20. Arrival And Departure (1/2)

chapter xix

the new wave of soldiers arrived in the middle of fe

uary. julia and all the other nurses were very busy again (not that they had days when there was no work) and julia actually didn't mind at all, although she was enourmously exhausted by the amount of work she was doing for the past three years already. she knew that her mind was occupied and therefore she wasn't allowed to think of anything else but doing in what she was best: helping others.

leslie got used to work as a nurse as well as walt's lily who signed up as a vad at the beginning of the year. lily seemed to "really like it", mostly because she was close to her fiancee. julia was quite disappointed that lily didn't go to work in her hospital in london and went to basingstoke instead, but as lily assured her in her letter: "your matron wrote me that your hospital is fully equipped with both people and equipment for medical uses.". and to her surprise, julia could really believe that.

olive, claire, leslie and julia were during their night-duty and each of them were working in four different parts of the hospital, simply whirled into work. julia was running up and down the hall with bandages and morphine in her hands, hardly being able to see or hear that some of the soldiers that arrived were canadians. suddenly, just after hearing the distant sound of shouting, julia saw and more importantly heard her cousin running, or maybe even flying towards her with perfectly red and wet face "julia! he's found! he's found!" she was shouting and threw her arms on julia.

"leslie, you don't mean gilly, do you?" she replied hurriedly and then under seeing her friend's shining eyes, she gasped

eathlessly "do you? oh my goodness!" she shouted. she turned her head quickly to a soldier lying on the bed next to her.

"you go, sister. i'll wait for you." the man said joyfully and one second later he could see the two happy nurses running together to the next block.

"is he alright?" julia asked leslie when they opened the door of the main hall.

"a bullet was found in his thigh, but other than that, he seems fine." leslie replied in a very high-pitched voice.

julia laughed cheerfully and thought that after all, god was still there and was watching after her boys.

flying officer gilbert ford, was quite badly wounded in his thigh and had to stay in the hospital for the next four months. julia, leslie and their family were crying with joy which was quickly spreading across their faces and some of the spark of the old days from before the war came back into their lives. blythe teased julia in his next letter. he wrote: "i will say something very overrated and not new at all but there you go: told you! didn't i tell you he is safe and sound? didn't i?".

but the remaining question was, why did gil get wounded and missing? gilly explained it all to the girls the day after he was found in the hospital: "my plane crushed into the woods of the unknown land somewhere, i presume, in italy. from the group of five pilot-men in our cabin, only me and the other officer, frank harolds, survived the landing.

"we got out of the airplane and we started looking for any kind of camp which belonged to the

itish. however quickly before we got out of the plane, four germans found us while patrolling the woods. they recognised us by our uniforms and we started running away as quickly as we could. unfortunately they had guns and we didn't. that's why my thigh is in the condition as it is now.

"after they shot me in the thigh and frank in the arm, they took us to their camp and we stayed there as their prisoners for this whole time. they didn't beat us or anything, thank goodness, we just had to stay in our cell. my biggest problem during this time was that i couldn't do anything with my thigh and that frank was in the other cell and we couldn't communicate in any way.

"we escaped one week ago, when the

itish won over the germans and took over their camp. they found us and immediately sent us here for the recovery."

"and here you are." leslie hugged her

other's arm tenderly.

"and here i am." he agreed and squeezed her hand "with you my girls." and he smiled at both julia and leslie. and then the three of them cried together for the rest of the afternoon.

one night in april, julia and leslie found gilly talking in a very passionate way with the other nurse. a very pretty, dark-haired nurse. julia and leslie later on would find out that her name was faye williams. leslie's eyes filled up with anger and she made a step forwards in order to go and ask the nurse for some privacy with her long-lost

other. however julia stopped her by grabbing her arm "leslie, leave them." she said to her cousin gently.

"but why can she talk with my

other and i can't?" she hissed "with my

other whom i almost thought was dead? why would i leave them? alone?".

"because…" julia started and turned her friend around to face them "-they are in love." and she smiled gladly. leslie humphed angrily and came back to their room, clenching her fists like a little girl. julia rolled her eyes. she took one last glance at her cousin and the mysterious nurse, then turned around and she hopped back to their room as well.

and so, flight officer gilbert ford, returned to the front at the beggining of june, being kissed from head to toe by not two but three girls whom he loved.

leslie got used to the idea of gilly having a sweetheart because as it turned out, faye williams was a very nice nineteen-year old

itish nurse. she was very polite and quiet and it was even hard to believe that the loud and funny gil was interested in her. but he was, and he told so leslie and julia: "and as quiet and shy as she is, she entered my life quietly without making any sound, and she will remain in it till the very end."

there was never a chance for either julia or leslie to get to know more of faye because she was moved to a different hospital in the south of london. however julia had a feeling that she will see her again, though not in england but in her very own glen. one day.

dear sheba,

i feel very proud of you again, that you decided to sign up as a military nurse and go "into the continent" after the summer. i won't say that i'm not worried because i am; who knows what kind of things will welcome you there? but i feel glad because i know that you want to do it, and i'm especially glad that you will go there with this olive of yours.

this is really ridiculous how quickly time flies when you are whirled up in war. can you believe it's june 1943 already? i can't. i am twenty-two years old and i'm a flight lieutenant! who would have thought, back six years ago, what would become of me in the end?