Chapter XXI
December 1943 arrived and everyone welcomed it gladly, with hope in their hearts that maybe with this December, as the final month of 1943 and the New Year coming after it, the peace will once again inhabit the surface of the Earth. Following the Italy's declaration of the war on Germany in September, everyone's hearts started pounding faster and more optimistically towards the new year of 1944.
Julia was switched into the "recovery" ward and she found it much more relaxing as her main tasks were generally to talk with the soldiers, brighten up their day and check on their wounds, rather than taking care of newly arrived soldiers with many bleeding and opened wounds.
"Your last patient today to check on," Mrs Tate said to Julia on one cold evening just before the end of Julia's duty "Is Mr Niall Harris, on bed number 11." Julia nodded at her and made her way through the corridor.
The man lying on the bed number 11 turned out to be quite a young, good-looking man with fine silky blonde hair, big forehead and very blue eyes, so deep Julia thought she could almost drown in them. And it took just a single smile for her to realize that she is about to meet another kindred spirit. "Hello there, Mr Harris." Julia said and smiled at him, while taking in hand his medical record attached to his bed "How is your leg doing?"
"Still paralyzed, I think." he replied with a sigh. Julia was almost shocked by how simmilar his voice sounded to the voice once belonging to Troy Rogers, but she left the gloomy thought about her long-dead fiancee aside and concentrated on Mr Niall Harris' deep blue eyes instead.
"Just give it a few days, Mr…" she began but was interrupted by Mr Harris.
"Please call me Niall." he said and pointed at the chair next to him "I feel very old when people call me that."
Julia grinned at him warmly and sat down on the offered chair "Alright, Niall. But you also must call me Julia then." she answered and clasped her hands together "Or Bathsheba, or Sheba or just Bath; that's how my friends call me."
Niall chuckled quietly "There's a lot of choice for me then." he said.
"That's quite true." she agreed and smiled again "Tell me, Niall, what happened to your leg? If you don't mind me asking, of course." she said to him affably.
"There was an explosion of a shell in no man's land, somewhere near Dieppe, where I was serving in the trenches." he replied in a matter-of-fact tone "And the doctor said that, because of how I landed after it threw me into the air, I won't be able to feel my leg for about two weeks and then I will have to learn how to walk again, after starting feeling it again." he shrugged then and smiled reassuringly at his companion "Don't you worry, Julia. I'm not the kind of a man who would be devastated by something like this."
Julia grinned "That's good. Because I don't like the 'mummy's boys'." she said and the both of them laughed merrily.
"You're not British, are you?" he asked her suddenly.
"No, I'm Canadian." she replied with pride in her voice "I was born on Prince Edward Island."
Niall's eyes widened in surprise "That's where my grandparents from my mother's side live!" he said cheerfully.
"So it makes you half-Canadian then!" Julia exclaimed excitedly and Niall nodded with just as much enthusiasm.
"Yes, my mum was born there and in the First War she served as a VAD in London's hospital, she met my Dad there, she moved to London after the war. They married of course and have lived there ever since." he explained.
"Oh, that sounds like quite a romantic story." Julia answered with a funny grin on her face.
"It really is." he agreed "Dad loves to talk about it." he chuckled.
"And do you have your own romantic story to tell?" Julia asked mischievously.
"No, I'm as free as a bird!" Niall laughed and so did Julia "But what about you, Miss Julia...?" he asked her.
"Blythe. Julia Blythe." she replied with a smile "And, it's quite a complicated and a very long story when it comes to me and love." Julia said feeling how her cheeks turn red under the sudden wave of hotness flowing across her body.
"I'm sure you will tell me one day." he said with a hope in his voice.
"I will." she answered "Because I know that you are one of the people who know the race of Joseph." she smiled at him knowingly.
"I like this phrase." he responded joyfully "And I'm sure that you for me, as well, are one of the people who know the race of Joseph."
And so, from that day on, Julia and Niall spent every afternoon together, joined by Olive and Amelia, and the four of them had the most wonderful time together.
Julia discovered many things about Niall for example that he was from central London but had half of his family on Prince Edward Island, in Charlottetown. He was altogether a charming fellow of twenty-eight, who liked poetry and the same music as Julia did. He was a very talented painter as well. Julia even described him in her letter to Blythe as a "perfect combination of Gilly's sense of humour and Owen's modesty". Julia, Olive and Amelia simply adored him. And he adored them.
But most of all Niall adored Julia. She interested him, especially by the way she looked at things and her bright optimism and independent will. He was, with their every evening spent together, falling more and more in love with her. However he decided on not showing it off to her, yet.
