The next couple of weeks brought a sense of routine to recruit life. Evelyn, the other nurses, and the men woke up at five o'clock, ate breakfast (if it was grits Bob or Jenny would trade with Evelyn), ran their mile or more, depending on Bellow's mood, and then continued their physical training. Lena had seemed to have given up on Bob; they were partners for one day, but that night before lights out, she surrendered him back to Evelyn.
"His hands are sweaty." She complained, tucking herself into bed.
Evelyn chuckled; Jenny snorted.
"I hadn't noticed."
"Well, you can keep on bein' my partner then."
As time passed, Evelyn could feel herself getting stronger; running didn't hurt as much and she wasn't nearly as tired after all the push ups and sit ups as she had been the first day. While waiting for Lena and Jenny to finish their showers one morning, Evelyn caught her reflection in the foggy mirror and was shocked. Her once round cheeks had slimmed considerably, the light dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks was now dark and had seemed to multiply, spreading up to her forehead. Her eyes were the same shade of green they'd always been, although now they were underlined by puffy dark circles, which she gingerly pressed on, fearing they were bruised. As she lifted her hands to her face, she noticed her arms; once wiry, they now had a considerable amount of muscle, not nearly as much as her male recruit counterparts, but it was definitely noticeable, to Evelyn at least.
"You get any closer and you'll fall through that looking glass, Alice."
Evelyn whipped away from the mirror, knocking her comb onto the floor, to see Lena leaning against the shower stall.
"Would you hurry the hell up?" Evelyn asked, exasperated, bending down to pick up her comb.
"It's Sunday. We don't have anything to do until this afternoon." Lena grumbled, tossing her wet towel onto the bench.
"Well I would like to make it to mass on time at least once this year." Evelyn said, turning back to the mirror with her comb.
"Seeing as how it's still only January, I think we'll be just fine." Lena said as she put on her socks.
"It ain't still January, Lena, we're halfway through February." Jenny said, finally emerging from the shower stall.
"What? Is that true? Oh Evie, I forgot your birthday."
"Don't worry about it, so did I." Evelyn said, straightening her part.
That Sunday began their week on the rifle range. Evelyn and the rest of the training squad were given a special blessing at mass; it seemed to shake a few peoples' confidence, but for the most part it was taken as a joke. Jenny laughed all the way to lunch about it.
"If the firin' range is so dangerous, I'd like to see what the battlefield looks like." She said as they stood in line for food.
"I don't. I'd just like to get next week over with and stay put in our little hospital." Lena replied.
Jenny and Evelyn laughed at her.
"I thought you said you weren't nervous. Whatever happened to I didn't come all this way to back down now?" Evelyn snickered.
"That was three weeks ago. And I'm not backing down, I'm just not looking forward to tomorrow, that's all." Lena tried to defend herself.
"Well what're ya gonna do if our little hospital gets taken over by the Japs?" Jenny asked as she received her lunch.
"Hide in a closet while you two take care of 'em." Lena said, matter-o-factly, as she too got her food.
Eve and Jenny burst out laughing again.
The next morning after reveille, Evelyn along with the other nurses, joined the men in full gear in front of the mess hall, where they waited for Sergeant Bellow and Major Hartley to order them to fall out. Major Hartley stood behind Sergeant Bellow and let him take command of the training group.
"Alright, listen up! We will now be heading to the rifle range! It is five miles and I want you all to march! Close order! Move out!" Sergeant Bellow bellowed, his voice as strong as ever.
There was no groaning to be heard as the group moved into position, but there were plenty of dirty looks thrown around. The march itself wouldn't be difficult, the terrain was fairly smooth, but staying in close order marching formation the whole time is what had eyes darkening at Sergeant Bellow's back.
"This should be fun." Bob said, stepping into position behind Evelyn.
"Oh yes, I love marching." Evelyn replied sarcastically, hiking her pack higher up on her shoulder.
At the range, tents were provided to sleep in; six men to a tent, and two tents set just a little way away for the nurses.
"Look! A wooden floor! I've never heard of a tent with a wooden floor before." Lena exclaimed as she dumped her pack onto her cot.
Evelyn snorted at her and began making her bed.
"I guess we should count ourselves among the privileged. I don't think too many other tents have a floor." Jenny said, stretching out on her cot.
The rest of the day was filled with basic instruction. Eve and Jenny were familiar with rifles, but the other nurses were having some trouble. The range instructors didn't seem to mind, however, as it gave them an excuse to talk to the nurses one on one and help them with their rifles. Jenny scoffed particularly loudly when one of the nurses tucked a lock of golden blonde hair behind her ear and batted her lashes at an instructor and he broke down and reassembled her weapon for her in record time.
The next morning was colder than any thus far. Evelyn wondered if this had all been a dream and when she opened her eyes she'd be back home in New Jersey. She was relieved to see the beige canopy of her tent. It was even colder outside the tent and the southern men were guffawing and teasing the northerners who were shivering.
"Hey Evie, are my lips blue?" Lena asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"Yeah, are mine?" Evelyn replied, teeth chattering.
"Jesus, the both of ya are gonna hafta suck it up. Trust me, it'll be warm again in no time." Jenny said, emerging from the tent.
She was right, of course, coming from the south herself. In less than an hour, Evelyn was sweating and almost wishing it had stayed cold all day. After washing up (which had the girls witness a very interesting fire display at the toilets) Major Hartley ordered them to the medical station to give the men their inoculations. Inside the tent, there were stations set up, and a few Navy medics were fixing up their own stations.
"Just play nice with the swabbies 'til we ship out." Major Hartley said with a wink as the nurses settled into their stations.
Shortly after, the men began filing in to receive their inoculations. Two straight lines were formed with each Marine stopping in front of a medic who would swab his arm before plunging their needle into it. Evelyn noticed how the navy medics would just stab their needles into a Marine's arm and send them on their way, as if they were at a factory assembling some mechanical part. The nurses, however, coming from civilian hospitals where having a good bedside manner is expected, would mumble apologies to the marines and try their hardest to cause as little pain as possible with the large hypodermic needles.
Everything was going smoothly, until one of the men, who was so large he was called the Wrestler and took up space in both lines was somehow given four injections where he only needed one. Major Hartley was called to look him over, but saw no reason to panic and the Wrestler showed no kind of symptoms whatsoever.
"Count next time, ya dumb swabbies." Major Hartley said to the navy medics and left.
Evelyn tried to hide her laughter as she administered her shots to the next marine in line, offering an apology and a small smile.
"He's gonna be alright, isn't he?" Bob asked as he made his way up the line to Evelyn.
"Yeah, he'll probably just never catch whatever it is we're vaccinating you against." Evelyn replied, inspecting the small vial of medicine.
"You don't even know what this is?!" Bob nearly shouted, scrambling to roll his sleeve back down.
"It's not a recruit's place to ask questions. Oh please, Bob, stop being such a baby, you really don't want Typhoid." Evelyn quickly wiped Bob's arm and stuck her needle into his arm.
After all the men had received their vaccinations, Evelyn found herself in line behind Lena, rolling up her own shirt sleeves to receive her shots. Major Hartley had come back in to administer them, along with the nurse from their first day.
"Remember, boys: One. Each." Major Hartley articulated his point with a jab to Evelyn's arm.