This chapter is dedicated to skinkypi
The last week of boot camp for Evelyn and the other nurses was to be spent off base at the nearby Navy hospital. It was a nice change of pace, Evelyn thought, and relished in the regularly scheduled lectures on treating different types of shrapnel wounds and other types of injuries Evelyn had been lucky enough to avoid encountering thus far in her nursing career.
The Wednesday of that last week of training was especially drizzly. The nurses were given an extended lunch period due to one of the nurses vomiting on the head surgeon's shoes in the middle of their last lecture. Evelyn left before he could choke out a dismissal and was standing in the hallway outside the cafeteria debating whether or not she could stomach whatever was for lunch.
"Come on, it's your favourite." Lena said after checking the menu board.
"Is it grits again?" Evelyn asked, unimpressed.
"No, it's your actual favourite; potato soup."
Once their bowls were full, the three girls found a table by a window and began eating. When they were almost finished, Lena quietly laughed to herself.
"What's so funny?" Jenny asked, spoon halfway to her mouth.
"No, I just remembered when me and Evie volunteered. It was snowing sideways and they had potato soup at the hospital for lunch." Lena explained.
Evelyn laughed and nodded, scooping up the last spoonful of soup.
"Hey, you remember the conversation we were having that day?" Lena laughed
"About how awful my mother is? We have that conversation a lot Lena." Evelyn said, pushing her tray forward.
"Now I'm definitely missing something here. You never told me about your momma." Jenny said, resting her elbows on the table.
"There's not much to say, really, she just doesn't like me very much." Evelyn took a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and passed it to her friends.
"Well I am very sorry to hear that. My momma said she wasn't very close with her momma, and it just tore her up, 'specially around our age when she was gettin' married and havin' babies." Jenny said, lighting her cigarette. "But she was like that with my momma's sister, too."
"Well, Evie's mother has six other kids whom she likes just fine. There's just something about Evie that rubs her the wrong way." Lena took a long drag of her cigarette. "Tell her, Evie."
"You seem to be doing a swell job telling my life story, so why don't you just carry on." Evelyn crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well, Evelyn here is the middle of seven children. First was a girl, then two boys, our Evie, two more boys and then little Penny. She's an angel, just seven years old but the brightest young thing I've ever met. Anyways Evelyn mother never seemed to like her, straight off the hop and no one really knows why." Lena babbled.
"How do you mean?" Jenny asked. Evelyn rolled her eyes.
"Well, only nine months after Evelyn was born, her mother had her brother, Edward. They're born in the same year, for Christ's sake! Now if that doesn't speak to how much she's not loved by her own mother, I don't know what does."
"Wow. That is really sad." Jenny gave Evelyn a sympathetic look.
"It's not as bad as it sounds," Evelyn sat up in her chair.
"I hope you're not defending her!" Lena said, shocked.
"Oh I'm not. It's just when she was busy fussing over the other kids, or simply just ignoring me, I could do whatever I wanted. I spent most of my time over at Lena's place, anyways, and my father straight out told me I was his favourite the night before I left, so I wasn't this unloved, unwanted puppy that was sent outside in the rain when the family had dinner."
"We had a dog like that," Jenny laughed "I mean we never sent it out in the rain at supper time, but it would sit in the doorway and watch us with those sad brown eyes. I'd always sneak it something from my plate if Daddy didn't catch me."
"So what about you, Jenny? Other than a sad dog, what was your life like before all this?" Evelyn asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, simple enough, really. My momma was a nurse, that's what got me interested, and Daddy would make liquor in the cellar and sell it to the bar in town. We got by. My older brother stayed to help Momma and Daddy at home. That's it really; went to school, worked at the clinic in town, y'all know already I was at Pearl Harbour a week before the attack. I went with a couple of girlfriends from town. Saved for the trip for nearly two years before we had enough to go. I felt awful when we got back and the news came in. I couldn't help our boys then, but I sure as hell can now!"
"Hear, hear!" Lena exclaimed, cigarette held tightly between her teeth, while she waved her arms about.
"Y'all quiet down now." A passing corporal said.
Jenny and Lena giggled; Evelyn shook her head at them, blowing smoke out her nose in stifled laughter.
"You're the only one left, Lena, what was life like for you?"
"She got to tell my story, let me tell hers," Evelyn said, leaning forward onto her elbows. "Once upon a time in Hackensack, lived a princess. This princess was named Milena Antonietta Giovanna Manning. Her dad's dad was this Irish fella and he fell for an Italian beauty -"
"Shut up! Can I tell my own story please?"