One evening in the middle of December, Julia, Olive and Amelia were sitting on Niall's bed and they were all chattering, about everything and nothing in particular at the same time. It was already dark outside but they didn't even notice it. Their laughter echoed from the walls of the tent under they all were and the cold air from outside somehow was avoiding their small circle of friendship. Other soldiers surrounding them also were enjoying themselves by playing cards together, singing and talking as well. If it wouldn't be a hospital ward, and the soldiers wouldn't be in the hospital-clothes, someone would think it was almost a cafe-meeting.
"I really admire you girls, you know." Niall said to them all of a sudden.
"What do you admire us for?" Olive asked him curiously "How beautiful we all are?" she joked and the four of them laughed joyfully.
"Yes," he chuckled "-but also for what you are doing for all of us, soldiers."
"'There are things which have to be done," Julia replied with a soft smile crossing her face "-but not everyone can do them.' That's what Blythe wrote to me in one of his letters I got last month." she said and looked at the floor for a moment, with her mind being somewhere else instead.
Olive saw this feeling on Julia's face and put her hand gently on Julia's own with tenderness in her eyes "That's a wonderful thought, dear." she said and grinned to her warmly.
"Yes, it really is." Niall agreed "You are all so brave."
"But what about you?" Amelia said suddenly "Aren't soldiers even braver than us, do you think?"
"No," Niall replied slowly "We aren't really. I mean we are in a way. It's just not the right way of bravery, I suppose. To kill other people." he said the last bit with a strange look appearing in his blue eyes, which neither of the girls didn't see before.
"But doesn't it make you even braver?" Julia asked him "Because it's not the most honorable thing to do, it makes it even harder for you to do it and that's how it makes you even braver." she smiled to him and he smiled back with his shining, loving eyes.
"Nurse Blythe!" the annoyed voice of Mrs Tate from the corridor filled up the whole room. All soldiers in the room fell silent and looked at the tubby figure of Mrs Tate coming towards Julia in fast movements.
Julia rolled her eyes theatrically "Here we go again." she whispered to her friends and turned around to face her Matron "Yes, Mrs Tate?"
"You were supposed to go and unload the new pack of supplies that arrived two hours ago!" Mrs Tate said with her red chubby face.
Julia's eyes went wide with embarrassment "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mrs Tate! I completely forgot!" she apologised quickly.
"So it seems…" she murmured to herself "Go and fetch it, now!" she pointed at the door quickly and Julia almost jumped to go there.
"Immediately!" she shouted from the door and came outside, hearing the sound of laughter behind her back. And she laughed herself, while walking towards the van standing a little outside the camp with three big packs of new bandages, morphine and other medications inside them. Julia took one of them in her hands and almost right away dropped it back to its place. "Mrs Tate didn't mention that it's so heavy…" she said to herself but managed to hold it up again.
Suddenly, while she started walking towards her ward, which was almost on the other side of the camp, she noticed something very weird in the distance, on the sky. She stopped in her actions, put down the pack on the ground and looked at the sky closely by putting a hand on her forehead. There were about six little shining spots which were moving constantly and getting bigger and bigger with every second. And with them came the sound which provoked Julia's face to turn snowy white. Her hazel eyes went even darker than they already were and her hands started shaking nervously.
"The bombs!" she screamed and started running towards the nearest ward "Turn off the lights! The bombs!" she screamed but it was too late. The bomb was dropped from the German airplane around forty feet away from where Julia was standing. The loud "bang!" filled up the air, and Julia was thrown into the air. She landed exactly in the big puddle of mud and water and she laid there, under a complete shock, not being able to hear or to do anything.
It seemed to her as if the whole world around her stopped and stood completely still. Her forehead was pulsing and her thoughts were entirely blank. She was staring at the space in front of her, at the big hole in the ground where the first bomb was dropped and then in the second one where the second bomb was dropped. She thought that it was just a dream, that something like this could never happen to her, never, and just in a blink of an eye she was in the middle of horror of the war. But she started hearing everything again when the sirens gave out their loud, terrifying cry.
"Oh, God!" she shouted and stood up quickly from the ground, not realising that she was covered in mud from head to toe "Help! Help!" she started shouting with a horror on her face, and looking for anyone who was outside the camp.
Suddenly she found a man lying on his front side, with his back also covered in mud "Sir! Sir!" she ran to him and started turning him around quickly "Are you alright…?" she began but as soon as she saw his deathly face, she left him with fast pounding heart and ran to the first tent, which happened to be her own ward, which she left just a few minutes earlier. It happened to be very near where the bomb was dropped. The tent was lying flat on the ground, and when she saw it, her heart was beating with an enormous speed and milions of questions were tumbling inside her worried head. She knew that that night will be the longest of her entire life.
"Is anyone hurt?" she shouted when she lifted up the material of what was once her ward and she looked in the darkness inside.
"Nurse…" a man lying on the ground moaned. Julia couldn't see his face but rushed immediately to the place where the sound of his voice was coming from.
