by Marilyn Turk
Karl shrugged. “No harm in looking, is there?”
“As long as that is all you do. We have no time to get cozy with these people.”
These people? Did he mean Americans? If so, he was one, too, even if he had moved back to the Fatherland. After all, he’d been born and raised in Indiana. Just because his family was from Germany didn’t take away his citizenship. Not yet, anyway. In fact, that was one of the reasons he was chosen for this mission.
“Let’s get you checked in.” Oscar glanced around, then motioned to the door ahead. “We talk more when we get to your room.”
Karl nodded as he and Henry followed Oscar inside. Why did Oscar have to be their contact here? He had never liked the obnoxious man who seemed to detest everyone but the Führer himself. Oscar didn’t even know how to laugh, much less smile. Fortunately, Karl wouldn’t be around him very long before he went on to his assignment. Besides that, Oscar still sounded like a German, which he supposed was acceptable for someone who worked undercover in a German bakery.
The men got their room key—Karl and Henry would be sharing a suite—and walked to the elevator. Oscar pulled his hat low over his eyes and stared straight ahead, spitting out “Twenty-five” to the elevator attendant before taking his place in the back corner. Did the man have to be so rude? Karl and Henry followed him onto the elevator and asked the attendant politely for the same floor.
Two other passengers got on the elevator, each going to different floors.
“Yes, sir,” the attendant replied to each passenger. “Going right up.”
Karl could sense the tension emanating from Oscar. Did everyone else? He was so committed to the mission, he didn’t act human. More like one of those automatons Karl had seen in a carnival when he lived in the States. He never wanted to be like him, despite the fact they were on the same side.
Lexie dashed into the nurses’ dorm passing other students, crisp in their blue-and-white-striped uniforms with starched white pinafores, on the way out.
“Hey, Lex! Better hurry! Don’t keep the dragon lady waiting. She might spew fire if you’re late.” Lexie’s amusing roommate Penny had a nickname for everyone, even their stern nursing instructor, Chief Nurse Harper.
“I’ll be there in two shakes,” Lexie called back as she scrambled up the stairs to her room.
Lexie set the record for getting dressed in the requisite white stockings and shoes, dress, and apron before attaching her stiff nurse’s cap with the mandatory two bobby pins. A quick check in the mirror, then she ran down to the lobby and across the street to the hospital. She rushed into the back of the classroom in time to catch the last few words of Nurse Harper.
“We’re glad you’re here this morning instead of going to the parade because we have received some injured soldiers. They were wounded in the Philippines and sent to California for initial treatment.” Nurse Harper scanned the room as Lexie hid behind another student who was standing too. “We will be processing each one into the hospital today, so we’ll divide into groups.”
The head nurse looked down at her clipboard and began assigning names to the different wards they’d visit. When she was finished, the girls stood and separated into their respective groups.
Penny slipped next to Lexie and whispered, “Sweetie, you cut it close. She didn’t ask for you, so maybe she didn’t notice you were missing.”
“Nurse Smithfield, may I see you up front?”
Lexie’s heart dropped. Now what?
“On second thought, maybe she did.” Penny hustled out the door to catch up with her group.
Lexie walked to where Nurse Harper had positioned herself.
“Nurse Smithfield. I didn’t see you come in with the rest. You weren’t late, were you?”
She took a deep breath before answering. “I’m sorry, Nurse Harper. I missed the bus at the train station and had to walk here. I was just a few minutes late.”
“Nurse Smithfield, time is very important in the medical field. Someone could die if you were ‘just a few minutes late.’ Make sure it doesn’t happen again. You must abide by the same principles here as everyone else, no matter who you are.”
Lexie’s face grew hot. Must the woman insinuate that Lexie thought herself special?
“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry.” She had to concede defeat to this woman if she wanted to pass school.
“All right. Now let’s get on with the patient processing.”
A streak of fear raced down Lexie’s back. “I’m afraid I didn’t hear my name assigned to a ward.”
