by Helen Wells
Cherry stared at the first hibiscus blossom she had ever seen, then glanced up into the tree hoping to see a monkey or at least a coconut. She looked around inquisitively. To one side were hospital and Army buildings, beyond lay the Pacific, ahead rose the jungle. She certainly was a long way from Hilton, Illinois, her home town.
Cherry was on Port Janeway, one of the larger islands which dot the vast Pacific Ocean. These islands, like a chain of irregularly-spaced steppingstones, lead to war-making Japan. There were few signs of Christmas, much less a white Christmas, on this hot jungle island, with its fortifications, its wooden base hospital buildings, thatched huts, and sound of distant gunfire. Port Janeway, recaptured from the enemy, was being used as a resting place for the hard-pressed or wounded American soldiers who were driving the enemy off the forward islands.
A young officer burst out of the door of the largest hut. “Lieutenant Ames!” he called.
“Yes, sir!” Cherry responded quickly.
“You will please come with me,” the aide directed.
Cherry gulped and followed him. The aide was leading her into Medical Headquarters. Here came her fate!
Cherry entered the office and stood at attention. Before the desk stood a thin, long-bodied, short-legged man. He had small dark eyes, and a lone thatch of yellow hair stood up on his head. He reminded Cherry irresistibly of a stork. Beside him stood another officer, a doctor, for he wore the gold caduceus of the Army Medical Corps.
The aide presented Cherry. “Colonel Pillsbee, this is Lieutenant Ames, awaiting orders. Lieutenant Ames, your new Commanding Officer.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Pillsbee cocked his head, saluted, and Cherry saluted in return. Then he held out his hand. “How do you do, Lieutenant Ames. I am glad you arrived safely,” he said stiffly. “Major Pierce, Lieutenant Ames.”
The Major was a handsome, graying, easy-mannered man. Cherry liked the way his eyes and mouth crinkled up in a genial smile, and the substantial, comfortable look of him. He shook hands with Cherry as if trying to put her at her ease. “You’re going to hear some news, Lieutenant!”
Cherry’s black eyes widened. Colonel Pillsbee cleared his throat, then announced in a cultivated, precise voice:
“Lieutenant Ames, Major Pierce has informed me that he has received orders from Washington that you are to be promoted to the rank of acting Chief Nurse, and first lieutenant.”
“Oh!” She was going to be Chief Nurse! Her mind was racing. So this is what Colonel Wylie had hinted at when he said, back in Panama, “An important promotion and a new post await you.” Cherry had expected a promotion to first lieutenant, but she had never dreamed of this added distinction. Chief Nurse! Chief of what? Where? Wasn’t she going to work with Spencer unit and her old nurse friends any more?
Major Pierce grinned. “Congratulations, Lieutenant Ames.” Cherry trembled while Major Pierce pinned a silver bar on her shoulder.
“Th—thank you, sir,” Cherry said shakily. They shook hands all around, stiff Colonel Pillsbee, easygoing Major Pierce, and a very red-cheeked Cherry.
“The rank of acting Chief Nurse,” Colonel Pillsbee observed, “is—er—similar to a probationary status.”
Cherry sobered. “I understand, sir,” feeling some advance worry at the new responsibilities which, she knew, accompanied her proud new bar.
“Spencer unit is being brought here from Panama,” Colonel Pillsbee explained solemnly. When she heard this, Cherry’s spirits soared. Then she would continue to work with Ann and Gwen and all the rest of her old classmates! The Commanding Officer continued, “Ordinarily the unit would stay in Panama a year, but there is an even more serious nurse shortage here. Colonel Wylie will not head the unit as formerly. Major Pierce will be the new Spencer unit director.”
Cherry involuntarily turned to smile at jolly Major Pierce, and received a twinkle in reply. She was glad he was to be her superior officer, though she suspected she would miss the quick-tempered Colonel Wylie with whom she had clashed so often in the past.
“But what about Major Joseph Fortune?” Cherry asked anxiously for her old friend. “And Captain Lex Upham? Won’t they continue to be part of the Spencer unit?”
