"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven…."
The hands that were in my own were shaking, shaking like a leaf as I was reciting the Lord's Prayer aloud in the hospital room, my eyes closed and my mind was set on making sure the patient was nothing but at peace. This was my job, I was a nurse and I was supposed to take care of others before myself. I was used to it, I was bred for it. Hell, I knew this was the rest of my life.
My name is Marley La Noux. I am a nurse from the South, mainly Louisiana in the Southern bit where our tone was laced in Cajun and hospitality. I was born and raised on the Louisiana waters, my mother was a nurse before me and my father was a fisherman on boats. They met when my mother was singing in the local church choir and my father was tying to get his own life together. They were merely 18 when they met, and married a year later after careful negotiations from both sides of the family. I came into their lives another year later from being married, having my father's brown and red mixed hair and my mother's freckles and dark green eyes. I was a mixture of both the Southern Cajun French life on my father's side and Irish immigrant life from my mother.
When I was 6 years old, my brother was born, though he was born deaf. We had to learn Sign Language for his sake, though I didn't mind. I was always someone who needed to work with her hands, it felt better for me to do something than to sit and wait. So my brother and I bonded very quickly and were close throughout our childhood years. As for religion, I picked being a Catholic from my mother's side, though my father is still skeptical on religion and God. To this day I wear a saint's pendant on my necklace and my rosary was close to my side, no matter where I went.
It was a simple life, enough for me to learn what it meant to be a nurse. But it was too simple, much more than I needed. When I turned 20 years old, I applied to transfer from being a typical nurse in the local hospital into the army. They needed more nurses there, having me see the hesitance in my parent's eyes when I signed the papers to be an army nurse. But this was something I needed in my life, seeing the normalcy sink in and the hopes of something bigger to happen, something more fulfilling. The army seemed the best bet, then again it meant that I was putting my life on the line. I tried to think of the positive, that the role of the nurse was farther away from the front line of battle and I would be at a hospital away from the battle, nowhere near danger. I was placed on the waiting list for nurses, making me sit and ponder for 3 years if I made the right choice.
I knew I wanted to be a nurse, seeing my mother work with patients in the same hospital I was at when I was merely 23 years old, turning myself to be a old spinster since I myself never had a man in my life. Both of my parents wonder if I was ever going to be married, and I didn't care really. Picturing myself being married to someone, to sit still and not do a thing myself, was not was I had in mind for my life. My mother claimed that it was stubbornness, but my father knew better: a willing and fiery heart.
"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thy is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever." I finished, looking down at the patient whom as fast slew and I smiled, placing his hands back on his chest and then taking his rosary from his hands back onto the nightstand next to him, feeling the cool sea breeze coming into the hospital room that was packed with plenty of patients, some of them were army men that came here on overflow. I walked away from the patient, looking down at my blue uniform, my pale freckles hands were contrasting against the dark blue apron I was wearing. It was a cool day in New Orleans, having me looking out at the setting sun that was coming down over the buildings in the city and realize that my shift was over for the day. It was time to go home. The day was normal enough for me: rewrapping bandages and setting IVs to new patients, along with plenty of paperwork.
"You off, Lanoux?" A co-worker of mine as me, having me look up and see her golden locks frame her face and her crystal blue eyes. She was a beautiful girl, happily engaged to a strong man who worked in the paper business, typical life for a girl our age.
"That I am Jones." I replied with my Cajun accent rang in the air, taking off my apron and folding it over my arm.
"Good to hear, I think you sounded great with that prayer." She explained, having me only smile and tap her on the arm.
"Thank you, Cherie." I said back to her with my french, hearing her giggle as I walk about the door. It felt nice to have the rest of the evening off and to have time on my hands. But before I could even get out of the hospital door in the lobby, I saw someone rushing in the lobby in a frantic rate. It was my own brother, Owen, whom looking rather flushed and rather out of place there in his street clothes. He should have been home since he was done with school for the day and helping my mother with the chores, so this looked rather serious. I waved at him to stop, hearing him breathing rather hard and out of place as he placed his hands on his knees, bent over to try and breath again. He looked more like my mother, dark brown chocolate hair that was short and styled and my father's blue eyes. He was handsome to say the least.
What happened? I signed to him, seeing him blink a few times when he looked at me then, still shaking.
The army is at our house, two captain there. I looked at him as he signed back, his hands moving in a frantic rate. I grabbed his hands, feeling them shake as he grunted with his signing, a typical thing he would do when he was either excited or scared.
Go slow, tell me what it is. I signed to him slowly and smoothly, having me seeing him take another deep breath before giving me a cold stare at me, showing something serious was happening.
They are here for you, Marley.
"You're the new nurse from Louisiana I take it?" Colonel Sink asked me as I was standing in front of him at me a new home: Camp Toccoa. After I was greeted at my home by two Captains, whom found my paperwork and thought of me as a new candidate for the Amry Nurses region at Camp Toccoa, I was sent off within a day with all I had in my pack and my family looking on in tears. I promised I would write, but I knew my life was about to take a new turn for the more exciting and more thrilling. Now there I was, in my new nurse uniform and my long hair in a french braid, down and over the shoulder as I waited for orders and more questions.
"Yes Sir." I replied, hands behind my hands and standing at attention as he looked up at me from his spot.
"Let see now: Learned both French and Sign Language since you were a child, fair marks from schooling and you passing the nurses training as one of the top nurses in your class, let alone in the academy. From what I gathered here in your information, you signed up for transfer into the army about three years ago." He explained, placing my paperwork down in front of him, looking up at me which a stare that made me feel as though I was far too small, "Why would you want to leave New Orleans for the war, La Noux?"
