done anything to keep him alive,’ she whispered, her voice cracking. ‘Iwouldn’t have cared if he didn’t have either of his legs; I just wish he’d lived. Do you hear me? I wish he’dlived.’
She choked on a wave of tears, her eyes blurred as hands tucked beneath her arms and pulled her up, her throat hot as she sobbed.
‘I hate you!’ she whispered, looking at Arthur on the floor, barely able to make out his face through her tears. ‘Ihateyou.’
‘Shhh,’ the person holding her said, drawing her closer. ‘Shhh, come on; let’s go.’
Eva turned and saw Grace, her smile kind as she led her out of the hospital, holding her tight to her side as they walked down rows of beds until they were out in the fresh air. Emotion shattered her body like glass breaking into shards, tears engulfing her as she leaned into Grace, sinking to the ground outside their tent when they finally reached it.
‘What’s going on?’ she heard April say.
But she couldn’t even see her. Her eyes were too clouded, her heart too broken.
‘I need to go back,’ Grace said. ‘Can you look after her?’
A fresh set of arms embraced Eva, and she clung to April’s familiar shoulders as her body heaved, the tears still a flood that she hadn’t a hope of stopping.
