Lost Cause (10 page)

“Ready as I’ll ever be. I need more kisses
first though”

“No,” she said. “I have to fix you up for
surgery.”

“You don’t really love me or you’d kiss me
some more.”

“You’re such a baby.” She kissed him quickly
on the lips.

“What do you have to do to get me ready?”

“Not much. But it’s necessary. I don’t want
anyone else touching you.”

“You mean Nurse Brewster?”

“Especially Nurse Brewster.”

“They have other nurses.”

“Yes, too many.”

“It appears to be quite a big hospital.”

“It is, and they have so many nurses. I’m
afraid they may send me back to Brownville before you’re well.”

“Maybe the war will be over by then and we
won’t have to be worried about being separated. It can’t go on
forever.”

“No, it can’t. But the main thing today is to
get you fixed up.”

“Will it hurt?”

“Just breathe deeply when they administer the
ether. I’m glad I don’t have to watch it.”

“But you will be on night duty tonight won’t
you?”

“Yes. But you won’t care.”

“Sure I will. I can’t wait to be with you
again.”

“We’ll see. Tell me Jack, how many girls have
you loved?”

“Only you.”

“No, really, how many?”

“Only you, my dear.”

“How many have you shared a bed with?”

“Zero.”

“You’re lying.”

“Yes, I suppose I am.”

“That’s alright. Just keep lying to me. That
way I know where to set boundaries. Were they pretty? These other
girls?”

“I’ve never spent the night with anyone but
you.”

“Really? So what did you talk about, you and
these girls? Did you discuss prices? Or did you just lie to them
too?”

“Marie, I’m going under the knife soon.
You’re upsetting me. That can’t be good for my disposition.”

“Will you two keep it down,” Corporal
Campbell said from his bed. “I’ve been trying to get some sleep all
night but you two keeping making noise. Take it outside will
you.”

“They’re going to cut me soon, Carl.”

“Good, maybe you’ll be out for awhile and I
can get some rest.” He rolled over giving them his back and pulled
the covers over his head.”

Outside the sun shone weakly behind brooding
clouds. “Great,” Jack said. No wonder Carl’s so grouchy. My surgery
day and it has to be all dark and gloomy.”

“You’ll sleep through it all,” Marie said.
“When you wake up it’ll be dark and I’ll be standing by your bed
waiting to help you with the chamber pot as you throw up your
guts.”

“That bad huh?”

“Just being honest. I don’t want you to
accuse me of not warning you when you’re racked with pain and
whimpering like a little child.”

Chapter 15

Jack awoke from the surgery feeling as if he
had been dead. It wasn’t a feeling like being asleep; the hours
he’d been away seemed to have simply vanished from his very
existence. A harsh chemical taste lay heavy on his tongue and when
he threw up, nothing but bile came out in long ropy strands that
clung to the side of the chamber pot prompting him to gag all the
more.

Nurse Brewster was at the foot of his bed
measuring out a brown liquid with a small dropper. “Oh, I see
you’re awake,” she said brightly. “How are you feeling, Corporal
Saylor?”

“How long have I been out?” Jack croaked.

“About six hours. The doctor did a great job
on your shoulder. You shouldn’t talk so much. The ether makes your
throat raw. You’d do better just being quiet for a while.”

Jack was as sick as a dog. Marie had been
right, it didn’t matter who the night duty nurse was, just so long
as someone showed up to wipe his sweaty brow and keep his water
pitcher filled. It turned out to be Lisette Babeneaux who’d agreed
to stay over for a week to assist with the wounded newly arrived
from Galveston. There were two new men in the ward when Jack came
to his senses. One was a private from Sibley’s unit who was shot by
a sniper while on guard duty outside Galveston. The second man was
a conscript from Austin who’d befallen a wagon accident wherein his
legs were crushed under the weight of the heavy cargo. Both men
were severely wounded and a small crowd of doctors and nurses
including the surgeon who had operated on Jack’s shoulder
surrounded their beds located on the south wall.

Nurse Brewster fluffed up Jack’s pillow and
gave him a dose of laudanum. “I saw your sweetheart earlier,” she
said coyly.

