Infected Poppy Fields

by Alathia Paris Morgan

  Who was I to say no to this gorgeous blond beauty?

  “Lead on.” If she’d have said that she was going to take me straight to the enemy lines, I wouldn’t have worried about it.

  ------

  Vivianne hadn’t been joking when she’d said I could see the town with her. The only that took away from the excitement of seeing a new city was the constant bombing in the distance. Occasionally, a bomb would come closer to the edges of town, but it didn’t seem to even affect her at all.

  “Aren’t you worried about the bombs?” I couldn’t hold in my concern.

  “No, the Germans couldn’t hit anything important even if they were across the street. We are no danger from the artillery fire and we’ve grown accustomed to it. It’s the bombs from planes that are a real cause for concern. All of our windows are covered in blackout curtains so that we don’t help them find us.” She brushed off my concern and continued toward a small building with a man guarding it.

  “Hi, Pierre. Is there still room for two more?” Her winning smile changed his expression.

  “For you, cherie’? Of course.” He gave an appraising look.

  “Fitz here is off duty for the next two days and I thought I’d show him a bit of theater while he was here.”

  He nodded knowingly and I wondered how many other men she’d brought to plays and shown the town over the course of the war. Even though she had explained that she wasn’t doing more than flirting, I had a moments worth of doubt.

  Inside the building there were absolutely no windows of any kind and chairs were sitting in rows and were filling quickly. I brushed off my claustrophobic thoughts and took my place next to Vivianne in one of the few sets of empty chairs.

  “Looks like we just made it.”

  “What’s the name of the play?” I whispered not having received a pamphlet when we entered.

  “It’s based off of the Pygmalion play, but our actors have shortened it and put their own spin on it.” She answered in a lower voice.

  While I’d never heard of the play before, I could tell where they’d improvised to make us laugh. For a short while I completely forgot about where I was or that at any time a bomb could fall and kill us all.

  As the actors came out onto the stage, I stood clapping just as enthusiastically as the rest of the audience.

  “That was simply amazing.” I declared holding my hat in my hands waiting for Vivianne to lead the way. Instead of heading toward the one exit, she made her way to the front and climbed up onto the small stage.

  “Vivianne,” I called trying to get her attention, but since there wasn’t anyone stopping her, I followed her lead pushing the curtains aside as a whole new world was discovered.

  Actors were moving around quickly and placing all of the props against the walls out to of the way to make room for walking around.

  “There he is. Let me introduce you to Fitz. He’s one of the surgeons at the hospital right outside the city in the old building they made work.”

  A chorus of “Great to meet you.” and “Any friend of Vivi’s is a friend of ours.” greeted me.

  With a little self-conscious wave, I hoped that we weren’t about to hang out here. While the play had been wonderful, I wasn’t ready to meet lots of new people.

  “I’ve been showing him the town and now we’re going to go over and get a quick meal at Madame Dubois’. See you around.” She kissed both cheeks of one of the younger men, “It was a great show.”

  He gave a blush at her attention and I could understand his reaction. “It wasn’t anything. Besides, you’ve seen it so many times you could probably play one of the roles yourself.”

  “I’m not an actor like you, Peter.” She turned to take my arm again and the next thing I knew we were out in the alley.

  “Um, is this normally where you hang out?” I teased looking around hoping we weren’t about to be mugged.

  “No, silly. They close the front as soon as the last person is through and so the only way out is through the back.” She giggled at my statement.

  Even as we made our way out onto one of the regular streets the lack of streetlights was very disarming.

  “How do you know where to go?” I questioned as my shoe hit a bump in the road.

  “I’ve lived here all my life and could probably walk around blindfolded. Plus, it’s better to be a little stealthy when I’m acquiring the items for you guys at the hospital.” She explained leading me down a few more narrow streets where cars wouldn’t be able to pass through.

  Madame Dubois is one of the women I supply and for that she makes sure that I always have a good meal waiting before I settle in for the night.

  I was afraid to ask anything else because it might mean that I was about to visit a house of ill repute. I had laughed with my friends in New York about these kinds of places, but I hadn’t planned to ever visit one.

  The amount of service men and scantily dressed women should have let me know the kind of place we were entering, but it wasn’t until we were inside and my eyes had started to adjust that I gasp.

  “Not what you were thinking of huh?” She grinned and took me toward the back of what we would have termed back home a speakeasy.

  “Liquor isn’t illegal is it?” I didn’t want to seem like I was judging her choices, but I didn’t want to end up in a French jail for the rest of my stay in France.

  “Not illegal, just in short supply. You have to pay to get in and then it’s even higher for a few drinks, but like I said, they owe me.” She tugged on my hand and I reluctantly allowed her to sit me at a table in the very back of the room.

  Before we could take a seat, a large woman in an evening dress came over to our table.

  “Vivi, how wonderful to see you. It’s been a while since you’ve been here in the evening.” Turning toward me, her hand moved my chin from side to side, “He’s handsome. Our Vivi is always running in and out with deliveries, but she almost never stops for a quick hello.”

