Nurse Jenny Experiences Midway Ch. 05

This is a fictional account.

May and Jenny walked into the dorm still chatting merrily in hushed tones about their sexual activities with Jerry and Ben. They stopped as they entered their room to see Bea sitting up in bed. They had both nearly forgotten about Bea missing her entire shift and covering for her.

“What the hell happened to you?” May asked, without any hesitation.

“I got too drunk to work,” Bea offered, weakly as a confession.

“Are you crazy?” Jenny exclaimed. “Are you trying to get busted? Fortunately we were able to cover for you and say you were sick.”

“Thanks, gals. I’m sorry,” Bea said, but then started to cry.

May and Jenny went to her to comfort her, “It’s okay. No big deal,” May said, patting her on the shoulder.

“It’s not only that,” Bea said. “I got so drunk, I think I let four guys fuck me!”

“You did?” Jenny exclaimed.

“All I remember for sure was drinking with Harvey and Sid. Sid had a half a bottle of whiskey and we were drinking it from the bottle. I don’t know what got into me. I guess I just wanted to dull all the misery of this war. I know I let Sid and Harvey fuck me but I think two other guys did too,” Bea confessed, in between fits of sobbing.

“Oh, you, poor thing!” May stated.

“It’ll be all right,” Jenny claimed.

“What if I get pregnant?” Bea pronounced, with more crying.

“Oh, my god! I don’t know,” May exclaimed. “You think you might?”

“I don’t know! I’m worried sick about it. I wouldn’t even know who the father is for sure,” Bea said, and started crying worse. “I’m just a slut!”

“You are not,” Jenny said. “Don’t talk like that!”

“I’m one of those May Girl whores you read about in the papers,” Bea confessed. “The ones that are fucking GIs and sailors as if it’s their patriotic duty. That’s me, a May Girl whore.”

“That’s not true,” May proclaimed.

“Yeah, you just got too drunk is all,” Jenny offered, trying to help.

Bea didn’t answer. She just dropped her head in Jenny’s lap and kept crying. May patted her friend on the back while Jenny stroked her reddish blonde hair. The two young women looked at each other with sincere caring and worry for their friend crying away in their arms.

Bea finally tired and stopped crying. May and Jenny helped her back in bed. They changed for bed themselves and went across the hall to the bathroom. Viv and Dorrie had already left the bathroom for bed so they had the room to themselves.

“Oh, god! That’s terrible what happened to Bea,” May whispered.

“Yeah, it is. You think we should try to do something so she doesn’t get pregnant?” Jenny asked.

“Like what?” May queried.

“I don’t know. Maybe wash her insides out with hot water or something. Like dousing, you know,” Jenny said.

“Isn’t it too late by now? I mean she slept nearly our whole shift already,” May stated.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

They finished getting ready and went to bed. When Jenny woke after midday, she saw that May was still asleep but Bea was sitting up in bed looking out the window.

“You okay?” Jenny whispered.

“Yeah, fine,” Bea said, and then added. “I’ll just have to deal with my own stupidity whatever comes of it.”

“I said a prayer for you that you’ll be fine, before I fell asleep this morning,” Jenny said.

“Thanks, Jenny. I guess I should be praying myself too.”

“Bea, if it makes you feel any better, May and I aren’t angels either.”

“What do you mean?” Bea asked.

“May wanted to experience a blowjob, so I set it up for her to do Ben. I got him to agree to be blindfolded and then brought her in. She did it and liked doing it. After she did and left, I had sex with Jerry in the shower. I’m no longer a virgin.”

“You did?” Bea asked, intrigued now by all these other events.

“Yeah, so you see, at least you have an excuse by being drunk. May and I are probably bigger sluts than you because we wanted to do it.”

“Well, to be honest too, I was not naïve enough to think something might not happen with Sid and Harvey. I actually think I wanted to do it. I’m just mad and upset with myself for losing control and now possible being pregnant as a result.”

“Yeah, I got Jerry to pull out of me,” Jenny stated.

“Smart girl. Smarter than me getting too drunk and letting myself be pumped full of sperm.”

May began to waken so the other women got up to get ready for chow. As usual they were all staved having not eaten since the previous night. Bea and Jenny went into the bathroom to shower. Viv and Dorrie had showered already and were doing their hair.

Dorrie asked Bea, “What happened to you last night?”

“Too much to drink,” was all Bea offered.

May was in the shower by the time Jenny and Bea did their hair. They went back to their room to dress and Bea remembered something.

“Oh, Jenny. There’s two letters for you over on the dresser,” Bea proclaimed.

“Thanks,” Jenny said, retrieving the letters and sitting on her bed.

