12. Patient From Greece (1/2)

chapter xii

dearest walt, rose and blythe,

i am writing this letter to the three of you, as i won't have time to write three seperate ones! i'm so glad that your new year's eve was wonderful and very homey. i hope that your return to redmond was just as pleasant too.

right now, i am training to gain more experience with anesthetics, to help surgeons during surgeries on very badly wounded soldiers we get. i am really proud of myself and with every new thing i learn, i feel more and more experienced nurse (i still can't quite believe that i am a nurse!).

i don't know if you've heard already or not, but on the 29th of december, london was standing almost entirely in fire. it was the most terryfing night of my life. just after christmas, claire, me and some other nurses were switched onto the night-duty (6pm till 6am), which is so much worse than the day-duty because the patients who are wounded quite badly, can't sleep and need our constant help. anyway, on the 29th, we were prepared that the blitz will start all over again, but by god, not on this scale! i don't know what time it was, but suddenly, without any hearing of sirens, we all heard explosions near our hospital, later screaming of people outside. i was sure that the bombing started and so i shouted to all the nurses to help the soldiers who can walk, to go to the shelter and not wait for the sirens to start ringing. mrs ashby, our matron, got red and her face looked just like a perfect round tomato. she shouted at me: "how dare you give commands to the nurses when i am the matron?!". i helped mr richard tomney to stand up from his bed and answered calmly: "because the bomb can drop on the hospital in any moment, matron." and with this she bit her lip nervously, and agreed to my commands.

i was the last one to get to the shelter as i was very concerned about all the men who had to stay in their beds, most of them were unconscious and didn't even know what was happening. i was scared to death that something could have happened to them. as quickly as i got into the shelter, the war alarm siren started ringing above us and all the other nurses who were asleep in their beds ran down to the shelter as well. we knew that the bombing that night was much worse than any other during the blitz because of the shaking ceiling and the lamp above us which was constantly turning on and off. somehow, i really don't know how when i look at it now, i managed to sing "wish me luck as you wave me goodbye" for the whole room full of nurses and soldiers. i think that i sang it to make myself feel better as well, trying not to think about the burning london above me. when we came out, after around four hours of patient waiting in the shelter, we were overjoyed to find our hospital still standing. but what i saw outside was a total chaos.

my heart went still and i thought i will cry for i couldn't believe that the view in front of me was still the dear, beautiful london. i know one thing which this war already taught me: people are really incredible when they all work together, and they can make miracles! me and some other nurses (claire as well!) went outside after our duty and helped people to recover the remains of their houses and streets. it was one of those experiences which are both traumatising and unbelivebly hopeful. we were helping people to recover their houses and all the furniture and other things that people had in them. even though it was terryfing to see so many houses collapsed to the ground, it was amazing how all of these people could smile through and talk to us like to their friends.

now, it's nearly 10 o'clock in the morning and so i really have to go to sleep or otherwise i will fall on mrs ashby's lap and sleep there until she'll push me on the floor.

write to me everyday (each of you!), if you can and tell me all about your redmond-stories!

i love you all,

always yours,

julia una blythe (your bathsheba)

fe

uary 1941 came very quickly and almost unexpectadly. julia thought that she nearly completely left her soul (and body) of a child and stepped into a soul of a grown-up. "nearly" because julia could never be a complete grown-up, no matter how many horrors she would see in her life.

her days were going very quickly because she wasn't just taking care of the soldiers' wounds but she could finally also help with the surgeries and she absolutely loved it. even mrs ashby thought that julia was one of the most enthusiastic nurses in the hospital.

the soldiers were coming and going, coming and going, and although julia tried her best to count how many she nursed, she wasn't able to do it, she wasn't even able to talk to any of them and to meet any more "kindred spirits". but of course she was happy for every soldier who was cured and could either come back to the front or go home. because not every soldier was lucky enough to be cured completely, and julia was always very downhearted after each of her patient who didn't live long enough to see another sunrise or sunset. but in situations like that, she was always writing to the family of the soldier who died and was writing to his parents or siblings or sweethearts all about how he died, how strong he was and how very wonderful.