"Don't worry, Sir." she said to him sternly "I'll help you." and she put his arm around her shoulders and in a wobbly way, took him outside of the tent "Someone help me!" Julia shouted in despair, while looking around for stretchers of which location she was always aware but in this very moment she couldn't remember where they were at all. Then Julia's mind started working properly again and she thought about Olive, Amelia and Niall, inside the tent. Her eyes grew wider with fear and she felt as if she could just sit down and cry for the rest of the night. I have to take care of this man first. Olive and others are fine. she thought to herself, but hardly belived in it.
"Nurse! Nurse!" the figure of a man started sprinting towards Julia and the soldier who was hanging on her arm.
Julia sighed with relief "General Knowles! Thank Goodness!" she gasped and let herself smile at him "Are you alright?" she asked caringly.
"Yes, yes, perfectly fine." he stammered while looking at the tent behind Julia with real seriousness in his eyes "Do you need any help?" he asked.
"I need every helpful hand I can get." she answered sternly "Take all of the stretchers out and lay them here." she ordered, pointing on the ground in front of her.
"On the ground?" he asked, surprised.
"Yes!" she exclaimed "Now! Hurry!" she said and sighed helplessly. And so Julia and General Knowles were slowly getting out all of the soldiers from the "recovery" ward, and with every minute more and more nurses and doctors ran to help them, and help the other soldiers from different wards as well.
Although Julia wasn't the Head Nurse and certainly didn't behave like one through all her years while she had been working as a nurse, she definitely was the Head Nurse and Matron in one person that night. She was giving out orders to the other nurses and even the doctors, nursing herself and being everywhere and for everyone who needed help. Mrs Tate unfortunately couldn't help Julia because of her leg which was broken after the tent fell on the ground. All she could do was to lay on one of the stretchers and just look at the total mess and chaos in front of her.
"Bath!" a fammiliar voice filled up the stiff air.
Julia put down the next soldier on the stretcher and turned around "Olive! Amelia!" she shouted in the brightest voice she had ever spoken in when she saw two of her friends running towards her with their opened arms. The three friends ran to each other with tears strimming down their faces and shoutings of joy coming out of their mouths.
"Oh, you're both fine! You're both fine!" Julia cried when she was being hugged by both Olive and Amelia nearly to the loss of her breath.
"Yes, we are." Olive cried back "But…" she dryed off her tears from her cheeks and looked closer at Julia's uniform "What has happened to you?" she asked.
Julia looked down on her clothes and only then she realized in what condition they actually were. She chuckled, "I landed in the puddle of mud when the bomb dropped."she said and she continued on laughing as if she just said the funniest thing in the world. And both Olive and Amelia seemed to get the joke and the three of them laughed light-heartedly.
"But what happened to you?" Julia asked them after a few seconds when they calmed themselves down.
"We were all in the tent when the bomb dropped." Amelia explained "Nothing at all happened to us except for some bruises we got when the tent went down. The poorest men were those who had their beds near the entrance to the tent." she sighed wistfully.
"I know." Julia agreed sadly "Four men died. And that's just our ward, I don't know what happened to the others in the other wards." she said and then looked behind her hurriedly "I have to go now, please find Niall for me." she said and when they nodded, she ran back to her duties. Niall was found and he was unhurt, and to everyone's biggest surprise his leg, which has been paralyzed for over one month, was now coming back to its normal form.
The action of recovering all of the soldiers from every ward, putting up all of the tents again and cleaning up inside, took the rest of the night and some of the morning as well. Julia was organising everyone and actually made quite a good team with Mrs Tate who even though was lying on one of the stretchers, was watching closely not only Julia but everyone else as well. Olive and Amelia also nursed and helped other soldiers who has been hurt that night.
All in all, when the sunrise started to spread across the pink sky, Julia eventually felt that she had no strength left in her body and sat down by Mrs Tate who was by then enjoying her coffee. "You did an incredible job today, Nurse Blythe." she said to her almost as soon as Julia sat down by her, with half-opened eyes.
Julia smiled at her faintly "It's just my duty, that's all…" she started sheepishly.
"Oh, no, Nurse Blythe." Mrs Tate argued "It's definitely much more. General Knowles told me about your bravery and your immediete actions you took, straight after the bombing. You can be very proud of yourself." she gently patted her on the arm.
"Everyone would do the same in my place." Julia replied softly, with pink cheeks.
"Believe me, not everyone. And you helped not only your ward, but all the others as well!" she answered and then smiled at her warmly "Now, you go to bed and take a two days leave. You deserve it." she said in a decided tone.
Julia stood up slowly and grinned to her "No, Mrs Tate, firstly, I'm going to take off my clothes and take a long, warm shower." she replied.