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Chapter 12
Late July
Meg tapped on the doorof the nurses’ hut before entering, clipboard in hand. Five faces turned towards her as she sniffed the air appreciatively. ‘Please tell me you made a pot of hot cocoa and there’s some left!’
Catherine picked up a mug and poured in the last of the contents of the pot. ‘Sorry, only the dregs I’m afraid. If you’d been here two minutes earlier—’
Meg tucked her clipboard under her arm and wrapped both hands around the mug. ‘Dregs or not, this is welcome. Considering how warm the days are, I’m never quite prepared for the cool nights here.’ She buried her nose in the mug then sipped and sighed with pleasure. ‘It’s good.’
Gerry nudged the nurse next to her. ‘Squish up a bit, Pam. Maggie, take a load off your feet.’
Meg perched on the edge of the bunk and looked around. Three of the occupants of number two hut, which included Catherine, plus Gerry and Mary Donovan from Meg’s hut were relaxing together. ‘Where’s Eva? Isn’t she off-duty too?’
Catherine and Gerry shared a look, but it was Eva’s cabin mate who answered. ‘You know Bill Grossman, the supply sergeant she met at one of the dances? He picked her up when she came off duty and whisked her away. I heard him remark how lovely moonlight on the water is as they strolled down the driveway.’
Gerry drained her mug and set it at her feet. ‘Working in Supply means he’s got easy access to the car pool. My guess is he’s taking her down to The Strand and I don’t think he wants to show her the view, if you get my drift.’
Pam laughed. ‘A car, a beach, and moonlight on the water. Sounds like a seduction to me.’
A sigh from Gerry filtered through the laughter of the other nurses. ‘How come Eva’s the lucky one to hit on one of the few blokes with access to a vehicle? And on a Saturday night.’
Mary’s expression turned wistful. ‘I can hardly remember what Saturday nights were like before the war.’
‘Are you envious of Eva, Gerry?’ For all that Gerry was attractive, she hadn’t taken a shine to any of the men she’d met. American or Australian, not one had caught her interest beyond socialising at the occasional dances, and yet she loved fine clothes and good times, dressing up and flirting.
Gerry shrugged and leaned back on her elbows. ‘Not envious of her. Just tired of being confined here. Five or six miles is a bit far to walk to a beach when we’re off duty.’
‘True.’ Meg finished her cocoa and stood with a sigh. It had been a long day on the ward for all of them. Two patients had been brought in with malaria and a jeep had gone into a ditch near Garbutt air base. Then, while the other nurses went off duty and relaxed, Meg had stayed back and written up the roster.
She glanced at the page on her clipboard. Doc had asked her to join him at a gathering of medical supervisors and head nurses, but despite the fact it was technically still work, she felt guilty about taking an evening off.
‘I’ll post the roster for the next seven days on the board. Any urgent changes, find someone you can switch with before you okay it with me. Thanks for the pick-me-up cocoa. Good night, ladies.’
##
Meg sat up abruptly. Something out of the ordinary had woken her, beyond an occasional snore that interrupted the gentle breathing of her cabin mates. Slipping her feet into her boots and pulling on her dressing gown, she slipped out of the hut and looked around. The moon was almost full and silvery light lent an ethereal grace to the workday ugliness of surrounding huts.
It was probably a possum.
And since she was awake, she might as well visit the nurses’ loo. A recent need to go more often reminded her she didn’t have much time to choose a nominee for her position. Telling Doc would be hard, but if she could at least recommend a replacement backed up by her notes on nursing personnel, she’d feel a bit better about deserting him—them. No one was indispensable, but the anticipation of having Seamus’s baby wasn’t enough to make her feel their timing wasn’t terrible. Not now the war in the Pacific had grown fiercer, and the battleground in Papua New Guinea was on their doorstep.
As she returned to her hut, a hunched figure at the edge of the croquet lawn resolved into Eva. In uniform. Sobbing. Meg approached cautiously and quietly, but Eva didn’t look up, not even when Meg put a hand on her shoulder.
‘Has something happened, Eva?’
The nurse struggled to take more than a short breath, and the moonlight was enough to reveal the wreck of her make up. ‘They’re—coming!’ She choked on the word and flung herself into Meg’s arms.
Several minutes of cajoling and soothing passed before Eva settled enough to make sense and when she did, her words chilled Meg to the bone.
‘Bill and I were parked above one of the beaches when we saw them. Three or four planes—I don’t know for sure, but they dropped lots of bombs. Bill reckoned they all landed in the sea, but after the first one hit, I hid my eyes. Oh, God, they’re coming here, aren’t they? They’re going to invade us.’ Eva began rocking back and forth, moaning softly.
Holding Eva and patting her back, Meg’s mind raced. Had Eva even witnessed a real bombing? There hadn’t been any alarm raised, although the alarm that had sounded before the bombing in Darwin had been almost useless. Two minutes’ warning about an attack of that size was ridiculous. But if the Japanese had dropped bombs, why hadn’t the hospital been put on alert?
‘Come on, Eva. Let’s get you inside and—’
‘Sisters, good evening. Or is it morning?’ Dr Ransom appeared from the direction of the hospital, his stethoscope draped around his neck. Coming from a late call to a patient, Meg reasoned, but she was glad to see him. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘Good morning, Doctor. Sister Smith is a bit shaken up. She said she saw some Japanese planes dropping bombs.’