  “Madame Dubois is exaggerating. Don’t you know there’s a war on and someone has to move things from place to place?” Vivi took the teasing good naturedly.

  “You’ll be trying to rescue soldiers all by yourself next thing you know.”

  “Dodging police officers is more than enough excitement for me. I don’t think I’d make it through the battle fields. I see enough suffering at the hospital when I’m there.” She gave a shudder and I placed a hand over hers in a comforting gesture.

  “You’ve found yourself a gentleman it seems, well don’t let me keep you from enjoying the evening. We have a great jazz band playing tonight, I’ll tell the cook to make sure that you and your guest get a plate of food as soon as it’s ready.” Madame Dubois placed a parting kiss on Vivi’s cheek before she floated away.

  I couldn’t but stare that such a large woman could be so graceful in her movements.

  “You’ll have to excuse the Madame, she’s very protective of me.” Vivi explained as the band began to warm up.

  “That’s really nice that she looks out for you like that.” I noticed a few other couples starting to take to the small dance floor, “Would you like to dance?”

  This time it was Vivi that was blushing. “Um, I’d be honored.”

  I stood and held out a hand confident that I could lead in this time. “We didn’t have much time for dancing in medical school, but my mother made me take lessons before I left. I hope I’m not too rusty.”

  “We’ll have to see about that.” She tentatively placed a hand in mine as I pulled her out to the dance floor enjoying the music.

  The music kept us busy until Vivi tapped on my shoulder to get my attention.

  “They’ve got our food ready.” She nodded toward the man busy putting plates on the little table at the back. “If we don’t go, someone else will eat it for us.”

  “I’m starving, I’m not going to let anyone eat my dinner because it smells amazing.” I held out the chair for her.

  “Once you e
at Sammy’s cooking, you’ll never want to eat anywhere else again.” Vivi promised.

  “Mmm, this is amazing. How could he do this with so few rations?” I took another bite wanting to savor every drop.

  “Trading this and that will get a few perks. Things are always a commodity to trade for stuff, you just have to know the right people.” She gave me a wink.

  “If this is the kind of thing you can come up with then I might just be your new best friend.”

  A pout formed on her pretty lips, “I was hoping that we could be a little more than friends?”

  “Oh, well.” I choked on the food as she leaned forward to pat me on the back.

  Reaching for the glass of wine, I gulped it down trying to stall for just a moment.

  “Better?”

  “Uh, yeah. You know American girls aren’t quite so forward with their intentions. You caught me surprise.”

  “When you see something or someone you like then you can’t wait around to let them know. I mean there’s a war going on.” She laced her fingers over mine, “Are you mad?”

  “Nope, just unexpected. I am an army doctor so I don’t know how long I’ll be in any certain place though.”

  “Let’s just take it one day at a time and eat before it gets cold.”

  I couldn’t disagree with that thought.

  ------

  Instead of me walking Vivi home, she escorted me to my door since I had no idea where I was staying. It was a good thing I’d written down the address because after a day of wandering the streets of Paris, I would never have made it back to the lovely house.

  A little tipsy, but certainly not on the drunk side, I stood right outside the door to say goodnight.

  “I’m not sure how they do this over here, but may I kiss you goodnight?”

  She nodded and leaned in just enough so that I could leave a featherlike kiss on her lips.

  It was like a little shock of electricity when we touch. Instinctively, we jumped back.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, my.” We spoke in unison.

  “Would you like to try again?” I was going to take my cues from her earlier declaration.

  She didn’t speak in the semi-darkness, but wrapped her delicate hands around my neck.

  The night seemed to disappear from around us and the next thing I knew we in the room where I’d left my stuff earlier that in a tangle of sheets, arms and legs.

  After we had completely spent all of our energy, I watched as she crept down the hallway to use the shared bathroom.

  I never saw her enter the room or dig through my duffle bag because I was sound asleep.

  She was very quiet as she slipped one of the vials into her small bag.

  -------

  We spent the next two days walking around and sneaking back into the small room I’d rented.

  Vivi must have left quite early that last morning because when I got up to pack and get ready to leave she was gone.

  Mrs. Fabron saw me to the door. “Remember us for your next leave. I’ll make room for you no matter what.”

  With a wave, I began to walk back the few streets to where the truck had dropped me off three days ago.

  I shouldn’t have worried about Vivi because she fell into step beside me as soon as I was out of Mrs. Fabron’s sight.

  “Hey, I missed you this morning.”

  “I know, but it isn’t proper for a young lady to spend the night.” She gave me a suggestive look that said it hadn’t bothered her in the least.

  “While I’d love to see you when you stop by the hospital, I’m not sure that I’ll even be aware when you come by.” I felt a little depressed at the thought of going back to that hell hole.

  “It will be all right. When you have another weekend off, I’ll make sure to meet you. Between now and then I’ll keep remembering our time together as I restock supplies.”

