Page 51 of Always on My Mind

She grabbed her clothes and stuffed them into her trunk before shutting it with a slam.

The scene changed. When she looked around, she saw metal bed frames with thin mattresses lining each wall. Nurses in gray caps and white aprons, with red crosses on their arms bands, flitted back and forth across the ward. She glanced down to find herself in the same uniform, sitting in a chair next to an occupied bed.

The soldier beside her was missing his right leg below the knee. A bandage covered his forehead. A cast encased his left arm. He stared at her through shining brown eyes. Eyes that reminded her of Rosie’s.

“So. . . what d’you think?” he said.

“What?” she replied breathlessly.

“Nurse Dinah, I asked if you would marry me.”

She blinked. “Oh! Oh, golly, Roger, I—”

“I’m not just asking because of the way you’ve taken care of me. I’m quite fond of you, and I. . . well, I would take care of you, Dinah.”

“Roger, the war is still on.”

“It’ll be over any day now. Do you already have a man in your life? Is that your plan for after?”

“I. . . ”

She found herself lost for words. She didn’t have a man. She had Rosie. Who was arguably the love of her life. Impassioned kisses stolen in store rooms flooded to the front of her mind. Nights after a shift holding each other until sleep took them. It was all well and good now. But if the war was truly to be over soon, what happened next?

“I don’t have any plans for after the war,” she said. “I can hardly think of that now.”

“You should. The war will end, Dinah. And what will you do?”

She didn’t have an answer. Her parents were gone, and she had no other close family. She would be on her own in the world. She had counted on marrying a boy from back home in London, but he had been killed in the fields of France. Perhaps it was fate that put Roger on her rotation each day.

He was kind. He asked about her work as a nurse and was cooperative with the doctors. He never spoke harshly to anyone, and he came from a decent family in Brighton. Perhaps life with him wouldn’t be so bad.

But there was Rosie. How could she explain Rosie to anyone? The love between them burned hot as a wildfire. Society would never accept their relationship. They had talked about the future, but in broad terms, never laying out specific plans. After all, what future could there be between them? Confirmed old maids living together? People would still talk.

“I don’t know,” she told him. “As I said, I haven’t thought of it.”

“I think I could make you happy, Dinah,” he said. “My family lives right on the coast. We could forget all the terrible things we’ve seen here and watch the sea every morning.”

She peered at him for a long moment. “It does sound nice. . . ”

“It will be peace beyond peace, Dinah. Think about it.”

She was thinking about it. And the truth was, there was no place for a young woman with no family and no husband. Once the war was over, the only work available would be more nursing. And she never wanted to hear men screaming and dying ever again. She wanted to hear the waves lapping at the shore and seagulls calling over the wind.

“Yes, Roger. I will marry you.”

A smile lit up his face. For the first time since he had come into this hospital on a stretcher, he was happy. She couldn’t help but smile back.

“Oh, Dinah, you won’t regret it,” he said through an elated sigh. “You’ve made me the happiest man in the world.”

She put a hand on his arm. “Don’t get too excited. You still need to rest and get healthy. Then we can think about what happens after the war.”

He reached up and patted her fingers. “Thank you, Dinah.”

“Would you like me to read to you?” she offered.

“I’d love it.”

“More poetry?”

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