Page 22 of Sisters Under The Rising Sun
‘Matron Paschke? Is she here?’ Vivian asks.
The hut falls silent.
‘No, not yet,’ Nesta says. ‘Or Matron Drummond.’
‘That makes you the senior, then, Sister James,’ Vivian tells her.
‘I guess, but we’re not really operating on a hierarchy at the moment.’
Nesta registers Vivian has not let go of her water canteen. Its strap around her neck, she holds it tightly to her side.
‘Are you alone, are there any of the others with you?’ Nesta probes.
Vivian can’t speak. No one speaks. Everyone is holding their breath in hope.
‘They’re all dead,’ Vivian whispers.
‘What do you mean? How can they all be dead?’ one of the nurses asks.
‘I have something I need to tell you and I don’t know how,’ Vivian says, looking at each nurse, seeing the fear seeping into their eyes.
‘Let’s sit down at the back there, where prying ears won’t hear you.’ Nesta takes her arm and leads her to the far end of the hut and onto a concrete slab, where the nurses gather in a tight circle around Vivian.
All eyes are on Bully. The only sound in the room is quiet sobbing for their dead friends. Nurses huddle together to comfort one another as Vivian begins to talk.
‘We were still on the ship when I heard Matron Paschke tell us it was time to go. I took off my shoes and remembered Matron telling us to hold our life jacket firmly under our chins when we jumped. When I surfaced, the hull of the ship was so close I could have touched it. Someone shouted at me to get away from it, so I doggy-paddled as fast as I could. I found an upturned lifeboat and hung on to the rope it was attached to. Before long, others joined me, clinging to every part of the lifeboat. Rosetta and Clarice had joined me, and before we knew it, it was dark.’ Vivian falls silent, wiping away a tear.
The nurses look at each other. They know Rosetta and Clarice aren’t here.
Vivian presses on. She finds herself drifting away and reliving the story.
Vivian’s story
Radji Beach
February 1942
‘I think I see a light. There on the beach. It’s a fire! Someone’s lit a fire.’
‘Where, Bully? I can’t see it.’
‘It’s behind you, Rosetta, just turn around. Come on, everyone. Paddle. Let’s go.’
‘Are you sure? I still can’t see it.’
Vivian pivots Rosetta around.
‘There. D’you see it now?’
‘I see it,’ says Rosetta, suddenly excited. ‘Come on, Clarice.’
With a new-found energy, the group begin to swim hard for the beach. The light from the fire is beckoning them ever closer.
‘Bully! I think I touched the bottom; I can feel sand under my feet. Come on, everyone. We can walk from here.’
Vivian takes Rosetta’s arm to help her onto the beach, but then notices the wounds to her back and shoulder. Her uniform is torn open and, by the light of the stars, she sees the shredded flesh beneath.
‘Rosetta, you’re injured! Let me take a look.’
