Author's Note:Originally uploaded Feb 14, 2009. Revised for grammar/consistency on Feb 10, 2018.
July 17th, 1917
Today is my first day as an American Red Cross nurse, stationed in France. Just a few hours ago I saw a man lie in his deathbed. I've never witnessed anyone die before. It was a strange experience for me. I heard from other nurses that he had been wounded in battle at the trenches and could not be treated due to the fact that he was in too dire condition to operate… I have a feeling I'll be seeing much more of these types of victims later in the week. I just hope we can take care of all of them, as most of the soldiers here are sick or wounded severely.
Besides this most utterly happy day (yeah right), I plan to write to Mother soon. She has been worrying and fuming over me nonstop ever since I told her I had volunteered to be a nurse in the war. I just hope that if I do write her a letter that it will get to her… I'm not so sure about the reliability of the postal services. Regardless, I will write to her soon enough.
July 19th, 1917
I met this amazing man with the greenest eyes I have ever seen in my life and was downright handsome if I do say so myself (his name is Edward…). But besides that, my view of the war has been changed greatly today.
Edward told me about life in the trenches… He told me that all the soldiers worked in shifts, always in a rotation, from the camps in the back of the trench to the frontline. Since I don't know how to interpret what he said into a measly diary entry, I'll write his own words from our conversation:
He looked pained when he began, "My unit began fighting this appalling war on the frontline…"
Edward paused grimacing, and continued on, "We were very naive and inexperienced then… Oh what fools we were. Every day we wrapped the shoes on our feet very tightly as not to get water trapped there, because if that happened we'd get what some may call 'trench foot' … a revolting disease in which the foot swells up two to three times its original size."
So far, I had not seen any cases of trench foot at my station but from his description I hope I never have to…
"But that's not all…" Now it was my turn to grimace.
"I've heard rumors that some men, after a long rainfall, have fallen into puddles of mud since it rains so often over here and drowned." He closed his eyes, tilted his head back and groaned. I yelped in surprise and immediately ran to his side,
"Edward! What's wrong? Are you in any pain?"
He looked at me solemnly… "No, not physical pain currently…" Edward paused as though searching for the right words.
"Just… the mere thought of this war…" He sighed.
"But thanks for the concern." He smiled a crooked smile at me and surprisingly, my heart gave a little flip-flop.
I smiled right back at him.
Trying to stop my curiosity about his experiences from barreling out of my mouth, I bit my tongue. (Which now that I think about it, hurt quite a lot…)
He cocks his head to the side and asks why I'm acting so strangely.
"I uh… well… I'm just curious about other things you've witnessed, but I didn't want to ask because I didn't want to inflict any more pain on you…"
He chuckled quietly, "Oh it's okay… You of all people would never be able to inflict any kind of pain on me, er, well, unless you're unbelievably klutzy then there's a problem." He smiled that gorgeous crooked smile of his again and I laughed/internally swooned. (Embarrassingly enough.)
He continued, "Well, I don't want to talk about it too much, but I'll tell you a little bit about no man's land and one of our pursuits…"
He leaned his head back on the pillow and started, "Okay well, no man's land was basically a very, very gruesome place…" He paused.
I looked at him curiously as I waited for him to continue.
"Are sure you really want to know?" I nodded profusely and thought, "better to hear it now – from him – then to hear it from someone else later on…"
He sighed, "Well no man's land is a deserted place between the 0enemy trenches. It's where all the junk, trash, and barbed wire are placed. It was not a very fun place to be, trust me on that one."
"Everyone had to always be on the lookout for enemies during the night because that was prime time for an attack. At any moment we could've had been shot at from above since we were underground in the trenches."
I squirmed internally while thinking about the possibility that this man, Edward could've died, and I never would have been able to meet him…
"In fact, my unit pursued an attack on an enemy line during the night. That battle was actually how I got here." He gestured to the hospital bed.
"All the units stationed in the front took up the challenge of attacking enemy territory. We went through no man's land and many soldiers died there. Just because of all the disease, filth, and open fire."
"When we finally got to the enemy line my mind was blank. All I thought was, aim, shoot, load, aim, shoot, load, over and over. Two hours into the night I was shot in shoulder and here I am." He looked up at me.
"Actually, it was sort of good to get that off my chest." He chuckled and abruptly stopped.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing it's just that, I'm spilling my war stories to you and I don't even know your name." He smiled my now favorite smile.
I laughed putting out my hand to shake and said, "Hello Edward, my name's Bella." His green eyes pierced mine. "It's a pleasure to meet you Bella," He looks me grabs my hand that was intended to shake his and kisses it instead.
- End conversation… -
Didn't think a nurse could have such conversations with patients, could she? Well you thought wrong.
I can't wait until I see Edward again. Maybe he won't figure out how flustered I am around him, and we can keep learning more about each other without any awkwardness. Maybe my life in this war won't be as bad as people make it out to be.