“Here Leona, hold her while I clean up here.” Turning to the Colonel she ordered him to go get cleaned up. He was covered in fluid and looking down at his uniform he agreed. He gingerly grabbed a robe and headed for the bathroom while Cass cleaned up his wife. Upon his return a while later Cass had him ‘help’ her change the bed linen. The bed was ruined from the fluids that had drained out of his wife and they moved her out of the bedroom and into Cass’s bed for the time being until a bed could be found to replace that one. The Colonel called to have it removed and another one had to be found.
As Cass attended Trish who was so drowsy and out of it the Colonel returned from where he had taken back the baby from Leona. He noticed for the first time what Cass was wearing; from the bikini top to the shorts she was very inappropriately dressed.
“Lieutenant!” he barked.
Cass looked up in surprise. “Yes sir?” she responded automatically.
“I think you need to reconsider your um er, attire.” He blushed as he told her realizing her nipples were erect under the material.
Cass looked down to see what she was wearing. What was appropriate for the beach certainly wasn’t for the Colonel’s house. “Yes sir,” she said almost cocky and quickly grabbed a robe and some clothes and left her room leaving the Colonel with his wife and baby.
The Colonel couldn’t be any more pleased than if he had birthed the baby himself. He had of course been shocked by his wife’s language towards him but Cass had said she would forget it. The baby was making happy bubbly noises and he looked at it with awe. He had arranged for some of that new-fangled formula to be sent from the States as Trish had been adamant that she wasn’t a cow and wouldn’t be ‘feeding’ this child. He had of course, agreed.
Cass was of course horrified by the idea. Natural mother’s milk was best for the baby but ‘Doctor Anderson’ pointed out case studies that suggested the formula was every bit as good as mother’s milk. Cass tried to argue that mother’s milk imparted more than just nutrition but many other important things to a newborns diet but she was again vetoed by the superior ‘intelligence’ of the good ‘Doctor.’
Cass also vehemently objected when it was assumed she would be the child’s caretaker since Trish showed no signs of wanting to take care of the baby. The Colonel saw nothing wrong with this idea. Cass had all of the skills necessary to take care of the baby and she wasn’t ‘needed’ at the hospital. It was only when Cass demanded that she be transferred to the hospital and then threatened to take it to the Colonel’s superiors that they ousted her out of their home and into the barracks that she would share with the other nurses.
“Welcome, welcome, we thought you’d never get here!” Pamela gave her a big hug of welcome.
Cass sighed, grateful to be out of the ‘mad house’ that she had been in for so many months.
Everyone welcomed her; they all knew her of course from her ‘clandestine’ visits to the hospital not only for supplies but to see her friends Pamela and Annette. In no time at all she fit in. The schedule worked out well for her and she felt her skills were finally being utilized. The doctors soon appreciated her perceptions and treated her almost as a colleague. Except for the book learning and degree she knew many things they did, a wide variety of cases had given her a unique perspective. She was a favorite with the patients from the beginning on. The only fly in the ointment that now that her ‘usefulness’ to her commanding officer and his wife was at an end they had decided that she was ungrateful and were trying to get her reassigned. Her refusal to sign a letter asking for a transfer had infuriated the Colonel. He could of course just ‘reassign’ her but with all the demands he had made on her behalf to get her there for his wife his commanding officers had already vetoed that idea. She was an excellent nurse and had a short but good record, they saw no reason she should be reassigned. He decided that he would make her life hell from then on, trying to assign her the worst cases, the worst hours, but what he didn’t realize that was after months of having lived with himself and his wife this was paradise to her. No job was too dirty, too disgusting, or too much for her. She did it cheerfully and with obvious skill. The doctors soon realized what was up after a few of the nurses confided in them and they did their best to protect Cass from their slightly arrogant commanding officer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The war was not going well. Casualties were mounting up. The Japanese were entrenched all through the islands and they were getting threats that their island might have to be evacuated at some point. Drills were held in preparation for such an event. Many many hurt young men came through their hospital before being transported further to places such as Pearl Harbor, Manilla, or points in Australia before being further transported back to the States or other countries that participated in the war.
Cass kept the morale up on the more serious cases, the ones too sick to be transported until they got strong enough to go the next step in their eventual rotation back home. Some of these men ended up ‘recuperating’ in their hospital for months, as a result they became like family to the staff. It was hard to remain indifferent to them or treat them as ‘just’ patients when there were months of shared confidences and experiences. Cass’s sunny disposition, a result of having escaped the looney bin and the farce of hiding her emotions over missing Stephanie and her family made her a favorite among both staff and patients. Her stories about the animals on her farm made them all miss home but they were amusing and enjoyed by all. Some of them were rather outlandish but she assured them that they were all true.
When she told how she had killed not one but two bears the summer before she joined up they thought for sure she was joshing them all but when she was given a rifle and they target practiced she got ten out of ten targets dead on, the stories tended to take on new meaning at that point.
“If those Japs run us over we should leave Cass out on the mountain and she can be a sniper,” one of the Australians joshed.
