“What are you doing back here?” the other barked at Cass as though she would know.
She shrugged and wanted to ignore them both, the men around her were acting uneasy.
“Hey up close you’re a WOMAN!” the first one shouted over the noise of the engines.
“From FAR AWAY too,” Cass shouted back. The men on either side of her she could see were hiding their laughter.
“What are you doing on MY plane?” the second one shouted in her face practically spitting.
Cass unfastened her seat belt and stood up. It was more obvious now that she was a woman by the skirt she was wearing. It was also obvious she was a lieutenant and of the same rank as one of them. “I was told to report to this transport this morning and I did,” she shouted.
“Show me your orders,” the second one said and now that she was standing she could see he was a captain.
She handed him the well-worn documents. She had read them several times already and they really were vague. Reporting to Lieutenant Colonel Anderson really meant nothing to her at this point.
“Anderson eh?” the captain looked at her and admired her legs. She was really a well-built woman. He didn’t dare mess with her. “You must be who we were waiting for,” he shouted.
Cass had no idea what he was talking about, she just wanted to get where they were going and get off this plane.
“Get your gear and come with me,” he ordered as he handed her papers back to her.
Cass quickly put the orders in an inside pocket and grabbed her bag. Following the two men to the front of the plane she was shown into a section that hadn’t been obvious to her when she arrived and boarded. She had been more concerned at the noise of the engines as they powered up than inspecting her surroundings. Going through a door she saw that they were in a finished section of the plane. There were several officers on board. Once they closed the door the noise of the engines was considerably lessened. In fact the odd muffling noise she had experienced the previous day was back.
“Lieutenant, glad you could join us,” a sandy haired gentlemen greeted her. “So you were our last minute addition. You should of come on in here.”
Cass saw he was wearing the insignia of a Major. She didn’t know how to answer him so she gave a brief smile to acknowledge what he had said and nodded.
“She’s heading to Anderson’s area,” the captain informed the group.
“Anderson eh? Every work with him and his crew before?” someone else asked her.
Cass shook her head; she didn’t understand what was going on. Someone offered her a seat which she gladly took, this area had windows and she was startled to see that all she could see was water.
“Ever been to Pearl before?” someone else asked her, she saw that he had captains bars and several ribbons on his uniform.
“Pearl sir?” she asked trying not to sound like the hick she felt she was.
“Pearl Harbor,” he elaborated.
She shook her head. It was easier to speak in here but she was still trying to get the ringing of the engines out of her ears. They left her alone for a while and to her thoughts as she looked out at the immense amount of water they were over. The sun was behind them and a little to the left so the glare on the water was pretty. She was confused though, why had they asked her about Pearl Harbor?
She absentmindedly watched the other officers play with cards around a table they had set up. She was lost in thought until one of them asked her if she wanted to play.
“What? I’m sorry, I’m day dreaming.”
He chuckled; she was a pretty woman, big, but pretty. “Would you like to play cards with us?” He indicated the cards on the table where three of them were playing.
She shook her head. “Thank you but no.”
“Oh come on, it’s only penny ante and we aren’t playing for much,” another one encouraged, a lieutenant by his lapel.
She shook her head, “I can’t thank you for asking though.”
“You can’t? Is that a religious conviction or something?” the Major asked as he came up from behind her with a drink in his hand.
She shook her head once again, “Nooo, I just have never played cards before.”
They all stopped and looked at her in varying degrees of shock. “Never played…cards, any cards?” the Major confirmed and at her nod he exchanged looks with the others. “How can that be? What do you do to pass the time?”
She chuckled; she had been ribbed about things like this while bunking with the women back in Milwaukee. “We read or we work from sun up to sun down, there is not a lot of time for cards.”
“Now where in the world do you come from lil’ lady if you don’t mind me askin’?” the Major asked in genuine surprise.
She smiled, “I’m from Merrill, it’s a town in North Central Wisconsin. Plenty of trees and farms, a lot of work and good wholesome food.”
He chuckled; he had met a few people like her, their first time off the farm. The whole wide world was before them and still they wanted to keep it simple. Others would go hog wild, learning all the vices they could find, they would go home unrecognizable. He thought she was probably one of the former, a good wholesome girl from a good wholesome Midwestern farm. “So what did you do there, farm?”
She nodded, “I was also a midwife and a general doctor.”
“A doctor?” someone exclaimed in surprise. She was only a lieutenant. Doctors were at least Captains.
She shrugged. “Well, not officially you understand.”
They didn’t of course but her answers weren’t giving them anything but more questions. A couple of them gestured and they returned to their card playing. They kept their lies and swearing down to a minimum in lieu of the fact that they had a lady on board. “You think she’s really a doctor?” one of them whispered to another.
