August 7th 1942.
To say the transport ship Evelyn now found herself on was crowded was an understatement. The Elliot was packed with Marines and sailors and Evelyn had to push her way through a crowd of men whenever she needed to get somewhere. When she finally climbed onto the deck she took a moment to breathe in the fresh salty air before setting off to find her friends.
"Why are we here?" Jenny moaned, leaning over the side of the swaying ship.
"Hartley's orders? Your guess is as good as mine." Lena replied, rubbing her back.
"Well, they didn't have any Canada dry, which honestly I'm not at all surprised, but I did manage to get you some toast and Sid was running around with some oranges so I snagged one of those for us too." Evelyn said, waving said orange around triumphantly.
"Oh you really are an angel, but I don't think I can eat anything." Jenny slumped down onto the deck, hair plastered to her sweaty forehead.
"Y'know, I always thought redheads looked good in green, but my dear this shade is not working for you. Trust me, you'll feel better once you get this dry toast in you." Lena said handing the toast to Jenny and sitting beside her.
Evelyn stood looking out over the horizon at the rest of the armada that was steaming along behind them.
"You gonna peel that orange or are we supposed to keep it as a trophy." Lena said, snapping Eve from her thoughts.
"I dunno, I was just thinking it's too pretty to rip apart." She tossed it from one hand to the other.
"Well I'll say a prayer for it as I eat it just hand it over. I think I can feel myself getting scurvy." Lena held her hand out impatiently.
Evelyn sat down beside Jenny and started peeling the orange.
"So what are we doing here? I saw you talking to Hartley yesterday, did he say anything to you?" Lena asked, pushing Jenny's hair off her face.
Evelyn shook her head, counting orange pieces to make sure they all got an even portion.
"Does it make any sense to you? We were close enough to Australia we could've gone ashore and been done with this stupid boat."
"Well we're at the mercy of the Navy's schedule, aren't we?" Evelyn said calmly, handing Lena her third of the orange. "We were supposed to go ashore, you're right, but obviously something came up so here we are, on the stupid boat. Nothing we can do about it, and we may as well get used to it. Landings started last night on Guadalcanal, and they'll carry on today. Chances are we'll have to stay here for a few days, until they can spare a ship to take us to Australia. That's what Hartley was telling me yesterday."
"I don't know how much longer I can stand bein' on this boat." Jenny burped and laid her head in Lena's lap.
"FORGET ALL THE HORSE SHIT YOU HEARD ABOUT THE JAPS!"
Evelyn and the other nurses stood off to the side as Captain Jameson addressed the Marines ready to disembark. As they stood listening to Jameson's speech, Evelyn's attention was pulled away when a runner came to talk to Major Hartley, who was standing behind her.
"We have a problem, sir." The runner whispered.
"What kind of problem?"
"Well, sir, there's not enough medical staff going ashore."
There was a pause as Hartley looked over the marines assembled on deck.
"Follow me then." Hartley said and led his runner away.
Evelyn stood for a moment then, without being seen by Lena or Jameson, slipped away after the Major.
He was already halfway down the corridor of the ship when she called out to him.
"Major Hartley!"
He turned to wait for her, she jogged to meet him, boots thudding on the steel floor.
"What is it, private Russo?"
"I'm sorry sir but I couldn't help but overhearing and I'd like to volunteer to go ashore if it would help at all." Evelyn stood still with her heart hammering away in her chest waiting for Hartley's reply.
"Are you sure about this private?" He asked.
His runner checked his watch.
"Yes, Sir" she replied.
"Good. You and whoever else the navy can spare will be on the last transport out. I'd rather not ask any of the other nurses, I'm arranging for them to get on a supply vessel back to Melbourne today if possible. You have twenty minutes to get your shit together, private, I'll meet you back on deck then."
"Yessir" Evelyn said again and hurried back down the hallway.
She made it back to her bunk and began packing up her sea bag and knapsack when Jenny and Lena came in.
"Where's the fire?" Lena asked stretching herself out in Evelyn's bunk.
"Yeah, Hartley said we weren't leaving until later this afternoon." Jenny sat down beside her.
"I'm going ashore." Evelyn said double checking she had all her stuff.
"What?!" Lena shot up to her feet again.
"There's not enough medical staff so I volunteered to go" Evelyn explained
"Why?"
"Because they need medical staff?" Evelyn said slowly
"I understand that but why not let someone else go?" Lena had tears in her eyes. "It's the navy that's short staffed it should be their problem to fix."
"But it's our guys Lena. If Bob got hit wouldn't you rather there be someone there to take care of him than no one at all?"
"But there's other girls that could go instead of you!" Lena's tears were on the verge of spilling.
"Look at these girls, Lena. Do you really think any of them could hold their own out there in the jungle?" Evelyn lowered her voice as the other nurses came in and promptly began gossiping about cute sailors. "I can do this Lena. You don't have to worry about me."
"But we need you."
"No you don't. You two can take care of yourselves, take care of each other and the other girls." Evelyn's eyes stung with her own tears.
"Russo hurry up!" Hartley's runner called from the door.
"I gotta go. I'll see you soon." Evelyn swung her bag over her shoulder and opened her free arm to hug her best friend.
"I'm afraid if I hug you I won't let go." Lena said, tears freely falling now.
"Good luck." Jenny said, wrapping her arms around Evelyn's neck. "I'll take care of her."
"I know you will."
Evelyn followed Hartley's runner to where Major Hartley was waiting for her with Captain Jameson.
"I can't guarantee her safety, sir" Jameson was saying.
"She's trained with H company, she can handle herself" Hartley replied.
"Well you'll either have to shave yer hair or keep it covered up, these savage fuckers'll rape ya quick as they look atchya" Jameson said turning his attention to Evelyn.
She was at a loss for words.
"You and the navy corpsman are the last ones to go." Hartley said, handing Evelyn a helmet. "Oh and here's another thing. I know you really shouldn't be carrying this but I'd feel a lot better if I knew you were able to defend yourself and your patients." He pressed a .45 revolver into her hand.
"ALRIGHT BOYS LETS MOVE OUT!" Jameson hollered.
Hartley gave Evelyn a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"You'll be relieved once we get more medical staff trained up. Until then, you have standing orders to stay with H Company. You go where they go, no excuses."
Evelyn kept her head down in the boat as per Jameson's orders. The men around her were whispering prayers and she was reminded of summer Sundays spent inside the church where it was always too hot and too crowded. Her stomach lurched with the landing vessel and suddenly the door was being lowered into the shallows.
"Welcome to Guadalcanal!" someone shouted as Evelyn stepped onto the sand.
"How many times you gonna say that?" someone else shouted from further along the beach.
Evelyn scanned the familiar faces for any sign of Bob and his friends, and spotted Chuckler hacking away at a coconut with his bayonet. Hitching her pack higher up her shoulders, she made her way over to them.
"Hey boys, you miss me?" She said, stopping in front of them.
"Jesus, Angel, what're you doing here?" Runner asked, sitting up from where he was laying against a log.
"Well, I couldn't let you boys have all the fun." She said.
"Intelligence has it the Japs moved back into the jungle. Clean the sand out of your weapons, we move in three minutes." Lieutenant Corrigan said, coming up behind Evelyn, Hoosier in tow.
Hoosier's eyebrows knit together in confusion when he saw Evelyn standing on the beach, her helmet sitting crookedly on top of her head, but he didn't say anything to her, just swung his rifle up over his shoulder.
"Looks like you got here just in time, then." Bob nudged Evelyn with his elbow as he stood up.
Evelyn straightened her helmet and followed Bob and the other men off the beach.