The Nurse

Chapter 24: A German Friend

The familiar hum of voices rang from the downstairs hall. The women shared the same dreadful expression as they listened carefully to the men talking below. Each knew that another arrival of wounded would be appear. Days were growing long in the field hospital. Ypres brought a never-ending battle for the active nurses.

Eloise slowly turned, entering her room. She quietly shut the door and took Ulrich into her arms. Her mind went back onto the thoughts of the soldiers fighting. How hard it must be for them to fight for such an extended time, she thought.

She placed a tender kiss onto the cheek of Ulrich. The smile formed on the child's face reminded her of the man she loved. Her mind quickly traveled to the thoughts of him and wondered if he had gotten the photograph of Ulrich. As the months disappeared, she got to watch as her son grew. As he grew, there was no denying that Albert was his father. She longed for Albert to hold Ulrich just as she did. The thought of him made her heart leap and ache simultaneously, leaving her with mixed emotions in her mind.

A sudden knock at the door startled her back into the bitter reality of war. She approached the door and opened it. Adeline stood before her, along with an older woman.

"They are wanting you in the operating room." Adeline informed sympathetically.

Eloise let out a sigh, cradling Ulrich closer to her body. With one tender kiss, Eloise placed Ulrich in the arms of the other woman. The comforting words she whispered to Ulrich made Eloise cringe. Leaving her son in the hands of others was the harder than the job she faced downstairs.

"How much longer is this battle going to go?" Eloise faintly asked Adeline, as they wondered through the room that had filled with injured.

Adeline shrugged, "They have been fighting in Ypres since October, and it is already in November. I suppose it will go on until there is a stalemate."

Eloise knelt down beside a group of soldiers. Each one had visible burn injuries. Their faces were worn, as were their exhausted bodies. She took one of the men by the hand and helped him upright. Steadily she neared him to a chair.

With a steady hand, Eloise pulled back the bloodied uniform from the soldier's body. The flesh that remained was severely charred. She retrieved a wetted cloth and began to lightly clean the man's wounds. With tears welling in his dazed eyes, he winced in pain with every touch.

"I am sorry, sir." She whispered reassuringly as she continued her cure.

As she tended him, more wounded were being brought in. She let out a long sigh as she watched the tattered men fall to the floor around. A river of blood flowed freely throughout the building. With all the help in the hospital, it was still not enough to maintain the injured.

As Eloise finished the man, another one was placed before her. A large laceration in his stomach was the only visible injury he possessed. As Eloise began her inspection on the wound, he began to convulse below her. She steadied his body and held him close, knowing that he was slowly dying.

Sadness and fear filled the young man's eyes as he looked up at her. She offered him a tender smile and began to gently stroke his cheek. A moment of peace came to him before his body became motionless in her arms. A lump formed in the back of her throat as she held the man. Her eyes scanned around the busy room. Men were dying all around. Death had paid a visit to the field hospital and it was inevitable.

Eloise motioned to two soldiers who retrieved the body from her arms. She quickly regained herself and continued with the battle of death, an enemy that was impossible to defeat. As the time passed, the number of wounded began to dwindle away. A thankfulness came to Eloise for she could the light at the end of the tunnel. She could see the relief in the eyes of both the patients and the nurses.