“No,” said Colonel Pillsbee, “Major Pierce is getting fifty new men, doctors, and some technicians. There will be the original sixty nurses from Spencer Hospital and Nursing School. The nurses are in your charge now, Lieutenant Ames. Also there will be about two hundred corpsmen to assist the nurses. We estimate that—Major Pierce, have you the figures here?”
While the two officers studied some papers, Cherry thought of Dr. Joe, who had inspired her to enter nursing, and of her particularly good friend, Lex. Brilliant, headstrong, unpredictable, lovable Lex! She remembered how, when she was a student nurse, and she and Lex were just getting to know each other, she had helped clear Lex of the ugly suspicions surrounding him when Dr. Joe’s formula was stolen and circumstantial evidence pointed to Lex’s possible guilt. But it was Lex who had come to her aid in Panama, who had loyally helped her to solve the mystery of the Indian. Cherry thought of the ring he had offered her—twice—and smiled ruefully. She wanted to accept Lex’s ring some day. But now she had been sent here to the Pacific, and Dr. Joe and Lex were not coming! Cherry was sharply disappointed. She supposed Dr. Joe and Lex were assigned to do research. But she had no chance to ask the Commanding Officer about this, for he had turned to her again, papers in hand.
“—thus our evacuation unit,” Colonel Pillsbee summed up in his hesitant, chilly voice, “can take care of seven hundred to a thousand patients.” Cherry’s mind reeled as she heard those figures.
The Commanding Officer looked at Cherry critically. “Do you think you can successfully supervise so many patients and nurses, Lieutenant Ames?”
Cherry swallowed. It was exactly what she herself was wondering. “I’ll try my very best, sir,” she promised earnestly.
There was a doubtful pause, while Colonel Pillsbee studied Cherry’s young and pretty face. She wished desperately that Major Pierce would say something comforting and reassuring, such as “Her superiors would not recommend a promotion if her record did not merit it” or “Her youth is not necessarily against her.” But the surgeon did not interrupt his superior officer.
“Our evacuation unit,” Colonel Pillsbee continued, “will proceed within a few weeks to Pacific Island 14, on the edge of combat area. There are infantry, antiaircraft, and other installations on the island. I am Commanding Officer of Pacific Island 14, and also of adjoining Islands 13 and 15.”
Cherry tried to look intelligent. She did not under stand clearly what all this meant, except that they were going to be up near the fighting, and that this stern and hard-bitten old warrior was in charge of everyone and everything.
“Well, young lady,” Major Pierce asked cheerfully, “do you think you’re going to like running an evacuation hospital?”
Cherry melted at his warm and human tone of voice. “I’ve never seen an evacuation hospital, sir.”
The Commanding Officer frowned slightly at that.
Major Pierce smiled his easy smile. “Very simple. It’s a big, rough, but complete hospital, quite near the fighting, so that we can evacuate—bring out—the wounded from battle promptly. It’s supposed to be more or less mobile, and we can pack up and move in a day, but it’s too big a hospital to move around much. So we’ll pick a good jungle spot and stay put as long as there is fighting in that general area.”
“A complete hospital will suddenly grow out of the wilderness!” Cherry breathed. She thought of the soldiers fighting out there who would know that the Medical Corps was standing by, ready to take care of them. Suddenly she was grateful that she was a nurse—not only for the adventure which loomed ahead, but for the lives she could save and the courage she could bring. Her dark eyes shone.
Colonel Pillsbee glanced at her even more dubiously, and now he was looking over papers which Cherry knew must be her records. Another awful silence fell.
Finally Colonel Pillsbee folded his hands on his knobby knees, and enunciated carefully:
“Frankly, Lieutenant Ames, you are too young to have had much nursing experience. Moreover, your extreme youth and your—er—attractive appearance suggest that you may not be quite the right person for this most serious work. I ought to warn you that you will not find it—er—glamorous.”
Cherry suppressed a flare-up of anger. And then, suddenly, she felt hurt and belittled. “I assure you, sir,” the words rushed out, “I am not looking for glamour. I am perfectly responsible and serious. Perhaps my appearance is misleading, sir.” Major Pierce chuckled. “But I’m sure that I can prove myself, Colonel Pillsbee. I will work very hard to deserve the rank of Chief—acting Chief Nurse.” Though she did not show it, Cherry was close to tears.