“My sweetheart?”

“Nurse Hayes. She is very beautiful.”

“We’re going to be married, you know.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re a soldier. You’ll die before
you ever get married.”

Jack touched her on the arm and she quickly
drew away. “Don’t touch me,” she said. “Maybe you’ll make it
through this war. Maybe you will survive and marry Nurse Hayes. But
people change. Sick people are often very emotional. They say
things and promise things and then when they get better, well . .
.”

“You have the wrong man, Nurse Brewster.”

“Just don’t get her into trouble. She’s
young. Don’t hurt her.”

“I won’t get her into trouble. I’m going to
marry her.”

“I just don’t want to see her with a baby and
a dead husband. She’s too young to be a widow.”

“You know, you’re saying things that just
might not be any of your business, ma’am.”

“Nurses are a sisterhood, Corporal Saylor.
I’m concerned about all my sisters, whether they like me personally
or not.”

“You’re an exceptional woman, Nurse
Brewster.”

“I’m nothing of the sort. And I don’t suffer
flattery. By the way how’s your head feeling?”

“Fine.”

“You’re a lucky young man to have such a
strong constitution.”

“Tell that to my shoulder.”

Nurse Lisette took over for Nurse Brewster
and set about arranging the bedside accoutrements to suit her
particular taste.

“So, Corporal Saylor, how’s our favorite
patient doing?” she asked.

“Me?” I thought Carl was.”

“I suppose all our patients are my favorite.
I talked to your Nurse Hayes. Nice girl. And very pretty.”

“Yes ma’am. And she isn’t mean like some of
the others.”

“You mean Nurse Brewster?”

“And others. That head nurse is very by the
book.”

“Mrs. Styles? Ah yes, she doesn’t take much
guff, that’s for sure. I’ll bring some mineral oil for your
shoulder. It will keep the bandaging moist.” She leaned over near
Jack’s face and said,

“Don’t forget, I’m your friend.”

“I know.”

“I don’t think you do. But you will, some
day.”

Chapter 16

A week passed and Jack and Marie spent as
much time together as they dared. They even went for a buggy ride
on a couple of occasions rolling along Morgan Street taking in the
ambiance of the business district west of the hospital. They held
hands and looked into each other’s eyes and whispered
conspiratorially whenever someone they thought they knew came
within earshot.

Anytime Marie could get a shift off and Jack
could convince Mrs. Styles to give him a brief respite from the
ward, they would meet in a local eatery and talk over lunch and
plan for the day when Jack would be discharged from the hospital.
The waiters guessed they were in love and brought to the table
candles with green shades and clean tablecloths and jugs of wine
with a price tag Jack could afford on a Corporal’s wages.

After lunch they walked along the sidewalks
past the shops with colorful banners and displays of fruit or
vegetables or glass cases of sausages and small brown cakes glazed
with sugary icing about as long and wide as a man’s thumb. Marie
said she thought they were called whoopee pies and Jack said they
weren’t pies at all and Marie said it didn’t matter what they were
called because they were so delicately delicious.

Afterward Marie would return to her duties
and Jack would sit by the window and talk with Campbell until his
face ached too badly for conversation then Jack would talk to the
other men about the war and their homes and family while all the
time thinking of Marie Hayes and when they could again be alone
together.

She worked as many night shifts as possible
and sometimes late at night they would steal away to a linen closet
and hurriedly love each other and plan their wedding day and
discuss where they would live after the war and love each other
again before parting with regret like school children after a
Spring dance.

The nights were lonely for Jack, especially
the ones when Marie was off shift and the nurses on duty only
stopped in to refresh water pitchers and replace chamber pots and
dole out medicine to those men still gravely ill from their
injuries. Jack’s shoulder was on the mend but he was still fighting
infection and the wound on his head refused to scab over, probably
due to the massive amounts of anti-infection drugs he was forced to
ingest.

When possible he and Marie would meet at a
café and drink strong coffee and discuss wedding plans. Once the
conversation turned tense when Marie inadvertently mentioned she
had planned a wedding at an earlier time.