“That’s because you’re going with me.” Nurse Harper glanced at the other few students standing a few feet away. “We’re going to the second floor of the psychiatric hospital.”
The second floor? That was the ward for mildly disturbed male patients. Now she could see firsthand how wounded men were affected by the war and what she could do to help them. This is why she had come here.
Chapter Four
Nurse Harper unlocked the door to the mental ward, and the students followed her in, eyes nervously scanning the patient beds. Lexie mustered her courage among these patients with unusual behaviors, reminding herself they were just unfortunate people, not the freaks of rumors.
The large room had twenty beds, ten on each side, lining the walls. Men in this ward were the most normal-appearing patients in the eight-story psychiatric hospital. Here, the patients milled around, some sitting and others playing cards, so the room was fairly quiet save for an occasional snore from one of the sleeping patients. The students shuffled in with wary eyes, holding their notebooks against their chests and trying to stay quiet lest they alarm any of the patients. Nurse Harper motioned for them to come over to a bed in front of the barred windows.
In a low voice, she said, “This is John Doe. He was injured in the Philippines. Sustained a head injury and broken arm. Appears catatonic when awake. We will be considering him for one of the new brain treatments.”
Lexie studied the young man with the bandaged head and arm in a cast. His squared chin and broad shoulders showed strength the rest of his body lacked at the moment. While the others scribbled notes and moved on to another bed, Lexie couldn’t take her eyes off John Doe. What had happened to him?
As she studied the motionless man, his eyes opened. She jumped back, startled. The eyes were blue but dark and unfocused. They looked straight ahead, failing to acknowledge her presence beside him. Did he see her or even know she was there? Did he know where he was?
Nurse Harper cleared her throat, garnering Lexie’s attention. She glanced up and saw the head nurse’s stern gaze from her position at the end of the row of beds. Lexie hurried over to join the others. Cutting her eyes at Lexie as a warning, Nurse Harper whispered, “Everyone needs to stay with the group.”
While Nurse Harper reviewed the next patient’s diagnosis, Lexie’s mind wandered back to John Doe. How could she reach him? Was there a way? Maybe she’d get a chance to try.
A man cried out from the bed behind her, and the students gasped collectively as heads turned. The patient was sitting up, eyes wide as he grabbed his sheet and shrank back in terror.
“No, don’t kill me! No! Stay away!” His screaming disturbed the other patients, and they began to respond as well. Some moaned, a few yelled, still others whimpered. The students huddled together in fear beside Nurse Harper like chicks around a mother hen.
“Shush. Now, now. Calm down.” The nurse held up her hand to evoke silence. “We are just here to help you. Settle down. We’ll bring your medication in shortly.”
The clamor quieted, but some mumbling continued. The patients watched with anxious eyes as if afraid the nurses meant to do them harm.
“Let’s go out in the hallway,” said Nurse Harper, motioning toward the door. The students hustled to the exit, casting glances behind them as they made their escape. Lexie watched John Doe’s reaction to the disturbance, noting that there was none. If all that noise didn’t affect him, what would? She couldn’t
wait to read up on the catatonic condition, and what she couldn’t find in her textbook, she’d research in the hospital library as soon as she had a chance.
When the students were safely on the other side of the door, they whispered to each other as they followed Nurse Harper away from the ward, the door secured behind them.
“That man’s scream wasn’t human!”
“He sounded like a wounded wild animal!”
A girl near Lexie shuddered. “I hope I don’t have to work in there. What if one of them grabs me?”
“I don’t think they’ll make us go in there alone,” Lexie said to reassure the frightened girl. “Besides, this is the mildly disturbed ward.”
“If I’m assigned here, I hope she’ll let you work with me. You don’t seem afraid,” the wide-eyed girl said.
“I’m not. They’re just people like us.”
“Oh yeah? Like us? I don’t think so,” said a fiery redheaded student. “I hope none of us are that loony.”