The Commanding Officer said dryly, “Very well, Lieutenant Ames. That will be all for this afternoon. Major Pierce will discuss further unit matters with you later.”
Out on the doorstep of the hut, Cherry took a deep breath. Too young and pretty, huh? So he had challenged her, had he? All right! She’d prove to Colonel Pillsbee—and to herself—that she could be a good Chief Nurse! She’d prove that she could run an evacuation unit! The sun glinted on her new silver bar. Chief Nurse! Cherry filled again with happiness at her wonderful new honor. She looked excitedly into the dark jungle, across the inscrutable sea.
“Lieutenant Ames?” Cherry found a friendly nurse smiling at her.
“Yes, I’m Lieutenant Ames,” Cherry smiled back.
“I’m the assistant to the Chief Nurse here. I’ll show you to your quarters. You must want to rest a little after that long flight.”
The two young women walked past the wooden hospital buildings together. “I’d like to congratulate you, Lieutenant,” the Janeway nurse said.
Cherry was grateful. And in Nurses’ Quarters other nurses congratulated her, too. But how she wished her family were here, instead of only strangers, to rejoice with her!
At supper in the big mess hall that evening, Cherry found herself surrounded by doctors and nurses and soldiers, pressing their congratulations upon her. They weren’t strangers, really! “We Medical Corps people are one large family, all over the world,” Cherry realized warmly. Between meeting the friendly hospital staff, and her excitement, the new Chief Nurse was not able to eat much supper. Her promotion was a grand Christmas present! This certainly was one Christmas she would never forget!
The first thing Cherry did next morning was to cable the wonderful news, and her new APO address, to her family. Then she went back to her tiny room in the Army Nurses’ Quarters and wrote her parents the details in a V-mail letter. She wrote her flier brother Charlie a V-mail, too.
That done, Cherry took out her last letters from home and re-read them once again.
“#zWe ear all well? h0pe you are foo,” her father had typed with one finger, in his real estate office. Cherry giggled; she was pretty sure her father had chuckled himself. He wrote—laboriously—that the whole family did volunteer work at Hilton Clinic, now considerably understaffed because so many doctors and nurses had gone to war.
She turned next to her mother’s letter. She could almost see her pretty, youthful, brown-eyed mother sitting very erect at the mahogany desk in the blue-and-mahogany living room, writing very deliberately, pausing to glance out of the window at the peaceful, small-town street. It would be white and hushed now with snow, the big oaks in front of the Ames’s house sheathed in ice. Holly wreaths would hang in the neighbors’ windows and on front doors, before snowy porch steps. Cherry glanced out of her own window at a waving palm tree silhouetted against the hot purple sky, and sighed.
Her mother wrote that Cherry’s own little room still had its crisp white curtains and white dressing-table skirt, with its red bows, and that Cherry’s room was the one thing Midge took good care of.
Cherry grinned. Irrepressible Midge Fortune, five years younger than herself, was almost Cherry’s kid sister. Cherry had kept an eye on her ever since Mrs. Fortune died. She had kept an eye on Dr. Fortune, too, so lost in his brilliant medical research that he neglected practical matters. Dr. Fortune—Dr. Joe, Cherry affectionately called him—meant a great deal to her. Friend and neighbor all her life, he had shown her the great idealistic service of medicine, and encouraged her to enter nursing. It was a real loss to Cherry that he, and his assistant, young Captain Lex Upham, were leaving the unit. She would miss them, Lex especially.
“Still,” Cherry mused, “I suppose they’re such valuable research scientists, they’ll be more useful to the Army in a laboratory at home than in a hospital in the combat zone.” In any case, Cherry figured, Dr. Joe would remain away from Hilton, and Midge would go on living with Cherry’s parents. Midge kept things lively in the Ames household with her harum-scarum exploits—sometimes lively to the point of bedlam. Cherry hoped her mother would survive Midge.