One was from her brother and the other from her boyfriend’s parents. She wondered why they had chosen to write her but opened her brother’s first. She had written to him upon leaving Pearl for Midway and he had apparently received the letter and written back. Jenny read the short letter quickly. Her brother was shipping out for England. He did not know where his unit was going from there. Jenny read the rest of the letter about his basic train and his unit. She felt worried for him as he now shipped out into harm’s way.

Jenny put that letter aside and picked up the second just as May came into the room from the bathroom.

“Oh, someone has mail. Lucky you,” May stated.

Jenny told May and Bea about the first letter and the fact her brother was being called overseas. She was worried he would be safe. May and Bea told her not to worry as she opened the other letter.

Jenny started to read and then gasped so loudly after the first sentence that May and Bea turned to look. Seconds later they watched as Jenny started to cry while trying to read the rest of the letter.

“What’s the matter?” May asked.

“Something happen at home?” Bea questioned.

“He’s dead!” Jenny cried out, and she sobbed harder.

“Who’s dead?” May wanted to know.

“Gary…my boyfriend, Gary, is dead,” Jenny choked out.

“Oh, my god,” Bea exclaimed.

“Oh, geez,” May lamented.

“How?” Bea questioned.

“His ship was sunk by a submarine crossing the Atlantic,” Jenny managed to eke out.

“Oh, gosh!” May moaned.

Jenny tossed the letter on the floor angrily and curled up on her bed. She started crying harder and May and Bea moved to console her. Bea knelt beside the bed and held her hand as May sat down beside her and patted her shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, Jenny,” May said.

“Poor, baby,” Bea said, rubbing her hand tenderly.

The women consoled her for a while until Viv and Dorrie appeared at the door. Viv started to ask if they were going to chow when they both noticed Jenny crying and the open letter on the floor.

“What’s the matter?” Dorrie asked.

“Jenny’s boyfriend was killed crossing the Atlantic in a ship. It was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine,” Bea informed them.

“Oh, how terrible,” they both said in near unison.

The four women tried to calm Jenny. She eventually stopped crying and sat up. Bea had given her a towel to wipe her eyes, which she did. Dorrie was holding the letter having picked it up off the floor. Jenny reached for it and Dorrie gave it to her. Jenny read the rest of the short letter through sniffles and wiping her eyes. When she finished she just sat with her face in her hands.

Viv tried to encourage her by saying, “Jenny, come with us to get something to eat. Gary would want you to carry on.”

“You guys go. I’ll catch up soon,” Jenny offered.

The other women finally agreed and left to go to the mess hall after getting her to agree to join them soon. Jenny lay back down and cried a little more as she thought of Gary and their times together back in Lincoln. She also hoped he had not suffered in death. The thought occurred to her that he might have survived the attack only to have drowned and that made her start crying all over again.

Jenny eventually got up and washed her face. She tried to make herself presentable but her eyes looked terrible and puffy red. When she joined the other ladies at the mess hall, they had all eaten and were just drinking coffee. She picked at some food in silence as they tried once more to console her. Before Jenny got there they had been talking about how death of people they knew and loved was probably going to be more commonplace now. They all needed to become tougher and get used to receiving bad news.

After eating, May, Bea, and Jenny went for a walk on the beach. They helped Jenny talk through her feelings of loss for Gary and her worries, deeper worries now, for her brother. Bea also had a brother in the service but still in basic. They walked for quite a way down the beach and back. By the time they got back, they just had time to freshen up and report for work.

Jenny, May, and Bea walked into the hospital together and quickly were stopped by Charlotte.

“News, ladies,” Charlotte said. “Tomorrow many of our recovering cases are shipping out to Pearl and then on to the mainland. We will be down to less than half the occupied beds we now have. New hours will be posted soon too.”

“Who’s going?” May asked.

Charlotte looked at Jenny and said, “Jerry and Ben will be going from your area.” She rattled off quite a few more names bringing ohs and ahs from all the ladies accept Jenny. She just looked totally shell shocked. First she had lost Gary and now Jerry was leaving her. All at once, Jenny felt alone and even sadder at all the bad news today had brought.

When Charlotte left and Viv, Dorrie, and Bea moved off talking, May noticed Jenny’s distant look and said, “You okay?”

“Ah, I guess so. Just seems everyone I care about is dying or leaving me,” Jenny stated.

“Bea and I are still here for you,” May pointed out.

“Thank god for that,” Jenny agreed.

“Come on, let’s get to work,” May stated.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Jenny made her rounds. Brad was asleep when she went to his room so she just checked his chart. He was being fitted for artificial limbs the next day. Jenny made the rest of her rounds purposely saving Jerry’s room for last. When she walked in, he heard someone coming and turned to look, though he still could only make out blurred shadows and shapes. His right eye was improving faster than the left.