"Never wanted to stay still in one place for too long, sir." I replied, still looking ahead and not giving him eye contact.
"Well, you'll experience that here." He replied, having me feel a small smirk appear on my face. He got up from his spot at the desk, walking over to stand right in front of me.
"We asked you to come here in Camp Toccoa in hopes of having a few more nurses on hand for training and any mishaps that could happen. We will evaluate and watch your work, and if you meet our expectations, then we can talk about having you overseas and working with us in England. Understand?" he asked me, having me feel my insides burst in both excitement and nervousness.
"Yes sir." I replied, seeing him look past me as I heard someone was walking into the cabin.
"Winters, glad you're here. This is our new recruited nurse from New Orleans Louisana: Marley La Noux. Marley, this is our 2nd Lieutenant Richard Winters." I turned and saw who came into the room. He was older than me, maybe in his thirties or forties, but he looked good for whatever age he was. His red hair was shining in the cabin light with his nice face as he smiled at me, having me smile back and hold out my hand for him to shake.
"Pleasure, sir." I said back to him, seeing him shake my hand.
"I heard we were getting another nurse in the camp, none the less a Louisianan." He commented to both myself and Colonel Sink, "Private Roe will be pleased,"
"Roe?" I asked him, noticing that the surname was in fact French. There were a couple of families with the name Roe around New Orleans, so the name was not foreign in the Cajun community
"He's from Louisiana, as well as you, though from another part I think." he explained, "Come on, I'll show you over to him." I followed, staying right behind him as we excited the cabin and went out into the light of the day, cooler than what I was used to back at home and with more trees than the bay area. The cool crisp trees were around the camp. having me see green and hear the chants of the soldiers going o routines and checks. I felt out of place, being a nurse in a sea of men and their orders being taken out.
"How long have you been a nurse, Private La Noux?" he asked me, having me look back in front of me and walk up to be next to him as we pressed on to the medical area.
"5 years sir, since I was 18." I replied to him, seeing him finally look over at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Since you were 18?" He asked amused, having me nod my head at him as if it was nothing, "Golly, never met a nurse who started so young."
"I'm not like other nurses, sir." I replied back to him, still in step with him. We were crossing a big clearing, where a group of soldiers was meeting together and talking to one another with big grins and looking more relaxed. I watched them with my eyes, having me see that they too were new to the army and were training here. I could tell: fresh faces and an optimism in their eyes and stance. But then they all saw me, pointing at me with intrigued eyes and amusement. Was I funny? Did I have something on my face or uniform? Id didn't seem like it since they were surprised that I was a woman here, having me think that they just of not seem a woman in months by now.
"That's Easy Company, I assigned to them. Don't mind them, Private La Noux, they're a ragtag group but with good intentions." Winters explained to me as I still watched them. They were wall talk to each other excitedly about me, I could tell. But one of them wasn't talking, though the others around him were. He looked lanky, compared to the others, with a longer face and a mess of brown hair on his head. He was watching me intently, but his eyes were warmer, as if they were soothing. His stare on me was less of amusement and more of intrigue, as if he was trying to figure me out already. Never before have I had to deal with something like this from another man, never once in my life.
I almost lost my stepping looking back at him, but I looked back ahead of me and saw myself and Winters at the Medical center of the camp. Winters walked into the cabin, having me follow and see the both of us in a small room with hospital beds, tin pans with equipment and all the tools we would need for both the camp and for war. I was pleased to be back in my own element at this point, having me see another private in the cabin rearranging some of the tools on one bed. He had black thin hair, though his face was more stern and serious but he looked gentle enough. Maybe too gentle for the war.
"Private Roe." Winter called, walking down the walk with me behind me. Roe looked over at both Winters and I, having me see him salute Winters quickly before placing the tools on the bed in a certain position before answering Winters.
"Roe, this is the new nurse that came in this morning: Marley La Noux. She's going to train here for Combat Medic out in the field as well as being trained for the army hospitals overseas." Winters explained, then looking over at me, "This is Private Eugene Roe, our Combat Medic for Easy Company. You'll be training with him throughout camp." I held out my hand for him to shake, seeing him arch me with his dark eyes carefully before shaking.
"Pleasure." I said to him, seeing him loo at me now with bigger eyes and a hint of fascination since he heard my Cajun voice.
"You from Louisiana as well?" He asked me, his own Cajun accent was thick in the medical cabin. I as beyond glad to have another Louisianan here in the mist of war, though we weren't even in the heat of it yet.
"New Orleans." I replied back, seeing him grin for the first time since our greeting. Smiling seemed to fit him well as Winters cleared his throat.
"I'll leave you two to get things ready. Dinner is in 1800." He reminded me, having me nod my head at him.
"Yes sir." I replied.
"Roe, show her the ropes and get her ready for training in the morning: 0600." He explained to Roe.
"Sir." he merely replied, having us both watch as Winters walked out of the door and left the both of us there in the medic cabin. It was still new for me, to be in the army as a US army nurse and helping out with the cause. I was in a new element with new trades to learn, but so far it didn't seem so bad as Eugene cleared his throat, clasping his hands together and looking up at me with his serious look again.
"Ready to start?" he asked me, a raised eyebrow at me as I nodded my head. It was now or never, and I and to choose now since I already jumped into the abyss that was the US army.
"Let's get to work."