Last, Cherry picked up Charlie’s tiny, closely-written V-mail letter. Her twin brother, though he was as blonde as she was dark, wrote real news this time. An aerial gunner in the Army Air Forces, he had just transferred from combat flying to the Air Transport Command. “Don’t tell Mother but this is just as dangerous as combat duty,” he wrote. “We’ll be ferrying—that is, delivering—men and supplies through enemy territory to our troops in China and Alaska and Africa, wherever they need things fast. Fast means planes. That’s us—ATC. Wish me good luck. How are you, pal?”
Cherry smiled. She certainly missed her brother. It would be wonderful if one day his plane were to swoop down out of the blue Pacific sky and land on Island 14. Well, in the Army, anything was possible. She wondered where Charlie was. No telling. He could be anywhere on the globe a plane could take him, anywhere an S O S called him.
Cherry was proud she was an Army nurse. Once she would have worried her heart out about her brother, but fighting as a nurse was a great deal more to the point than staying home and worrying. Not that Cherry did not love Hilton—she was homesick this very minute, in this barracks room, on this exotic island. But it was to save her home, and all it stood for, that she was here.
“Shucks,” she thought, “war or no war, I’d be a nurse anyway.” Nursing—restoring health and giving peace of mind to the sick—was the most exciting thing in Cherry’s life. For Cherry knew that, in peace just as much as in war, the world needs brave and understanding girls in that most feminine, most humane, and most beloved of all professions.
Cherry glanced at her nurse’s watch on her wrist, and hastily put her letters away in her small suitcase. She had an appointment with Major Pierce!
That afternoon, and daily for the rest of the week, Cherry worked with Major Pierce to prepare for the unit’s trek into the jungle. There was a quantity of new equipment to be checked, many plans to be laid, many records to be gone over. Cherry found this routine work dull, but she soon saw its results.
One morning a small group of officers and enlisted men set out into the jungle, alone, unarmed, with portable hospital equipment slung over their shoulders. “Advance detail,” Major Pierce said, as he and Cherry stood watching them go. “Getting things ready for the rest of us.” They headed for Island 14 and the sound of those distant guns.
She had seen another example of unselfish courage when she delivered Dr. Joe’s new serum to his research colleagues working here. Six privates had volunteered to expose themselves to fever, for the sake of research and saving other lives.
Toward the end of that remarkable week, a ship docked. That afternoon, in the Red Cross canteen. Cherry waited to meet fifty new doctors who were joining her unit.
“It will take me some time to remember all their names!” she confessed to Major Pierce, seeing the crowd of doctors in khaki.
“Don’t worry, you’ll learn them gradually,” the unit director said. Cherry grinned her thanks. “Anyhow, you won’t have many dealings with the doctors. That’s my department. You’ll just deal directly with me on any doctors’ matter
s. The nurses are your department.”
So Cherry said fifty how-do-you-do’s and hoped none of the new doctors thought her, as Colonel Pillsbee did, too young and pretty for her post. To her relief, all the officers seemed to accept her as Chief Nurse without any raised eyebrows.
At the end of the second hard-working week, another ship docked. This time Cherry was waiting at the pier. She felt very happy indeed as the gangplank was swung up to the ship, and her old classmates, in their nurses’ olive drab, came running down. “We heard about you, Ames!” they cried, laughing. “Hurray for you, Cherry!” “Hey, girls, look at our new boss!”
All sixty of them crowded around her on the pier, ignoring the jeeps and trucks they were blocking. “It’s marvelous,” redheaded Gwen Jones declared, “but you’d better treat us right!”
“Well, if you think you’re going to discipline us!” Ann Evans teased. “And where are we headed?”
By this time, exasperated jeep drivers were shouting at them. Cherry said hastily, “Step right this way, ladies, and your brand-new acting Chief Nurse will reveal all.” She thought, as she shooed the girls into the waiting automobiles, “There’s no use trying to sound formal with them—they’d tease me from here to Tokyo!”
After a brief drive, the girls surged into the canteen. They perched themselves around the room and cried mercilessly, “Speech! Speech!”
Cherry stood up at the front of the room, and for a moment she was frightened. They were old friends, good nurses and good soldiers, but would she be able to manage sixty high-spirited girls? Here and there she saw a few envious or resentful glances. Her first words, which the girls were waiting for, would count heavily. Cherry dug her hands into her pockets and began.