“Charles again?” Jack complained.

“I only mention it to illustrate how
complicated getting married can be,” she said.

“What’s so complicated? We find a preacher or
a priest and say our vows and then we’re married in the sight of
God.”

“Oh, my dear Jack, you don’t have a clue how
a woman thinks do you?”

“I thought girls wanted to get married.”

“They do. But, they like to plan. Getting
married is a very special occasion for a woman.”

“I can understand that. But I don’t want to
hear anymore about Charles.”

“You shouldn’t be jealous of a dead man.”

“I’m not jealous. Just don’t want to hear
about your past loves, that’s all.”

“And yet I have to hear about all the girls
you’ve had.”

“It’s different with men.”

“How so, Jack?”

“You women own the garden. We men plant the
seed, but you girls own the rich soil where life germinates. You
have to protect your gardens. You can’t let just any seed in.” She
stared at him, fascinated by his convoluted logic.

“I think you’ve been over medicated,” she
said, “Either that or that wound on your head has negatively
affected your brain.”

“Not so. Think about it. You’ve been given by
God the huge responsibility of conceiving and delivering a living
being. That’s powerful.”

“You mentioned God. So you’re religious
now?”

“I believe in a higher power. Don’t you?

“Sometimes I wonder.”

“But you gave me the Saint Christopher.”

“That was more a token of good luck.”

“How lucky can it be if Charles was killed
while wearing it?”

“You said we were not to mention Charles
again.”

“And we won’t. I don’t see why you’re so out
of sorts about a wedding.”

“I just told you.

“The way I see it, we’re already married. In
spirit and commitment anyway. We just have to make it official by
having a member of the clergy bless our Union so we’ll be
acceptable to society and God.”

“But I don’t want to rush things,” she said.
“I want it to be special.”

“What if something happens to me?” Jack
countered. “What if you had a child before you became my wife? What
then, Marie? Have you thought about these things at all?”

“Of course I have, I’m not a fool. Jack.”

“So, nothing worries you?”

“Only being sent away from here before you’re
well. You’ll be so sick of me being around that you’ll beg for me
to be transferred.”

“I’ll have to go back to Brownsville very
soon.”

“Let’s not talk about that right now.”

“Will you come to see me tonight?”

“Yes, right after I’ve settled the patients
for the night.”

Chapter 17

The next two weeks went by slowly. Jack’s
wounds had healed appreciably and he was just waiting for the
doctor to sign release papers so the Army could schedule a
transport date to send him back to his regiment in Brownsville. The
days were not as hot as before as fall was rapidly approaching and
Jack spent most of his days sitting in the sun outside the hospital
reading about the war. The Confederates were winning important
battles along the Atlantic coast region but it was clear by the
enormous loss of life and the surrender of railroads and key supply
routes that the south was slowly and execrably losing the war.

A man specializing in the manipulation of
injured limbs came down from San Antonio and spent an hour a day
putting Jack’s shoulder through the paces by using a series of
repetitive arm movements and mechanical weight therapy. Specialists
arrived to work on Corporal Campbell’s facial wounds as well. His
speech was greatly improved, as was his confidence. He’d taken a
strong liking to Nurse Lisette and was constantly asking her to go
on a train ride with him, even if that meant the ride would have to
take place in the relative privacy of a linen closet in the wee
hours of the morning. Whether or not she ever accepted the
invitation was an oft speculated topic of conversation in the ward
whenever Nurse Lisette was off duty and Corporal Campbell was out
of earshot.

As far as Jack was concerned all he wanted to
do was see Marie Hayes. The rest of the time he was happy to pass
the hours reading newspapers and chatting with his fellow patients.
Sometimes he would go down to the lobby and sit in one of the
leather-bound chairs and watch the people walking on the street in
front of the hospital. If Marie would happen to enter or leave by
the front door he would make a display of being interested in a
particular column in the newspaper so as not to arouse suspicion,
though he wasn’t particularly concerned what people might think.
Mrs. Styles had relaxed her restrictive oversight to some degree
having determined it was a waste of time trying to keep them
apart.