When the door opened again, about half an hour later, Dorothy recognised the uniform of a superior Japanese officer. He was flanked by two other guards, including the one from earlier. The superior looked angry and ready to read her the riot act, but she got in ahead of him.
‘Please, help me, sir! My baby is sick! Look, sir!’ She showed him Noel’s bright-red, angry face.
The guard stared at the child for a moment, then seemed to take pity on Dorothy. He paused, as if considering what to do, then turned to one of his comrades and spoke in a flurry of Japanese.
‘You go hospital,’ he said, then nodded at Dorothy and beckoned for her to follow him.
Dorothy forced a reassuring smile for the girls and told them not to worry, then followed the guards out along the walkway.
As with everything else in Changi Jail, the ‘hospital’ was a makeshift facility in a dilapidated wooden hut. Prisoners with medical training volunteered their services as best they could with the pitiful resources available to them. The guard took herinside the hut and pointed at a row of chairs in the corner, then left to wait outside. Opposite the chairs were two dirty white doors labelled ‘Doctor’ and ‘Nurse,’ and a cardboard sign on the wall indicated that the corridor down the side of the building led to the ward.
Noel’s yelling had eased while they had been walking to the hospital, with the pre-storm breeze cooling him a little. But now that they had stopped and were inside a stuffy building, he began again in full force.
‘Oh dear, someone doesn’t sound very happy!’ a British voice called out cheerfully as the doctor’s door opened.
Dorothy looked up from Noel’s tear-stained, angry face to see a familiar figure walking towards her. Their eyes met and they both stared in amazement.
‘Dorothy?’
‘Dr Archie!’
They both spoke at the same time, then laughed at the awkwardness of it. ‘It’s so good to see you,’ he began, then opened his arms to her. Dorothy needed no further encouragement, she got to her feet, shifting the whimpering Noel onto her hip, and let herself be pulled into the doctor’s welcoming embrace.
After everything that had happened over the last few weeks, the relief of seeing a friendly face and feeling his supportive arms around her was overwhelming. For so long, she had had to hold everything together and be strong. But the dam burst now and the tears that she had been resisting finally began to flow.
‘There now,’ Dr Archie soothed, stroking her back. ‘It’s alright, Dorothy, everything will be alright.’
The doctor led her into his consulting room. He was thinner than when Dorothy had last seen him and, despite hisusual cheery smile and manner, she could tell he was exhausted. He had always been so smart at the hospital, but his hair was long and shaggier now and his beard had grown out, making him look older. But one thing had not changed: his calm, caring manner and the sense of peace that Dorothy felt when she was around him. And she needed that now, more than ever.
Dr Archie ushered Dorothy into a chair and took the baby from her. Noel seemed fascinated by the new, bearded face and the distraction seemed to have calmed him. ‘Now, tell me,’ the doctor asked with a smile, ‘who’s this handsome little chap?’
And so it all came out. Everything that had happened since Dorothy had said goodbye to Dr Archie some months earlier. He had left the Alexandra Military Hospital back in January, when he’d been called up to accompany a medical team caring for retreating troops in Malaya. But the mission had ended in disaster, with the entire party being captured by the Japanese and marched off to the prisoner-of-war camp.
Never would Dorothy have dreamed of sharing her personal affairs with Dr Archie when they had worked together at the hospital, but everything had changed. She had held it all together for so long, but now it all poured out. She told him all about her husband’s infidelity, her miscarriages, Douglas’s death, her botched escape from Singapore, surviving on Pom Pong Island and, lastly, the promise she had made to take care of Douglas’s child.
Dr Archie listened carefully, all the while tending to the baby. He sat him in a small metal basin on the consultation bed and washed him, wiping him down gently with wet flannels that had seen better days. There was a small electric fan in the room and the soft breeze it created, combined withthe water, cooled and calmed Noel. More compliant now, it was easier for Dr Archie to lie him down on the bed and examine him.
‘So there we have it,’ Dorothy concluded her story with a sad smile. ‘Quite alone in the world and stuck here for goodness knows how long, failing miserably at taking care of this poor little chap.’ Tears formed in her eyes and Dr Archie came straight over. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
‘It is a fine thing you have done, Dorothy. A very fine thing, indeed. I don’t know many women who could have done what you have. And . . . ’ He paused. ‘Please know this,’ he continued more softly. ‘You are not on your own. Not anymore.’ He squeezed her shoulder, then cleared his voice a little awkwardly.
‘Anyway, it’s good news for this young man; nothing too serious,’ he smiled reassuringly at Dorothy, ‘Poor little mite was overheating and terribly dehydrated. We just need to keep him cool and make sure he gets plenty of water.’
Dorothy hadn’t realised that she was holding her breath until she released it now in a long sigh. She watched as Dr Archie took a bundle of white rags from a box in the corner of the room, tore off a triangle and expertly fashioned a clean nappy for the baby. Then he picked him up and sat him on his knee. He held out the little boy’s hand and drew gentle circles on his palm with his finger.‘Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear, One step, two step; tickle you under there!’
The little boy smiled as the doctor went through the actions of the nursery rhyme, finishing off with a gentle tickle under his armpit. The feeling of relief that he was going to be alright flowed through Dorothy and made her smile, too.
A brief tap on the door and a nurse appeared. ‘I’m sorry to bother you, Dr Archie, but you’re needed in the ward. Six more have come in and we’re running out of beds. I don’t know what we’re going to do.’
The doctor nodded calmly and told her that he’d be right there. ‘No rest for the wicked!’ he said with a wry smile, once the nurse had left. ‘We are so short staffed here; two of the other doctors are down with malaria and our nurses are dropping like flies, too. I just hope to goodness that it isn’t dysentery, as that will spread like wildfire and we’ve precious little in the way of medication.’
‘Let me help!’ The words tumbled out of Dorothy’s mouth before she’d had time to think. ‘I mean, I can help you. I’m a nurse. I want to help you. And I need to keep busy. Please say I can?’
His smile was all the confirmation she needed.
A few days later, once baby Noel was well enough to be left in the care of one of the other mothers, Dorothy made her way to the hospital for her first shift. The pitiful conditions and lack of resources made the work extremely challenging, but it felt good to be useful and to help where she could.
Dysentery had, indeed, started to spread and the ward was overflowing with the pale, gaunt figures of the afflicted prisoners. After months of forced labour, deprivation and malnutrition, they were too weak to fight the disease and many died. With so few medical supplies available, treatment was limited and rudimentary. All they could do was isolate the sick and rehydrate them as best they could with the clean water available. If they were lucky, they would administer quinine which the Red Cross had sent in. Those who were able to eat were fed watery rice and powdered charcoal in a bid to build up their strength.