They all glanced over at her; she had put her head back and was staring out the window day dreaming again. The Major was the one that answered equally as quiet, “Some of them back woods doctors are a helluva lot better than any I’ve seen come outta school. They have a feel for what ails ya, not the book learning.” Several of them nodded knowingly in agreement.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Cass must have dozed off because one of the officers shook her and told her to strap herself in. She had no idea how long she had been asleep. She glanced out the window and still saw only water but she obeyed and put on her belt. She could feel almost a slowing of the immense aircraft, as though it was halting in the air. She could also feel the difference in the air pressure as her ears required frequent yawns as they descended. She wondered how pilots got used to that feeling and didn’t yawn all the time but she supposed after a while it was just part of the job. Slowly they began to land and all she could still see was nothing but water. It concerned her but looking around no one else seemed concerned. She noticed there were several seats open; a couple of the boys so badly crowded in the back with the gear could have used the extra leg room. She knew though that the officers weren’t likely to suggest it. She wondered how long she had been on this plane.
There, that looked like some land she saw out the window and sure enough it was coming rapidly into sight. She could still see the ocean but then she saw it, the runway and it was coming up fast as the roar of the engines kicked up a notch. The landing was bumpy, much bumpier than what she remembered in Denver or San Francisco. Perhaps it was the size of the landing strip, it seemed like it ended a lot sooner but the plane seemed to turn as it slowed on the runway before coming to a complete stop. She breathed a big sigh of relief hoping that this was the last plane on her little adventure, at least for a while.
Cass was astonished when she made her way out of the cavernous plane. She could see as the many soldiers they had transported marched off the end of the plane where it opened. Some were already hauling gear and supplies from its bowels, there were many she hadn’t even realized were in the plane as well as more stock and supplies than she could imagine.
“Excuse me,” the Major was trying to exit the plane and Cass apologized as she headed down the stairway. “Do you know where you are going?” he asked her politely.
Cass shook her head, “I don’t even know where I am?” She could feel the heat on her skin and realized that she was perspiring in the woolen outfit she was wearing. She took off the coat and put it over her arm as she carried her bag and adjusted its weight in her hand.
He looked at her astonished and remembering she was a small town girl he took pity on her. “Why ma’am, you are in Pearl Harbor.”
Cass stared at him astonished. She had no idea, why that was across a large span of water in the atlas back home. They had wanted to know where it was and why it had started the war. It had been a tiny speck in the vast ocean called the Pacific. She looked around and saw palm trees and a Jeep was coming from a large building as well as trucks for the supplies in the transport.
“That may be someone looking for you,” the Major commented as he watched the non-com trying to attract the Lieutenant’s attention. By the time Cass looked around, the sun causing her to be temporarily blinded the Jeep had pulled up to them.
“Lieutenant Scheimer?” the young man asked hopefully. If she wasn’t he was in a helluva lot of trouble.
But the brunette nodded her head and he snapped a salute to both her and the Major as he got out to take her bag. Cass restrained a grin as he threw it in the back expertly.
“Can we offer you a ride Major?” the young man offered.
“No, nope I’m all taken care of,” the Major leaned his head towards the supplies being off loaded from the back of the transport, quickly, efficiently, and productively by the swarms of men.
The young man nodded and waited for Cass to get in the Jeep. She hated wearing skirts for this very reason, it would have been a whole heck of lot easier to climb in if she was wearing pants but regulations were regulations and she had no idea which ones she would be ‘allowed’ to wear now in transit. She climbed in and seated herself just in time as the young man took off at full speed as another plane began to power up just beyond them.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“You have quarters at the Colonel’s temporary residence until transportation can be arranged for you, not too many planes you understand go out there.”
“Where is out there?” she shouted over the sound of the airplanes.
“To Colonel Anderson on Wickawaw,” he said garbling the name. Cass was sure that was what he said but she was used to hearing Indian sounding names from back in Wisconsin. The name her driver was giving her was as foreign as some of them she could have named. She decided to keep her mouth shut and not ask any more questions. He however felt no qualms about asking. “How was your flight? Comfortable I hope?”
Cass knew better than to complain so she nodded and agreed. Her mother had often said; if you can’t think of anything nice to say, say nothing at all. This had worked well in the Army so far and she found it another unwritten rule.
He took her to a cute little bungalow, what Cass had seen as a cabin back in Wisconsin. With the weather here so hot she could see why it was built so flimsy. Big palm trees shaded it but a breeze was coming in from the Pacific and she was pleased by having the place to herself while she waited. It was one of a line of similar little bungalows built to house some of the officers and their families, all nearly identical in their design and appearances. She was mesmerized by the difference in the foliage as she gazed at the palms and grasses that grew in such profusion around the landscaping.
After dropping her off, handing her the keys, and showing her around he pointed out where the mess hall was, informed her that dinner was in two hours and left her to it.
What Cass wanted was a bath or a shower. She found a shower in the bathroom, kind of small but it would do. She didn’t have time to dry her hair but she didn’t care, she needed to wipe the sweat off of her body. The wool outfit she had been issued had made a mess of her and with her top coat on over it had felt warm and snug in San Francisco, here it felt hot and sticky. She realized she was going to have to draw thinner clothing or die of the heat.
