Chapter X

"Journeys on the train are so incredibly fascinating; although you move so fast, you see so much more details of the world from the other side of the window than you would normally see if you were staring at it from just few inches away." Blythe once told Julia when he came back from his first year in Redmond. And Julia couldn't think of anything else but what he told her, when she sat down in her cabin on the train.

She couldn't sit still, she just couldn't wait for her first day as a VAD. Her mind was overfilled with the view from the train window and going on the ship and seeing London… But most of all she couldn't wait to experience helping others. She knew that she will be horrified by the sights she will see, her Mother told her all about the time when she was a VAD in the First War, but Julia knew that it was war after all and these men needed help. Her help.

She also hoped that maybe she will be able to meet up with Gilly who was fighting bravely in London and thereabouts. His General send a private letter to Mr and Mrs Ford a week earlier telling them that Gil truly is one of the bravest and organised men in his division. And Merry with Jake were somewhere in Iceland, in the place Julia could never remember the name of. She was so glad that at least they had each other, and Marshall Douglas as well of course.

"Now, if anything, even the slightest injury will happen to them, I will be there to help them." Julia thought to herself and grinned with satisfaction. Of course she was still afraid of many things, it would be quite impossible not to be afraid when you're going straight into the centre of the war, but Julia managed not to think about the things that scared her most of the time.

"I wonder if my roommates will become my kindred spirits?" Julia thought "Or if our Matron will be nice? Or if the wounded soldiers will be very frightened? Or if there will be bombing day after day?" she shook her head reprimanding herself "Stop thinking about such things, Julia Una Blythe!"

And indeed she stopped, not because she told herself to do so but because, while looking out of her window, she saw a…

"-Ship!" she gasped and jumped from her seat, walking towards the door of her cabin.

Merry, Troy, Jake and Gilly. They all saw the ocean before and each of them described it to Julia but she found it very much different from everything they all told her. She thought it was so calm and yet so strong and… musical. She always loved the sound of waves but she never heard it the way she did on her journey across the Atlantic.

Julia was very glad that her Mother wasn't around her for she would be terrified by the amount of time her daughter spent outside, looking at the ocean before her. During this four-days at sea, Julia found it very comforting to seat outside and close her eyes and just think and dream. Dream about everything and anything she wanted to dream about. Each evening she would write in her newly started war-diary every new thing she thought about and wanted to do, somewhere in the future. "I want to travel. I want to go to every country in the world. I want to learn new languages. I want to learn how to be patient. And how to cook, properly.".

However she didn't allow herself to dream about love and… well… Blythe. It hurt her too much to even think about him in that way again because every single time Blythe came up on her mind, she would think about the day during summer when she saw him kissing Cornelia goodbye. It was like a knife put in the softest part of her heart, but she hid it, very gracefully, from everyone.

Julia didn't even notice when those four days went and so when she saw the famous white cliffs at Dover, she couldn't help but running outside, like a little girl, and letting her eyes eat the view in front of her. "Here I am England! I am ready for you! Are you ready for me?" she whispered to the cliffs. And for a moment she thought that the breeze that just hit her face brought a quiet answer: "Yes.".

Dear Mother, Father and Cee,

I am officially in London! I think that I will never quite believe that I'm really here, it is a completely different world. It's so crowded and full of places I only heard about from newspapers, magazines and Troy's stories. It's such a lovely city, full of history which I intend to discover soon!

You probably heard about the Blitz? And that the Germans are throwing bombs all over London every single day? Yes, it is all true unfortunately, but don't you worry about me, our Matron showed us the shelter and how to use it and so I'm fully prepared for all the bombs Germans are in the possesion of, and I promise you, I'm safe. Thank Goodness, since the three hours ago when I arrived in London, no bombing occured!

It's almost midnight but I don't care about the time in the slightest bit, because I'm not tired at all! Besides, Olive, my room-mate has her own torch and we both write to our families now with a turned on torch standing in the middle of my night table. Olive Jones is my bosom friend already. She is my age and she is from Surrey, where her whole family is from. Olive has a round but thin face with a funny pointy chin, skinny nose and lips, and very dark eyes which I think are almost entirely black. She has dark brown curly hair, just like Aunt Nan's. Olive is as crazy as I am and she adores my nickname greatly, but she preferes to call my "Bath". It really seems as if we knew each other forever.