“You think they’re loony, just imagine what they’re like in the semi-disturbed and disturbed wards,” said another student.
“No, thank you!” said several of the nurses at once.
Lexie’s pulse quickened as her anger rose. Attitudes like theirs were to blame for the cruel treatment mental patients had endured for ages, even in this very hospital fifty years earlier. People had called her mother “loony” too. And they also said that about Abner at one time. Of course, Mother’s illness was not the result of a war. She never got well, but Abner did. So maybe there was still hope for John Doe.
“Hey, Lex! You think I could wear my hair like this?”
“Hmm?” Lexie lifted her gaze from the book she was reading and turned to her roommate who lay prone on one of the twin beds, pointing to a picture in the Look magazine that was spread out before her. The photo showed a Hollywood starlet waving to a group of sailors on the deck of a ship.
Lexie studied the picture, then eyed Penny. “Sure, Penny. But it looks like it takes a lot of time to do, and who has time for that when we have to get dressed for duty?”
Penny flopped over on her back, holding the magazine aloft. “Yeah, you’re right. Besides, what difference does it make when we have to pin that piece of cardboard in our hair?” She lowered the publication to look at Lexie. “But maybe next time I have a date—whenever that is.”
“Maybe so.” Lexie turned back to her book. Catatonia is a state of neurogenic motor immobility and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor.
“Lexie, are you really going to spend all afternoon studying? Ya know, we’re off duty now. Why don’t we go window-shopping or something—get outta this room and get some fresh air? After all, it is Saturday. The parade’s over so it won’t be so crowded.”
Lexie sighed and marked her place in the book. She obviously wasn’t going to get much done with Penny around. Her roommate, the Jersey girl, was so different than Lexie was, always ready for fun. But maybe Penny was right about taking a break, even though Lexie wanted to spend more time researching.
“Sure, Penny. Where do you want to go?”
“Where else? Fifth Avenue!” She jumped up and opened the closet. “’Course I can’t afford to buy anything, but I could at least look and dream.” She selected a floral blouse and put it on over her slip, then took a navy-blue skirt off the hanger and stepped into it, buttoning it at the waist.
Lexie stood and stretched her arms over her head. “We’re supposed to be saving our money for the war effort anyway.” She pulled a light blue short-sleeve sweater out of a drawer and drew it over her head, then put on her gray men’s-style trousers with the high waistband.
“You and those trousers. I don’t understand why you want to wear those things instead of a skirt.”
“I find them quite comfortable,” said Lexie. She grabbed a blue ribbon hanging over the vanity mirror and tied it around her unruly curls.
“Well, they look good on you, but not on me. I’m a little too round in the bottom for them,” Penny said, looking at her rear view in the mirror. “Besides, I don’t think the dragon lady likes them.”
Lexie shrugged. “I’m not wearing them on duty, so it shouldn’t matter.”
“Let’s hope not.” Penny opened the door. “Ready?”
Lexie nodded, and they went outside and headed down the sidewalk for Fifth Avenue. Trash from the morning’s parade was still evident while street sweepers did their best to clean it up. Lexie and Penny spent the rest of the day strolling along in front of the stores, occasionally going in and out. The city was still filled with men in uniforms, and Penny giggled every time one of them whistled as they walked by. Lexie tried not to notice, but Penny’s head practically revolved to look at all the guys, giving them a big smile.
She squeezed Lexie’s arm. “That one winked at me!” Lexie glanced over and saw several guys in sailor suits grinning at them.
“Oh, Penny. Calm down.”
“How can I, with so many to choose from?”
“Penny! Come on. Those guys will be shipping out of here soon.”
“Oh, I know. But isn’t it fun just to flirt?”
Not for Lexie. She had Russell, thank God.
Lexie pointed to a store display to divert Penny’s attention. In typical Penny fashion, she “oohed” and “aahed” over the latest fashions in the window. Many of them had military themes like navy-blue sailor dresses with white collars or khaki-colored jackets with epaulets.
