‘We had some new arrivals in the huts overnight,’ Frank said, nodding. ‘I’ve just started my shift but apparently there are some pilots that have been brought in. More burns, by the sound of it.’
I made a face, thinking of Nelly’s moans as she prepared for her treatment. ‘So many burns.’
‘It’s the dogfights,’ Frank said. ‘I think they’ll be sent on this time because they’re worse than the other lot. But reckon it won’t be long before we get more in. Those huts are getting lots of use.’
‘Poor sods.’ It was a sobering thought that the new wards were already full. It seemed to me that things would get worse before they got better. If they ever got better. I stared at my feet, thinking about all the sisters like me who’d lost brothers, and children who’d lost fathers, and wives who’d lost husbands.
‘That’s where I was heading now actually.’
‘Where?’ I looked up at Frank.
‘The huts.’
My gloom lifted a little bit.
‘Well, perhaps they’d like to write if they’re up to it,’ I said. ‘Thanks, Frank.’
‘No problem at all, Elsie.’ He took the book I was holding out, and put it on the trolley he was pushing, which was laden with bandages and saline for baths and bottles of iodine. I felt a bit sick knowing what was in store for those men.
He gave me a jaunty wave, then disappeared off through the door.
We’d had lots of new patients overnight, brought down from East London, so I was very busy all day and didn’t get a moment to think about the book. Which was a blessing really, I thought. For me and my patients.
After I’d handed over to the night shift, I went to try and track down the book, which wasn’t hard because Frank appeared, holding it aloft triumphantly.
‘Got loads more to write in it,’ he said. ‘There was even a bit of a tussle at one point. Everyone’s really keen to get involved. I wondered …’ He stopped.
‘Do you want to write in it, Frank?’ I asked.
He nodded. ‘I wouldn’t mind, but I wondered if it was just for the patients?’
‘Not at all,’ I reassured him. ‘Do it now, if you like?’ I was itching to see if my mystery letter-writer had replied but even so, I wanted Frank to have a chance to write his own message.
‘Not today,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a think about what I want to say. I might jot down some thoughts about working here, during all this.’
‘That would be perfect.’
He handed me the book and I thanked him, and headed off to see Nelly.
She was the same. Her nurses had propped her up a bit so she was more upright. I suspected it was to help her breathe because she was still on oxygen and her breathing was slow and laboured thanks to the smoke she’d inhaled, and her airway being burned.But it made her look more “with it” despite her white face covering and her body still being swathed in bandages.
She was awake when I crept into her room and I was glad.
‘How are you today?’
She gave me a thumbs-up sign with her hand, like the pilots did in their cockpits, and I grinned, pulling her chart out from the end of her bed and scanning it quickly. She was still on a high dose of pain relief, but they’d reduced her sedation during the day. What worried me slightly was that nothing was happening really. Nelly wasn’t being transferred to a different hospital like the new pilots were, which made me think the doctors were still nervous to move her. I turned the page in her notes, trying to see if there was anything in there that would give me a clue about what the doctors had planned, but Nelly tapped her hand on the bed impatiently, so I shut her notes instead.
‘I’ve got the book,’ I said. ‘I wrote a note to him, a sort of test to see if I could work out who he is, but I’ve not looked to see if he’s replied yet.’
Nelly tapped on the bed again.
‘I wish you could talk,’ I said. ‘I miss hearing your voice.’
She gestured to herself with her finger, and I thought she was saying “me too”. But that gave me an idea.
‘I don’t want to tire you out, Nell,’ I said. ‘But what about if I write out the alphabet in the book and you can point to the letters and spell out words?’
She did a thumbs up again so quickly I turned to a clean page in the book and wrote large letters from A to Z.