julia was also in a constant touch with every person in her family, and they knew all the details from her life and she knew all the small and funny accidents which happened in glen or four winds, whether it was how una's nancy fell from her desk on which she was standing and

oke her ankle, or how di's small tom ran out of the house without his pants on and pretended to be a ghost.

merry and jake (with marshall) were moved to the north of africa at the end of january and were sending julia letters about how hot and humid the air was there. gilly, however didn't write much and it made julia quite worried but soon enough she would know the reason he didn't reply for her letters.

on the 11th of fe

uary, julia, olive and claire started the next day of their work at night-duty. the new men arrived that night, julia first thought that they were from the navy but mrs ashby corrected her saying that they were from the air force. julia gulped and got goosebumps, thinking about gilly who, god forbid, might as well be between those blessed boys. she carried on with her work though, and slowly stopped thinking about gil and whether he arived at the hospital or not.

it was nearly five o'clock in the morning, when julia finished bandaging the last man's arm, smiling to him as she always used to. her hair was all messed up, her uniform covered in small or big blood stains, and her hands almost shaking from tiredness.

"bath! bath!" olive called out while she was running hurriedly towards julia with her burning cheeks.

julia turned to olive and grabbed her hands in worry "what happened, olive?!" she inquired with her heart beating faster and faster, her thoughts fulfilled with many different scenarios about what happend or will happen.

"there's a man in the east angle who wants to see you immediately! his name is ford!" olive replied with a half-grin on her face.

julia's eyes got bigger and her cheeks flushed with emotions "gil ford?" julia whispered, hardly trying to hide the smile forming on her mouth.

"yes, yes, gilbert ford, i'm sure." she answered and before she did or said anything else, her friend was rushing to the east angle with increasing speed. julia was looking at each bed with shaking hands and tears in her eyes, praying not to see gilly in a state from which he can't recover from.

she was half-happy and half-horrified. gilly, her darling boy-cousin, was there in the hospital in which she was working. she was incredibly joyful and eager to see him but at the same time she feared the image she might see. will he be blind? or with an amputated arm or leg? maybe his face will be burnt? no, julia couldn't think about things like this, and she continued with searching for her friend.

"nurse blythe at last!" a fammiliar manly but weak voice said from behind julia.

she turned around quickly and there he was, no one else but gilbert ford lying on the hospital bed right in front of her "gil! oh, gilbert!" julia gasped and threw herself on gil's bed. he had his left arm and neck bandaged. his face was cleaned but had a few cuts on it with a small

uise right under his left eye. other than that he seemed positively happy and julia saw the sight of relief reflecting in his eyes.

"remember about the arm, sheba!" he chuckled when he finally got out of julia's tight hug.

"oh, i'm sorry, gil." she whispered in a cheerful tone with her watery eyes, thinking that all of that had to be the product of her own imagination "gil what happened to you?" she asked eventually, still holding onto his hands.

he smilled to her again "we had a small accident along the way, as you can see." he said without any fear or sadness in his voice, pointing at his bandaged arm.

"a small accident?" julia repeated with a raised eye

ow.

he chuckled "you didn't change a bit, did you, jules?" he patted julia's hand gently "our plane was bombed, by a total accident but thankfully it wasn't bombed so badly it exploded, it just stopped working and in the end we all landed in the nearby river." he explained as if nothing happened at all.

"well then you really were lucky, weren't you?" she replied and kissed gilly's hand once again "and we meet at last!" she laughed and so did gil.

"yes, under the most unexpected circumastances of course." he said with a smirk crossing his exhausted face "tell me, how are you , jules?"

"i am perfectly fine and very much occupied, i must admit." she answered looking around at all the new men that arrived that night.

gil nodded in agreement "i can imagine... so…" he started but mrs ashby interrupted their converstaion with her old and grumpy voice.

"nurse blythe! what do you think you're doing?!" she shouted looking at both julia and gilly, rushing to gil's bed with clenched fists.