Joseph Liebgott had returned to battalion CO with a bunch of German prisoners and a shrapnel wound at the base of his neck. Silly bastard hadn't even noticed until someone had pointed it out to him. I sat on my haunches and rested my elbows on his knees to stabilise myself. "Turn your head that way" I asked, gently pushing it to the right. I poured some of the pungent liquid onto a cotton pad and began to wipe his wound.
"THE HELL ARE YOU CLEANING THAT WOUND WITH, ACID?!"
"Goddamn it, Lieb, are you gonna sit still?"
I not-so-gently tugged out the shrapnel, ignoring the many profanities hurled in my general direction. "Keep it to yourself buster, I'm only trying to help." I got this kind of treatment from most of the soldiers,but let it slide. Hey, you wouldn't be the cheeriest guy ever if you had half of a leg, would you? I sat back and stared at the wound, wondering if I should put a little sulpha on it, just in case. For someone who was such a scrawny little runt he must've been very strong metally to ignore that wound, it looked pretty painfull. As did all of the men, he reeked of stale sweat and cigarettes, mixed with the coppery smell of blood. He was caked in mud Although he could use a shave. And a shower...
"Hey,lady, less starey, more cleany, I have places to be."
"I'm gonna bandage you up, then you're free to go. And my name's Rita" I murmured, getting my bearing again, whilst checking over the cut one last time to make sure it was totally clear of any stray pieces of metal. "Pass us the aid bag?"
Joe sighed and leaned across to retrieve my satchel.
"So where the fuck are you from? Your accent is fucking crazy" he said. I smiled to myself slightly as I started to wrap the bandage around his neck. I had been expecting that one for a while, every conscious patient I had attended to had asked about my funny accent.
"I'm from Scotland, originally"
"Then what in god's name are you doing in Holland?"
"I lived in Germany as a teen, and as soon as Hitler came to power my parents moved here. For the love of Christ, would you hold still!"
"Jesus, sorry! So why did your parents choose-FUCKING OW- why did they choose Eindhoven?"
"We had family here so we decided to -JOE!" I screamed as he sneezed, jerking forward and tearing the skin around his wound open. Again.
"Fuck, you got blood all over my fucking shirt!"
"If you don't die from this wound going sceptic first, I'm gonna kill you myself" I half shouted as his cut began to bleed heavily. "Sit still or I swear to god I'll send you back to the front line like this..."
"Bite me." He said, lighting up a cigarette. I grinned and got out another cotton pad and unwound another bandage. I would take great pleasure in this...
"What the fuck are you grinning about?"
"Joke's on you, asshole, this means I need to clean the wound again"