  “Please be careful.” I pleaded stopping in the middle of the street.

  “I will,” She leaned up and placed a quick kiss on my cheek, “you do the same.”

  Without another word she disappeared and I knew that she didn’t want to be seen by the other soldiers.

  A small frown appeared as I thought about the fact that maybe she was seeing more than just me and rotated through several men on different weekends. It would explain why she would appear flirty with all men so that it didn’t look like she was showing favor to anyone in particular.

  I ran a hand over my face and shook the disturbing thoughts from my head as I made it into the square where the truck was waiting.

  This wasn’t the time to doubt her intentions, but I sincerely hoped that what we’d had was real.

  The sounds of artillery fire filled the air, I hadn’t even noticed it before when Vivi was with me because all of my attention was on her and not my surroundings.

  Our truck took off with a jerk and I had to leave my weekend behind me to work toward my future and my first solo surgery.

  -------

  As soon as she’d left me, Vivi went to meet her contact.

  “I’m not sure what I’ve uncovered, but this surgeon had a set of vials stuck in his duffle bag.” She handed it to the currier with the instructions to let her know if she needed to get more information from the surgeon.

  “I’ll make sure that the scientists receive it and have it tested. When they know what it is, then they may have questions for you.”

  “Understood. Anything that will make this war end earlier and give us French some peace would be wonderful.” Vivi hurried away confident that she was helping her country.

  That little vial traveled through many hands marked urgent before it landed on the desk of Rudi Vogel.

  Chapter 4

  Rudi Vogel

  I was the intern that worked for Emil Fischer and Fritz Haban as they worked to bring the magnificent Prussian army into the new age of military warfare.

  These two men were geniuses and I wanted to learn as much as possible from them during my internship.

  Normally, these two men would be stuck in a laboratory and no one would even know they existed, but and many other scientist had been commissioned to find ways to help our army win.

  Four years later, they were much closer to solving the problem, but still were coming up with new ideas. They had made improvements with our tanks and machinery, and yet they still hadn’t found the one thing that would turn the tide in our favor.

  My job was to make sure they had all the information that they needed and to work on all of the smaller projects that needed a pair of hands to work it.

  Today that meant going through all of their correspondence and trying to figure out what was urgent enough for them to see and what only required a response.

  The package was small and only had the words urgent on it making it stand out in the piles of mail.

  I turned it over a few times before opening it because someone might have been trying to kill one of our esteemed scientists. My curiosity won out and I slid the opener across the end.

  A gauze wrapped item fell out onto the desk with a note attached.

  “This vial of blood was discovered by one of our agents. Unsure of what it contained, we’ve sent it straight to you for testing. More are available if needed, please advise.”

  The agent’s name was familiar and I knew that this was the moment I’d been waiting for. I needed a discovery that would make me stand out from among all the other interns.

  With a quick movement, I placed the vial in my pocket and picked up the matches from the desk drawer. Seconds later the note was a piece of smoking ash and the envelope went into the trash bin without a moment of guilt.

  Excitement made me want to get started right away, but it would be noticed if I left the desk in this much of a mess. I would need to finish going through the mail so that I didn’t arouse suspicion.

  If this was really worth something, then it could wait just a few more hours until I could use the lab without anyone looki
ng over my shoulder.

  I could feel it burning a hole in my pocket. This was going to change the course of the war. I could feel it.

  Part 2

  1918

  Chapter 5

  Emma BedfordMarch 10th, 1918

  The San Francisco heat was unbearable and it was only the beginning of summer. What made it seem even worse was the fact that I’d returned from New York for a short holiday before signing up for a very important job.

  Even the heat couldn’t contain my excitement because I was going to become a Hello Girl. I’d been picked by Grace Banker herself and was headed to training in just three short days.

  While my mother wasn’t happy with my choice of a career, she had promised to take me shopping for the list of things that Ms. Banker had given us.

  “Emma are you going to dawdle all day?” Mother called from the back door.

  “No, ma’am.” I reluctantly left my spot on the back porch where the breeze was moving although only slightly.

  Our country had finally declared war on Germany and everyone was aching to join the fight, but since the idea of war was still new to our shores there weren’t shortages or rations being issued yet. Instead the war overseas had boosted our economy and the country was finally coming out of the Great Depression.

  The packing list that we’d been given were very explicit in that we were to get good sturdy items that could withstand the areas where we would be serving that were under strict rationing.

  Mother had the driver stop in front of the largest department store in the area, exiting on the run she headed straight for the party dresses.

  “Mother,” I protested, “slow down. It’s not a race and we can only take one nice dress with us and we might not even have the chance to use it because we’ll be wearing army uniforms most of the time.”

  “Non-sense,” she replied threading her arm through mine, “no daughter of mine is going to go overseas without all of the proper garments that you’ll need. You might be sent to Paris and then you’ll be glad that I sent all of these with you. Plus, there’s a sale today and we’ll need to hurry before all of the bargains are snapped up.”