She wasn’t late to chow. She didn’t understand why they called it that. She just knew she was hungry and while the food wasn’t the best, she missed Stephanie’s home cooking. It would fill her empty stomach though and she found they had some interesting additions to the food line. Something called pineapple that looked nothing like any apple she had ever seen. It was tart and it was sweet all within the same bite. She kept that for her dessert. While she was sitting there filling her stomach two nurses came and asked if they could sit with her. She gestured as her mouth was full. Now she understood why her mother had always told her to take smaller bites. She felt rude not answering them and hurried to finish the food in her mouth she had shoved inside.
“Hi, I’m Annette Ryder and this is Pamela Fedor, we’re nurses over at the hospital, are you new here? One of the replacements?”
Cass, trying to swallow the food she was rapidly chewing shook her head and swallowed, nearly choking. What a great first impression that would be! “I’m Cassandra Scheimer, Cass for short. No, I’m only here for a while until they can arrange transportation out to…” she had to think of what that man had told her. “Wicka…Wicka…” she tried to say.
“Wiquaqau?” Annette asked her.
Cass shrugged and nodded, “I think so, I don’t know, it’s been a dizzying couple of days.”
“Where’d you fly in from?” Pamela asked.
“San Francisco, but before that Denver, and before that Milwaukee.”
“Wow, you have come a long way, but you have a long way to go too,” Pamela told her.
Cass shrugged, she didn’t know, she was just doing what she was told to do.
“You have no idea where Wiquaqau is do you?” Annette asked her amused.
Cass shook her head. They all shared a laugh, that was the Army for you. They only told you what you needed to know.
“Well, all that travel you’ve done?” she waited for Cass to nod before going on. “You’ve come about half way.”
Cass stared in amazement, she knew the world was bigger than Merrill, Wisconsin but after all the travel she had already done she was in shock that she had just as much to go. She pulled at her woolen blouse really feeling the heat and started to perspire despite the shower she had taken an hour or so ago.
“So you have to wait until they find you transportation out there eh?” Annette mused.
Cass nodded.
“You don’t say much do you,” Annette asked.
Cass grinned amused as she shook her head. She was still feeding herself, just taking smaller bites in case she wanted to say anything.
“So are you from Milwaukee?”
Cass shook her head. “No, further north.”
“It speaks!” Pamela joked and they all shared a smile.
They were really nice ladies to get to know and Cass was relieved at how friendly they appeared to be. Because of her special status in Milwaukee she hadn’t really made any friends, some were resentful, some jealous, others just standoffish.
“Where are you staying?” Annette asked.
“Oh, they gave me this cute little bungalow, um er,” Cass realized she wasn’t sure where it was and then she had the horrible thought; she might not remember how to get back to it.
“You don’t know where it is?” Pamela grinned at her new friend.
Cass laughed a little self-depreciatingly and shrugged. “I’ll find it, I used to be able to track pretty well in the woods.”
“Track? You hunted?” Pamela asked intrigued.
Cass nodded and grinned knowing she was a bit unusual compared to the other nurses she had met. She wasn’t interested in men or makeup, gossip, or the usual things the women she had met seemed to be. While some men found her attractive she just wasn’t interested and the homesickness she had felt had her keeping to herself as she couldn�
�t confide in anyone that she was missing Stephanie. “And farmed,” she grinned knowing it would lead to more questions.
It did as the two women, both from large cities started plying her with questions about farming and where she was from, they were utterly fascinated and intrigued. To find a farmer in their midst, in the form of a woman, much less a hunter, was amazing. They did find out at some point that she was a nurse and had been a doctor of sorts and a midwife.
“So they ‘expedited’ your training in Milwaukee?” Annette asked captivated at this woman’s story. She herself was from Chicago and the two cities were very similar in some ways.
Cass nodded wondering if anyone else had gone through what she had.
“No one found that odd?” Pamela asked, she was from San Diego and found the Midwesterners she had met fascinating.
Cass, remembering the reactions of the other nurses, both male and female to her ‘special’ treatment nodded and said, “Everyone did but the instructors were very helpful.” Except for a few who seemed to single her out for hostile treatment because of her special status. They resented the additional work from the norm, they begrudged giving her any information and if not for the books that Cass inhaled she would have failed their examinations.
“Someone is looking out for you, so you are assigned to the hospital on Wiquaqau?” Annette asked.
Cass nodded and then shrugged. “I’m just to report to a Lieutenant Colonel Anderson,” she informed them as she showed them her papers.
“That’s odd,” Pamela commented looking at Annette who nodded.
“Why?” Cass asked wondering at all the odd looks she had gotten from her travel papers.
“Because most orders assign you to the hospital and that you are to report to someone in this case Colonel Anderson, not that you are assigned to him personally.”
Annette agreed and Cass was left wondering what was going on, why the rush to get her ‘trained’ and why the rush to get her out here. They all agreed she wouldn’t find out until she got ‘there.’
“Why don’t we walk with you back to your bungalow and make sure you find it,” Pamela teased her with a gamin little grin.
The Journey Home Page 24