Lexie looked on with little interest. Her mother had always loved to shop, spending quite a bit on her wardrobe and Lexie’s too. She was intent on making Lexie look “pretty and fashionable,” and no doubt to show off her taste to her friends in their elite social circle. The idea rankled Lexie. All her mother’s “friends” had disappeared as she became more ill. What difference did nice clothes make when no one cared about the person in them?
“Lex, that would look great on you!” Penny pointed to a formal dress on display in a window. The creamy satin evening gown tied at the shoulders and draped at the neckline, cinched at the waist, and then flowed to the floor. “I bet that little number costs a fortune.”
Lexie admired the dress, which was indeed beautiful. She envisioned herself dancing in a ballroom in Russell’s arms. But when would that ever happen? Formal dances were a thing of the past during wartime. And even if there were such an event, would she and Russell have the time to go?
“It’s nice.”
“Nice? Are you kidding? It’s fabulous!”
“You’re right, it’s quite lovely. But right now, I don’t need anything like it, even if I did have the money.”
Penny eyed her curiously. Lexie knew her roommate was aware of the Smithfield family’s history of wealth, but Penny would never be convinced that Lexie was no longer in that income bracket.
“I’m getting hot, aren’t you? And thirsty. Let’s go get a shake.” Penny headed to the street corner.
“Sounds good. Where do you want to go? The drugstore counter?” She nodded toward the drugstore on the opposite corner.
“Let’s go to Mack’s. It’s on our way back to the dormitory. Besides, they have the best shakes in the city.”
“Sure.” Mack’s Diner was one of the places Lexie and Russell met for lunch when their schedules allowed, since it was about halfway between the hospital and the hotel.
What was he doing right now out on the island? She didn’t expect him back tonight, since he had tomorrow off too. She enjoyed going to church with him on Sundays, but she’d have to go alone this time. Unless she could talk Penny or one of the other students into going with her.
Only a couple of men with their backs to the door were sitting on the chrome stools with red vinyl seats at the counter when Lexie and Penny entered the diner. The noonday lunch crowd was long gone from the shiny, stainless-steel-accented room, although the smell of burgers and onion rings lingered. Two women who worked at Macy’s cosmetic counter sipped milkshakes at a corner
table, their perfume wafting across the room.
“Can we sit over there?” Lexie motioned to the opposite side of the restaurant.
“Sit where you like,” said the waitress behind the counter as she grabbed menus and silverware.
She followed Lexie and Penny to a booth beside the diner’s window, handing them the menus as they sat down.
“We just want milkshakes,” said Penny. “What kind have you got?”
“Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry—the usual.”
“No cherry? Okay then, I’ll take a strawberry, with extra whipped cream on top. And a cherry, too, if you have it.” Penny patted her hands on the cold Formica table.
“I’ll take chocolate,” said Lexie, handing back the menu. “And a glass of ice water, please.”
“Sure thing,” said the waitress as she turned and walked away from the booth.
“I never heard of a cherry milkshake, Penny.”
“I haven’t either. I was just hoping.” Penny glanced around the diner and back to Lexie. “So, when’s your guy coming back?”
“I’m not sure when Russell is coming back—maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.”
“Aren’t you miffed that you had to come back and he got to stay?” Penny admired her reflection in the window and twirled a piece of hair into place.
“No, not really.” Lexie sighed and gazed out at the passersby on the sidewalk. “He deserves some time off.”
“But what’s he going to do out there in the Hamptons all by himself?”
“He’s not by himself. He’s staying with our friends Peg and Marian Maurice. “
Penny frowned at Lexie. “But aren’t they a couple of old ladies? Why would he want to hang out with them?”
Lexie shrugged. “They’re just nice people. Russell’s known them longer than I have.”
“Don’t you ever get jealous? I mean, there’s lots of single women out there, too, aren’t there?”
Lexie shook her head. “No, I don’t worry about Russell. I know he loves me and isn’t interested in anyone else.”