"Alright, alright, I'm kidding, jeez. Remember, my mother hated me from birth, so your family seemed perfect compared to mine." Evelyn took a final drag of her cigarette.
"Well, you're right, compared to you I was a beloved princess. Anyways, it was good. Dad always had jobs, Ma took in tailoring at home and I helped out. That's why my stitches are always perfect, not like this butcher over here, probably does more harm than good."
"Hey, I get it done, don't I?" Evelyn lit another cigarette.
"Hey, if you gals got lecture this afternoon, they're starting back up again. Don't forget to bring your trays back to the kitchen, alright?" The corporal from earlier passed by again, apparently on kitchen patrol.
"Aye, Sir." Jenny said, and the girls gathered up their trays.
"Anyways, as I was saying, I had it pretty good, I reckon. Even ten years ago when no one had jobs, my dad was always able to provide for us." Lena continued as they walked back to the lecture hall.
"Any siblings?" Jenny asked.
"Nope, just me. My parents had a hard time having kids so they treated me like their little gift from God. I guess that's why they treated me so well." Lena said as they retook their seats in the lecture hall.
"Alright ladies, let's begin where we left off from earlier this morning: Tropical Diseases." The head surgeon called out from the front of the room. He was wearing an entirely different suit from before and his hair seemed damp.
The smell of bleach stung Evelyn's nose as she sat down at her desk and pulled out her composition book.
That night as Evelyn was about to fall asleep, Lena crouched down beside her bed.
"I hope you're not mad at me telling Jenny your life story. I know it's not really my place." She whispered.
"No, no it's fine." Evelyn replied, rolling over onto her side to look at Lena. "The whole thing does sound ridiculous when it's said out loud though."
"It does, yeah, but it's alright because we're here now and you can write your own new, better story." Lena chuckled.
Evelyn smiled and nodded.
"Alright go back to sleep." Lena whispered and crawled back into her cot.
Evelyn rolled over onto her other side and stared at the wall until she slowly fell asleep.
The last few days of hospital training passed quickly. Having already worked at a hospital, Evelyn, along with Lena and Jenny, were already familiar with the work, all they needed was to put the military discipline, which their first few weeks of boot camp with the Marines had taught them, together with what they already knew, and they were set for Major Hartley's Australian Marine Hospital.
"That's a ridiculous name. It sounds like a circus." Lena complained one night.
"I'm sure it's going to have a proper name." Jenny offered from her cot.
"That's because it is a circus right now." Evelyn said grumpily "There's only seven of us, how does he expect to staff an entire hospital with only seven nurses and him as head surgeon?"
"It'll be fine until the casualties start pouring in." Lena said.
The final day at the hospital was spent packing up belongings and the night was spent on a train headed for the Marine base at New River in North Carolina. The men that were at Parris Island were on the train, as well, although the nurses only ran into them in the dining car before heading back down to their own car, separate from the rowdy Marines. Evelyn could see the men through the window separating the cars and wished she could be sitting with them, joking and singing instead of listening to Doris from Rochester recite all the names of her grandmother's cats in alphabetical order.
When they arrived at New River, trucks were waiting to take the Marines to the base. The NCOs and officers who received the new Recruits were shouting and waving flashlights around as they fell them out and had them form ranks on the sidewalk. Having just woken up, Evelyn felt disjointed from reality as she stood shivering in the night. The group was marched up to a hut where they were ordered to halt and wait for their names to be called. One by one, the names of the men were called, and they disappeared into the hut. Major Hartley strode up to the seven nurses huddled together and stood in front of them.
"Alright, ladies, you've all been assigned to the First Marines." He said, as if it meant something. "It's really just a way to keep track of everyone. Now, let's head on over to the trucks and wait for the rest of the men, shall we?"
Evelyn and the others followed Hartley to the trucks where they waited while slowly the group of men around them grew. Bob joined the group a few minutes later with his garrison cap slapped onto his head at a jaunty angle and his sea bag over his back.
"Good to see you again." He said, sticking out his free hand.
"Yeah you too, Bob" Evelyn said, shaking it.
"Alright men! Let's load 'em up!" The command came to get in the trucks.
The gathered Marine recruits tossed their sea bags onto the backs of the trucks before hoisting themselves up. Bob clambered up then reached down to help Evelyn up; Evelyn in turn, reached down to grab Jenny by the elbow and pull her up onto the bench beside her as Lena plopped down beside Bob. The four of them chatted amongst themselves quietly as the trucks rumbled down the road.