The rest of the week on the rifle range was without much incident. The Wrestler was fine after the mishap at the medic tent, and the bruising on Evelyn's arms had almost vanished.
"Does your arm still hurt? My arm still hurts." Lena complained as they stood waiting for their turns with the rifles.
Evelyn leaned over and clapped her hand onto Lena's shoulder.
"Get over it." She said, straightening back up.
"They're gonna kick ya outta the Marines if ya act like a baby." Jenny whispered from behind them as Lena rubbed her arm.
Before Lena could retaliate, Sergeant Bellow cleared his throat.
"Alright, ladies, let's see what you've got. I expect you boys to be respectful." He shouted as the men made their way behind the line and the nurses took their places.
The men lounged on the sandy ground in what shade they could find. Evelyn saw some whispering behind their hands, gesturing towards the women, but there were no outbursts or catcalls, so she pushed all thoughts of insecurity from her mind as she stepped up to the line, rifle in hand.
The first, and easiest, firing position was standing. Evelyn was somewhat confident in her abilities to shoot, even though it had been a few years since she had held a rifle, and this Marine issue Springfield was heavier than her father's birding rifle.
"Ready!" Sergeant Bellow shouted. Evelyn clicked off the safety, took a deep breath and slid the bolt on her rifle back, allowing a bullet to enter the chamber.
"Aim!" She brought the brought the rifle up to her cheek, but didn't rest her face against it. She peered down the length of the barrel, lining her sights up as best she could with the target.
"FIRE!" Evelyn squeezed the trigger and a chorus of gunfire erupted all across the line. Each nurse emptied her magazine, five rounds, and waited for further instruction.
Major Hartley and Sergeant Bellow went out to inspect the targets. Hartley came back grinning.
"Recruits Russo and Murphy, congratulations, you two hit your targets. As for the rest of you, might I suggest keeping your eyes open? Let's do it again."
The nurses resumed their positions on the line, reloaded their weapons and followed Sergeant Bellow's commands. The second time showed only small improvements, but the day carried on with the next group of men taking their turns on the line while the nurses sat on the sand dunes.
The next two days covered firing from a sitting position, which was much harder than it seemed it should have been. Supporting the left elbow on the left knee while still being able to aim and pull the trigger was difficult, especially for those with shorter arms. Evelyn sat leaning against Lena's back, watching the men. Bob stepped up to the line and sat down, placing the butt of the rifle against his right shoulder, however he couldn't quite reach his left elbow to his left knee. He struggled for a few moments, all while Sergeant Bellow watched from the side, smirking, before striding over to Bob. From where she was sitting, Evelyn could not hear what they were saying, but she definitely heard the crack of Lucky's shoulder as Sergeant Bellow sat on it, forcing it into position. Although Evelyn feared dislocation, Sergeant Bellow's archaic method seemed to work. She started stretching her arms and shoulders, in case Sergeant Bellow decided to help her, too.
When it was the nurses turn to shoot, Evelyn took up her rifle in her left hand, like she had seen the men do, and sat cross legged in the sand. However, she could not quite reach the trigger. She glanced around and saw Lena behind her; Sergeant Bellow and Major Hartley were talking just down the line, not giving the nurses their full attention.
"Psst, Lena!" Evelyn whispered over her shoulder.
"What?" Lena whispered back.
"Push on my shoulders."
"What?!"
"Push on my shoulders!"
"No, we'll get in trouble."
"C'mon, Lena. If you don't, Bellow's gonna come down here and sit on me like he did to Bob!" Evelyn pleaded, still whispering, watching Bellow.
He caught her eye and slowly started his way over.
"Oh fine." Lena gave in and pushed on Evelyn's shoulders.
Bellow stopped walking. Ever so slowly, and painfully, Evelyn's right arm came up to meet the trigger of her rifle. She grasped onto the trigger guard and Lena stopped pushing. Evelyn was able to aim and fire, although she could tell she missed every shot. Evelyn and Lena traded places and after Lena had reloaded the rifle and taken her position, Evelyn pushed on her shoulders until she had hold of the trigger and could fire. The sound of ricochets echoed through the sand dunes that day. The next day was slightly better, after a night of the six nurses in Evelyn's tent massaging each other's shoulders to remove the tension from the day and loosen them up for the next.
There was not much talk during those nights out on the range. Only Evelyn and Lena would whisper to each other of home, sometimes swapping childhood stories with Jenny. The other girls kept to themselves, not knowing each other, and seemingly not wanting to. Boot camp was a hard place to forge friendships, Evelyn thought as she ate breakfast out on the dunes.
"Hey, Lena," She said suddenly, looking down to her friend who currently was resting her head on Evelyn's knee. Lena hummed sleepily in response. "I'm glad you're here."
Lena sat up and looked in Evelyn's face.
"Are you feeling alright? Is the heat starting to get to you? Nurse Murphy, we need some water over here, STAT!" Lena joked, feeling Evelyn's head for fever and pinching her cheeks.
"Stop! Stop! I just wanted to tell you I appreciated our friendship, but never mind, I'll never do it again." Evelyn said, swatting Lena's hands away.
"Well it's just not like you to show affection, so I got worried, is all." Lena said, lying back down on Evelyn's lap.
Jenny watched the pair in confusion.
"You Jerseyites are weird, I tell ya." She said, shaking her head.
The final position that was taught was shooting from a prone position. Evelyn felt like a desert lizard, lying on her belly in the warm sand with the sun beating down on her back. It might have been a relaxing day, except for the gunfire erupting all around her and the lack of shade and lemonade. Evelyn found that firing prone was the easiest; you could support your left arm on the ground and not have it tire from the weight, as would happen firing from standing, and easily reach the trigger with the right hand much unlike firing while sitting. Fortunately, if all went well she thought, these would be the only shots she would have to fire for the whole war.
The last day out on the range was test day. The men would fire and their scores recorded to see who would receive a qualification badge, and therefore extra compensation as a rifleman or sharpshooter. The nurses were not required to do the test and sat on the sidelines and observed the testing process.
"It feels like we're at some kind of a sporting event." Lena said as she sat down beside Evelyn.
"Well I'd rather be sleeping." Evelyn replied, wrapping her blanket around herself.
That morning had been as cold as any other had been, but the clouds never parted, so the sun stayed hidden and the day stayed cold and windy. Fortunately, since they weren't shooting, the nurses could sit wrapped in blankets, sipping hot coffee and smoking. It was a welcome change.
As the day progressed and the men showcased what they had learned, it became easy to tell who would qualify and who wouldn't based on the speed at which Sergeant Bellow's forehead vein throbbed. It became a guessing game as to how well or how poorly a man did simply by watching Bellow's face.
"I'd say he got a four." Lena said after a particularly poor performance.
"Four? Four what? What is this grade out of even?" Jenny asked as Evelyn nearly snorted her coffee out of her nose.
"I have no idea, but look at Bellow's face! That vein is going to explode."
The three friends laughed until Bellow shot them a steely look and silenced them immediately.
"Oh look, it's almost time for chow, let's leave." Evelyn said, looking at her watch and quickly standing up.
Lena and Jenny followed, knocking sand from their trousers as they walked to the tent that had been erected for meal times. They ate quickly and slowly began to make their way back to the range. Half way there, Major Hartley sopped them.
"We'll be heading back to the base at 0530 tomorrow morning, so go and pack up your gear." He ordered.
"Yes sir." The girls said in unison and turned back to their tent.
Their tent mates were already in there, lounging about on their cots. Jenny rolled her eyes and started folding up her clothes. Evelyn and Lena followed suit, leaving only their beds still made for their last night out on the rifle range.