My other room-mate, Claire Babineux (her father was born in Paris) is… well, as Rose would probably describe her, "a perfect porcelain doll", in every meaning of this phrase. She is nice, or rather, tries to be nice, but constantly fails in it. Her make-up accessories and jewellery take up the whole table we have to share between the three of us! But she is beautiful and that leads me to a question: why is it always that the most annoying people are also the most beautiful?

At least I have my Olive, who hates make-up just as much as I do! However she uses a lipstick "so that people can see that I do have lips!" she said to me today.

Mum probably asks if our room is clean and big; the answer is: yes, it is Mother-dear. Not necessarily as big as I would imagine it to be for three people to live in but it's big enough for us. Our Matron, Mrs Ashby, is a fat and old grumpy woman. I know that it's quite harsh of me to say so but oh, if you could see her face this evening when all the other girls and I came, you would know why I described her so.

Speaking of a devil, Mrs Ashby just came into the room and discovered we're still writing letters although the others are fast asleep… I have to go to bed now. My day-duty starts at six in the morning and ends at six in the evening so I suppose that even if I'm not sleepy at all, I have to get some rest.

Cross your fingers for me for tomorrow, will you? (I know that you won't get my letter before tomorrow but please keep your fingers crossed for me anyway)

I'll write tomorrow!

And the day after tomorrow!

Your loving daughter and sister,

Julia Una Blythe

"Julia, wake up! Wake up!" Claire shaked her room-mate in despair and looked at the clock hurriedly.

"What time is it?" Julia asked sleepily while rubbing her eyes and slowly sitting up on the corner of her bed.

"We have half an hour to get ready, girls!" Olive shouted from their bathroom.

Julia gasped and stood up quickly, making her way towards her uniform which was hanging on the door handle. Olive stormed out of the bathroom while putting on her shoes. She smiled to Julia and kissed her on the cheek quickly while she was getting out of her night-gown.

"Morning, morning!" Olive greeted her and put the small two sandwiches on Julia's night table.

"Oh, thank you so much, dear, for bringing me breakfast!" Julia grinned at Olive knowingly.

"That was me who brought you breakfast but I'll say: you're always welcome." Claire replied coldly while putting on her mascara in front of the mirror.

Julia and Olive exchanged their looks "Don't say things you don't mean, Claire." Julia responded and came into the bathroom, leaving Claire with a confused expression on her face.

"Are you ready, nurses?" Mrs Ashby asked all twenty-five new girls standing in front of her in line, some of them scared to bones, others positively excited.

Julia was somewhere in the middle and she clearly didn't hide it. She was very excited and she felt ready for everything at last. However she still felt this weird, unpleasant feeling in her stomach whenever she thought about all the soldiers she will have to nurse, it was not the fear exactly, it was just the uncertainty of what the new day may bring to her. Olive, who was holding Julia's hand tightly, belonged to the 'positively excited' girls, whereas Claire was probably the only one who didn't really belong to any of the groups.

The Matron turned around, opened the main entrance door and said in a matter-of-fact tone: "Off you go, then.". All of them marched inside, in their cleaned, white uniforms into a complete chaos, moaning, agony, dirt and blood.

Somehow, while Julia was doing her job with putting on bandages, holding soldiers' hands, giving them medicines, cleaning them and constantly running up and down for the whole twelve hours (except for the twenty minutes long lunch when no one talked to each other but was eating as quickly as they could), she didn't feel scared but she was really into in what she was doing. It was when she finally got out of her uniform and sat down on her bed with Olive sitting beside her, when she realised what she saw that day.

Men without legs, arms or even faces in total agony, screaming in pain for every help they could get. It was her first day as a VAD and she already saw death, and what was the reason for death for these poor soldiers. She was too busy to think about them during the day, to think that any of these boys mean so much to someone else just as much as Merry, Jake or Gilly meant to her. Her head was pulsing and in that moment she really wanted to just pack up her suitcases and go back to P.E Island.