Cass bore their teasing with good will. At Christmas she shared Scheimer’s treats with all that she could. Stephanie had sent a large box of treats including honey, jelly, cookies, cider, juice, and homemade candies. It was consumed within hours but the jars with the Scheimer name plastered on them impressed many. Cass gave a bar of sweet smelling soap to each of her two closest friends Annette and Pamela but didn’t have enough to share anymore. Cass wrote how much all the treats were appreciated and Stephanie wrote back how hurt she was that she shared them when they were for her and no one else, she had put extra love into them for her, not all her new friends. Cass didn’t understand why she was behaving this way but unable to ask her without sounding equally as petty she let it drop.
Cass sensed a difference in Stephanie’s letters as the months went by. She seemed to resent everything that the farm represented without Cass there to do the work. Cal she felt was useless and she couldn’t tolerate his presence there. He had been ‘home’ for over a year and showed no signs of leaving. What could Cass do from half a world away? She tried to understand but threw out countless letters trying to advise Stephanie on what to do or even Cal. She couldn’t throw her brother off his own farm! Instead she wrote less and worked more.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Stephanie realized she was being petty. Cal did try to do too much; it was how he hurt himself again. She saw how good he was with the children and she couldn’t really fault him for that. He kept them out of her hair as she tried to run the farm all by herself. She wasn’t Cass though, she couldn’t do it all. Cal hired men to do the heavy stuff but Stephanie needed to be in the kitchen to do the canning, the storing, the cooking. More men on the farm meant more work in the kitchen for her to feed them. Cal didn’t know what more he could do but the men were producing results, opening more fields and cutting more wood for the mill.
Stephanie began to admire instead of despise Cal as he made a few subtle suggestions hesitantly to her thriving business. Scheimers home goods was really taking off as they didn’t need cash but
bartered on many levels and supplied items to the stores in Merrill and as far away as Wausau. The fact that these items were ‘limited’ worked in their favor. Cal was able to help her plant the many seedlings in the new open fields that she had grown around the house in the windows and then in the green house for the pear and apple orchard. As time went on her resentment seemed to lesson at his presence and she appreciated his organizing the men who now worked on the farm for them.
Daily Cal drove or rode with Timmy to school outside of Merrill. The small one room schoolhouse was just a little far for the little boy to go himself and Cal enjoyed the time spent with the little boy. He was a fascinating creature. The riding on the horse seemed to help Cal’s damaged leg too as it forced him to use muscles that had stiffened from him lying on the couch for so long. He was down to a cane now and the Doc thought perhaps he might always use it, the fact he hadn’t lost his leg was a testament to how good his sister’s doctoring was. Doc at least could acknowledge that Cass was good.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Cass had been on the island nearly a year when Trish approached her again trying to wheedle her way into Cass’s good graces. Apparently she was pregnant again and wanted Cass to move back into the Colonel and her home. Cass refused out right. The Colonel blustered and threatened to take ‘official’ action but Cass had enough confidence in her abilities and the Army’s procedures that she knew the hell he had put her through would be enough to hang him if an ‘official’ investigation every really got launched. She appeased them by agreeing to deliver her when the time came but refused to exam her unless she came to hospital.
“You know, he can make your life worse,” Annette told her as she and Pamela took her to the beach on a rare day off that they had together.
“Yes he can but really, what can he do, complain that I’m not doing my job? He will have all the doctor’s here up in revolt. They would testify against him and then where would he be?”
Annette had to admit she was right. She so admired her knew that her heart was involved but after her one aborted attempt to make a pass at her had remained her friend. She sighed, life wasn’t fair. It had proven that to her time and time again. She watched as Pamela flirted with one of the patients who was ‘recuperating’ on the beach. It was so much easier for her, she could love or be loved by a man but for people like Annette finding a woman to love was hard enough, finding one to love her back was nearly impossible.
Cass knew of course about Annette’s attraction for her. She didn’t know how to handle it any other way that to ignore it. She treated her as she would any other friend. She was closest with Pamela and Annette but the others were good friends too. Some came and some had gone on to other assignments but the core group was still there and they enjoyed the camaraderie their friendship garnered. She got up and headed into the waves enjoying the turquoise color of the ocean at this place having never seen it before she came here. Even in Hawaii the ocean wasn’t quite this color. She would never have thought of wearing a bikini or shorts before she met these people. The heat no longer bothered her, she had acclimated and she wondered how cold Merrill would feel after having lived in the South Seas for so long. She missed Merrill and wished things were better between her and Stephanie but the letters were fewer between them and she sent general letters to the ‘family’ instead of her lover.
“Lieutenant Scheimer?” an officious voice asked her.
Cass looked up from the patient she was changing the dressings on. “Yes,” she glanced at his insignia. “Sir?”
“I’m the Chaplain, Captain Schultz. I was asked to contact you on your families behalf. Is this a convenient time?”
Cass was gripped in a feeling of horror, what had happened back home? She finished the dressing and the patient gave her a curious look wondering at her summons. Standing up she indicated to the Chaplain that they should walk out of the ward. “What happened?” she asked once they were out of earshot of the patients.
