After the short ferry ride and brisk walk, Evelyn and Lena went through the bronze revolving door at Ninety, Church Street, and made their way up to the third floor. Standing in the hallway was an array of people, mostly young men, but there were a few women, too, some had crisp, white nurse's uniforms peeking out from the navy and gray of winter coats.
"I guess this is the place." Lena said, leaning against the wall.
"I guess so." Evelyn replied, casting a glance at all the faces around her.
They waited for a few minutes, more men coming in from outside, shaking snow from their shoulders and hats, before a uniformed man opened the door and the group filed into the room silently. The room was small, usually used for business meetings. There were no chairs, only a podium and the American flag at one end. The uniformed man stood at the podium and took a piece of paper from his breast pocket, laying it flat before him. He adjusted his glasses on the tip of his nose.
"Good morning. We'll get through this quickly so please quiet down." The man spoke with a gruff voice that reminded Evelyn of her grandfather who used to used to recite A Visit from Saint Nicholas every Christmas Eve until he passed.
"Now would you all raise your right hands and repeat after me," There was a rustle of coat sleeves as all those in the room raised their hands. "I, state your name…"
Through the murmur of names, Evelyn was able to pick out a few: Manning, Leckie, Henderson, Boyle.
"I, Evelyn Russo, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
"Congratulations." The man said simply, tucking his paper back into his pocket before sweeping out of the room, leaving everyone behind in a slightly confused daze.
"So I guess we're real Marines now." Lena said excitedly from beside Evelyn as they sat together in a crowded train car headed to Washington.
"I guess so." Evelyn replied, looking around the car.
There were about thirty or forty other people crammed into the little wooden train car. A couple were familiar to Evelyn; one had been a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, she knew that from Edward's baseball card collection, and Eve could not quite place where she knew the other one from, she just knew she'd seen him before. The few other nurses who had been sworn in that morning were sitting together on the seats across from Evelyn and Lena and on the seats adjacent. The boys were singing and laughing and talking loudly, joking about the old wooden train car, while the ladies gossiped quietly, a couple working on their knitting.
"Hey, it says here this train is property of the Philadelphia Museum of American History!" Someone shouted. The boys all howled with laughter. Evelyn snorted and caught a glare from Judith, who had worked at Saint Francis' with Evelyn and Lena and who had stood right behind them in the swearing in.
Evelyn stopped smiling and turned her head to look out the window. Lena leaned her head on her shoulder, reaching in to Evelyn's coat pocket for her pack of cigarettes. The nurses passed them amongst themselves and smoked in general silence. A few would have quiet conversation amongst themselves, but never did they have a group conversation.
"To be honest, I thought Tommy was going to propose to you at the station this morning." Lena said quietly, head still resting on Evelyn's shoulder.
"To be honest so did I." Evelyn replied, taking a long drag at her cigarette.
"When we get back, you should ask him." Lena said.
"Ask him what? Why he didn't?"
"No! Ask him to marry you!"
Evelyn scoffed. So did Judith.
"I'm sure that'll go swell with him. First his woman goes off to war while he's stuck at home with his asthma, and now here she is on bended knee asking for his hand in marriage. Hell, maybe I can take over his job at his father's factory while I'm at it."
"Whatever makes you two happy. He seems pretty understanding." Lena blew smoke at the ceiling before changing the subject. "Why didn't you call me last night when you fought with the old bat?"
"What like in the middle of it? Ma, hang on, let me just get Lena over here and I'll get right back to having words with you. You didn't miss much."
"Did she really tell you to never come back?"
Eve nodded, stubbing out her cigarette butt on her thumbnail.
"Well, my Ma will be happy to have ya! She'll treat you like a princess! And I'm sure she won't say no if you wanted to bring Penny with you. After four boys, it'll be nice having a gaggle of girls around, and I've always wanted sisters, not like your other sister, but Penny's an angel." Lena said, sitting up straight and clapping Evelyn on the shoulder.
"Thanks, Lena. Really."
During the train ride from Washington to South Carolina, discomfort settled in. In the cramped car, there was little room to move about. A few of the boys stretched out on the floor of the train to sleep, but most of them stayed up to continue to talk and sing. Most of the songs were old Irish folk songs Evelyn had never heard of, save for a couple Mr Dunham used to croak out to her when she would visit him on her rounds at the hospital.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity in that creaking, drafty old train car, the train came to its final stop. Everyone hurried off the train to the trucks that were waiting to take them to the base where they were deposited in front of the mess hall and addressed by the drill instructor.
"Boys, I want to tell ya'll something. Give your hearts to Jesus, boys – 'cause your ass belongs to me!" Sergeant Bellow, as the boys would later nickname him, bellowed in a thick southern drawl before leading the herd of new recruits into the mess hall for a meal of cold bologna and lima beans.
After their disappointing breakfast, the new training group was marched down to an administrative building as Sergeant Bellow called out commands in that booming voice.
"I cannot understand a word he's saying." Lena whispered through gritted teeth beside Evelyn.
"Me neither," Evelyn whispered back. "Just do what the boys are doing."
Major Hartley was waiting outside the administrative building. He and Sergeant Bellow saluted each other before having a quick whispered conversation.
"Alright, ladies, if you could follow me please." Major Hartley said gently and led the nurses into the administrative building.
