I remember very well my first encounter with her when I was training to be a Nurse at the London. I had never really taken a special interest in anyone in my life, not even famous singers or stars of the silver screen. I mean, I could appreciate beauty in them, but it was never something I dwelled upon for long. Some might think that strange, but I guessed it would take someone exceedingly special to get my attention. When it did happen it was instant, it was lovely and it was very surprising. And quite unsettling when I realised just quite what it meant.
It was my first time away from home, my mam and Wales. I loved my family and I was happy in the rolling hills where I grew up, they were all I had known and I would have stayed there forever if it weren't for me reaching the end of my high school education.
The longer I stayed in the house with my parents, the more I became aware of a feeling that if I wasn't careful, I might not end up being the architect of my own future and happiness. I had always been allowed to freely do as I pleased as long as it was within the realms of decency, but that was more to do with adventures in the countryside than real life decisions about my future. That was something I'd never had to think of before. But I was older now and I'd seen it with some of my friends who were beginning to, somewhat inevitably, do what their parents had done and their parents before them. Getting married and settling down to a life of producing babies and washing dishes wasn't for me just yet, I was most definitely not ready. Quite aside from the fact that there was no-one I would want to marry in my town, I'd never thought of anyone in that way let alone have thoughts of marriage to them. I knew I had to escape before the horrifying prospect of being proposed to by someone from school.
So it was, after seeing an advertisment in Dad's paper, that I very quickly made a decision to become a nurse and go to London. It was out of character and not thought through but it was all I could think of to delay the inevitable. Mam didn't approve, of course – she had my life all set in her imagination but the twinkles in dad's eyes easily betrayed his pride in his daughter and her small rebellion against her Mam; I suspect the only reason I was allowed to go was because of him. He just wanted me to be happy and I'm sure my desperation was not lost on him.
Upon arriving in London my senses were overloaded with new experiences; my eyes were continually finding themselves widened by new things I'd never seen or imagined before. For all the stories I'd heard and dreams I'd had about London, the realities were quite different. The devastation of the war was still very apparent and it was sometimes shocking. Parts of London were still under piles of rubble and seemingly, so were some of it's people, some of whom were in desperate circumstances – such a far cry from what I had ever known and it made me feel lucky; it also justified my hasty decision. I knew I had made the right decision to come to London and use my enthusiasm to help in some way. At first it was a little hard to get used to, my country girl sensibilities were heightened by all the different things I was being exposed to in this new world. Everything was bigger, louder and faster. Coupled with the new, sometimes grotesque, things I was learning about the human body in Nurses training, it really was dizzying sometimes. Though quite different to what I was used to, I relished the change of pace, it was exhilarating in the same way a brisk trek through the Welsh countryside always is.
I made friends with the other trainees at The London easily, I never had a problem making friends. Generally I liked people and the girls were nice. No one stood out terribly much as being a potential best friend, not that I was looking. None were like my friends from home, these girls were much more wordly, some had been through terrible things that come with war, seen things that they were too young to see, things I had only heard about but not quite believed to be true in the relative safety of the far coast of Wales. Despite this, their company and conversation was mostly carefree and easy, we laughed very much about the goings on in training and it made the whole thing more fun.
We were split into groups and each group were assigned to a specific Doctor and a trained nurse each morning and were to follow them on the daily rounds. We had been doing this since the first day and it became quite a useful learning experience getting around different departments of the hospital. It was during this exercise when I was unusually distracted from the doctors summing up of one particular patients ailment. Another group of trainees had seemingly caught up to ours and had entered the room preceded by the mixed sounds of heels clomping on the parquet floor and hushed whispers and giggles. I turned to see them enter just when they were filing into the room following their doctor. I was about to turn my attention back to the doctor and his description of dressing an ulcer when I saw her glide through the door. Time sort of stopped or seemed to slow right down. My eyes widened, she was unlike anyone I'd ever seen before, astonishingly tall and with such an air of stature about her that I couldn't possibly take my eyes from her – quite apart from the colour of her hair which, when I thought about it later – felt it could not be real it was so vibrantly red.
I'm afraid I must have been gawping a little because when she looked over to us before arriving at the hospital bed the group surrounded, she gave me a wondrously amused half smile that made me catch my breath. My heart seemed to just stop and I wondered if I was about to faint. After a few agonizingly slow seconds I came to, I snapped my mouth shut and swallowed hard. I was sure I had reddened and all of a sudden I had become very aware of how I was standing. I shifted onto my heels, turned back to the doctor who was beginning to make a move for the door and tried to compose myself. I made to follow the group but my body felt quite odd, like I wasn't in control of it, as I reached the door I turned my head to the other group of trainees searching for the hair that I knew would reveal another glimpse of her before I had to go on. As I did I caught her eye, began to smile and promptly walked into the girl in front of me who had stopped to let a doctor through, much to the redheads further amusement. Completely embarrassed now, I slipped out of the room feeling quite humiliated.
A/N. this is my first fic, be gentle.