“What do you mean ‘what happened?’” he asked confused and then seeing the inquiring look in her face and realizing how he had worded his request he realized what he had done. Shaking his head he answered, “Oh, no, no, no. Your family was concerned because they hadn’t been receiving letters from you in quite some time. They were worried that something had happened to you and a Doctor…” he looked down at his paperwork that he was carrying. “Doctor Stettin contacted the Army to see if something had happened to you, why you weren’t writing?” he said kindly.
The relief to Cass was obvious immediately. It had never occurred to her that something would happen back home. She had thought it would all stay the same while she was out in the world helping the men fighting the war. She saw death and destruction on a daily basis. She heard horrific stories time and again. She was inured to those things. But thoughts of something happening back home had never occurred to her.
“Are you okay Lieutenant? Is there a reason you haven’t been writing your family as much or at all?” the kindly Chaplain asked.
“No sir, I’ve just been busy doing my duty here.” She gestured to the hospital as they left it. “I’ll go write them after my shift today.” She tried to smile, the relief was overwhelming.
He returned the smile, his duty done. He gave her a mock salute, they were pretty informal here and left her.
Cass knew why she had stopped writing; Stephanie’s complaints had made her not want to respond. She hadn’t seen her in well over a year and had nothing to say other than her day-to-day mundane things and it was obvious that Stephanie didn’t want to hear them from her own missives. She sighed. She would try to write more often, find something exciting to say, describe the natives or the island itself but wracking her brain she thought she had already done that...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Missy Lieutenant come, the Missus is having the baby,” a native boy called to Cass. They were not allowed in the hospital and he called from the front steps. It irritated Cass that the natives, who had lived here for generations weren’t even allowed in the hospital that had been built on their land. Their ailments were treated in their huts, an elder or a family member sent to fetch any available doctor when necessary. Cass’s willingness to treat them had allowed her to be ‘spared’ to help on many an occasion. She now had an ‘official’ doctor’s bag and fetched it to deliver the Colonel’s wife.
The rain was coming down and she was drenched before she even got to the first hut in the village much less to the other end where the Colonel’s house was located. Cass hadn’t been in this house in over a year. The cold struck her immediately. It was too cold actually and she wanted to ask that the windows be opened but the rain would upset Trish and Cass remembered well the last delivery. She knew Trish didn’t but she did, very well. She had seen the two of them walking about, she hoped that Trish had listened to her other advice but seeing the box of bon-bon’s on the side table realized she probably hadn’t. She hoped this was the longed for son or Trish was going to be very angry.
“God, Cass, this hurts, worse than last time,” Trish exaggerated and whined when she saw her arrive. She was strangely relieved to see her there, a familiar face, and in her distorted mind, a friendly one. The truth could be altered in Trish’s world.
Cass examined her without the words of comfort she normally gave her patients. Trish wasn’t going to listen to her anyway so why bother. She found it was coming along well. There were no surprises. This time she put down plastic so that Trish wouldn’t ruin the mattress. She got rags and newspapers down on the floor and encouraged Trish to begin to push when she was fully dilated. Trish thought she was ‘trying’ but Cass could tell she would have to help again. She didn’t want to use the horrible forceps that some doctor’s advocated or cut into her. They were cruel and she didn’t like the idea. There were better, more natural ways and although she had to ‘force’ the baby from Trish’s body once again, she knew if Trish wanted another baby she would be able to. No Cesarean would be necessary. Leona
was there to help her again as the Colonel was off island for a change. He had protested but when ordered to attend a meeting he had been forced to go. Trish hadn’t been happy and Cass heard about it all the way at the other end of the village in the hospital. The temper tantrum apparently had been something to behold.
“It’s a girl!” Cass tried to cheerfully tell Trish but with a groan the woman fell back on the bed. Cass cleaned up the baby and had Leona hold her as she forced the placenta from Trish’s body and cut the cords. Cleaning up Trish and tucking her in bed she fed her a little opiate so she would sleep. Trish had been a little on edge, more so than what was hormonal and Cass suspected she had a mental problem, beyond the self-absorbed spoiled brat she knew her to be.
The poor servant they had ‘commandeered’ from the village to take care of their older daughter named ‘Faith’ was now to care for this unwanted daughter as well. The only attention either child would get was from the Colonel, certainly not from their mother.
Cass cleaned everything up and returned to the hospital to spread the news that the Colonel now had a second daughter and from the looks of several people they knew that Mrs. Anderson would not be happy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The allies pushed and pushed and the Japanese fanatically pushed back. The amount of men who came through their hospital from the triage hospitals was incredible. They couldn’t handle them like they had in the past, they ran out of supplies. Cass’s knowledge of alternative medicines was useless here in the tropics with a jungle versus a woods with plenty of cures awaiting. The things that really bothered her were the boys who had burns from chemicals that were used to discourage the enemy from fighting them. The Japanese were merciless and when rumors periodically started that they were soon to be overrun on their little island people panicked. There were times the village was almost deserted as the natives took their little boats and left the island for parts unknown only to return in the dead of night in a matter of days. It was unnerving to see the empty village but then suddenly it would be back to ‘normal’ and the children playing in the streets once again.
The Journey Home Page 29