But she wouldn't do it even if she could. She knew what her duty was and that it's just the beginning of it and that it would be just an act of cowardice, to run away at the very beginning. And Julia certainly wasn't a coward.

"Are you alright, Bath?" Olive asked her tenderly, when she sat down by her side on Julia's bed.

"Oh my God…" Julia murmured and felt how tears started to form in her eyes "Olive…" she breathed out eventually and she quickly found herself in her friend's arms.

"I know, I know." she said to her calmly, stroking Julia's red curls.

"I can't believe what I saw today." Julia said once again, trying to hold back the tears in her eyes, but failing in doing so.

"It's war, Julia, what did you expect?" Claire said mockingly when she sat down on her bed, in front of both Julia and Olive, with tea in her hands.

Julia turned her head towards Claire with angry eyes "Why are you so emotionless?" she asked her and dryed off the tears from her wet cheeks.

"I'd rather be emotionless than as frustrated as you are right now." Claire answered her sternly, putting a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Frustrated!" Julia exclaimed and stood up from her seat "How can I not be frustrated, tell me, Claire? Did you have your eyes open today? Did you see these men…" she said passionetely, with her hands shaking.

"I did and what?" Claire interrupted her and stood up as well, facing Julia with red face "Why should I cry for them? Do you think they want us to feel sorry for them?" she put her hands on her hips and looked at Julia angrily.

"Stop, Claire!" Olive outbursted "Just stop!" she looked at her room-mate with disappointment in her eyes and took Julia's hand in hers. Claire obeyed and made her way towards the bathroom with a towel in her hand, leaving the two of her room-mates hugging each other tightly, hoping that the horrors of the war will end just as soon as they came into their lives.

The clock in Julia's room stroked midnight when the sound of the war alarm siren, which was horrifying for everyone, filled up the air of London. Julia, Olive and Claire opened their eyes immediately and jumped out of their beds, facing each other with fear in each of their eyes.

Julia's heart was beating fast, she was never so scared before. She knew that the Blitz didn't finish yet, but she didn't realise the real danger connected with it until this very second. She thought about her family, her home, her childhood, her whole life; everything appeared in front of her eyes and she thought for a moment that it was all her imagination, there was no bombing, no war, no pain. But then she blinked and looked out of the window from the corner of her eye. The sky was dark, pitch-black almost, but its peacefulness was interrupted by the lights somewhere not exactly far away. She shuddered again.

"This is it, then?" Julia said in a shaking voice. Claire nodded slowly and that was when they heard the sound of all the other girls running through the corridor outside their door.

"Hurry up, then, you two!" Olive said and took Claire's and Julia's hands in hers, opening the door quickly. When they almost reached their shelter, they heard the explosion not very far away from them. The girls screamed as one voice and started pushing one another to the shelter's door. The room was very overcrowded, filled up with nurses at their night-duty, soldiers who could walk (because those who couldn't were left in their beds) and the girls in their night-gowns.

When the door in front of them was closed, Julia sighed with relief and smiled gently to Olive who as an answer squeezed her arm "Do you have any music, perhaps?" Olive asked outloud and some of the people chuckled.

"We didn't really think of bringing music, Nurse Jones!" one of the soldiers said cheerfully.

"Oh, I completely forgot about my portable radio!" Julia gasped in despair "Gosh, I left everything in our room!" she put her both hands on her mouth.

"Don't worry, they won't throw a bomb on our hospital." Olive said with a total certainty in her voice.

Suddenly Claire kissed Julia's cheek and took her hands on hers "I'm sorry, Julia, for everything I said to you today, I didn't really mean it, I'm just really bad in talking about my feelings. Will you forgive me?" she asked her with a pale face.

Julia smiled at her and squeezed her hands gently "There's nothing to forgive, Claire, and remember that you can always tell me anything you want and I'll keep it a secret." she whispered and winked at her knowingly.

"Thank you." Claire managed to say and grinned, even though she felt how the ground above her started shaking.

And so Julia spent the next two hours in the shelter, having Olive under her right arm and Claire under her left arm. And for the first time during the day she felt that, after all, everything will turn out just fine "-and that kindred spirits really aren't so hard to find!" she thought with a grin on her lips.