Sergeant Bellow led the boys in right behind, with much more shouting, but took them down a different hallway. Once inside the building, Major Hartley stopped the nurses outside a doorway.
"Inside this room you will surrender your personal affects and be given your new uniforms." He explained. "Please line up against the wall and wait for your name to be called."
One by one the nurses went into the room. Evelyn and Lena chatted quietly while they slowly moved up the line with each name called. Their talk was interrupted, however, when a scream erupted from inside the room and Judith came barging back out, tugging her coat back on. She glared at Major Hartley and stormed out of the building.
"Alright, Miss Manning, you're up next I guess." He said, scribbling on his clip board.
Evelyn squeezed Lena's hand and offered a small smile as her friend entered the room. Fifteen minutes later, it was Evelyn's turn. She walked into a room where a large nurse sat at a desk.
"Strip." The nurse said absently, looking at a file on her desk.
"E-excuse me?" Evelyn stuttered, unconsciously pulling her coat tighter around her.
"I said strip. You can keep your civvy skivvies for now, but I gotta give you a check up and measure you for your uniform." The nurse explained.
Evelyn nodded, more to herself since the nurse had gone back to her file, and stripped. She stood shivering as the nurse came and checked her reflexes, looked in her ears and throat, listened to her heart, took her pulse before taking her measurements all in complete silence. After rummaging through numerous footlockers behind the desk, the nurse placed a seemingly endless pile of clothes on the desk.
"Wear these now." The nurse instructed, handing a few items to Evelyn.
Eve dressed quickly in her new green trousers and white tee shirt, shrugging on the one size too big green jacket with USMC printed over the left breast pocket. After tucking in her shirt and doing up her belt, Evelyn reached for her socks and boots.
"Um, do I tuck the trousers into the boots?" Evelyn asked quietly from the floor.
"What are ya, a paratrooper?" The nurse scoffed. "No you do not blouse your trousers, or as you said, tuck 'em into your boots. Here, these are puttees, if ya'd rather not have your trouser legs flappin' in the wind." The nurse picked out an item from Evelyn's pile and showed her how to lace them up.
When Evelyn was done lacing up the puttees, she stood up and brushed herself off. The nurse looked at her and nodded in approval.
"Welcome to the Marine Corps. You are now Number 5829834. Remember that number. Go through that door over there and see the barber." The nurse closed up Evelyn's file and placed it on top of Evelyn's suitcase, where she hurriedly tucked her old uniform, stockings and shoes.
Somewhat shocked, Evelyn packed up all her new belongings, stuffing them into the bag provided, and walked through the doors at the opposite end of the room from where she had entered. As Evelyn made her way to the barber, she heard calls of "you'll be sorry!" directed to the stream of men coming out the building a little ways behind her. Outside the barber Lena was waiting for Evelyn. She hugged her briefly, her now short black hair blowing in the slight breeze.
"Your hair has to stay above your shirt collar at all times," Lena explained, touching the blunt ends of her hair. "I figured it would just be easier to hack it all off than worry about pinning and tying and what not. It's only hair. It grows back."
It seemed to Evelyn that Lena was trying to convince herself all was well. She squeezed Lena's hand and entered the barber's shop.
"Do you want to chop it or not?" The old barber asked as Evelyn stepped inside, her new boots thudding on the wooden floor.
The other nurses who had kept their long hair were all in a corner around a mirror, fiddling with snoods and fussing over chignons.
"Chop it." She said sitting in the chair.
The barber grinned and brushed all of Evelyn's wavy brown hair into one bundle. With just a few snips from his scissors, the hair fell onto the floor.
"You don't want to keep any of it, do you?" the barber asked, slightly worried that Evelyn would say yes.
Evelyn shook her head no.
"Good."
The barber quickly finished up with Evelyn as the men began filing into his shop.
"I'll be with you shortly," he said, brushing hair clippings off the back of Evelyn's neck. "A couple swipes with this, and they're on their ways." He gestured to an electric clipper on his table.
Evelyn smiled and hopped down from the chair. Major Hartley was waiting outside with Lena and the rest of the nurses, twelve in total, counting Evelyn, but still a few short of whom all had arrived earlier that day, and definitely no sign of Judith. Throughout the day, the group of a hundred men who had been on the train, dwindled down to only sixty. The rumor going around was that not one man from the state of New York lasted the day.
"If you ladies will follow me, I'll take you to your barracks now."
On the march over to living quarters, Major Hartley explained the schedule.
"Over the next six weeks, you will learn marching, have lectures on military courtesy and jargon, special medical training and drilling with weapons in case of dire emergencies."
This brought them to their barracks. The building was not overly large and had single cots, already made, and foot lockers lining the walls. On each bed was the respective suitcase of each nurse.
"You ladies are expected to keep this building neat and clean. Your personal effects have been returned to you, along with your dog tags. Welcome to the Marine Corps, ladies. Semper Fi."
Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you guys know that I have a TON of rewriting and editing to do so this is likely to be the last update of the year. I had this one written a while ago, but I'll try to make the newer chapters a bit longer. Also if you ever want to chat, head on over to my tumblr (link is in my profile) and we can definitely do that! Okay, thanks for reading, enjoy the rest of your day!