Cherry Ames 04 Chief Nurse by Helen Wells

Author:Helen Wells [Wells, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grosset and Dunlap
Published: 2011-12-31T13:26:26+00:00

B E S S I E

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Major Pierce ordered adrenalin. Marie gave the hypodermic, and the wound was, with some difficulty, finally closed and dressed. The flier seemed in a fairly satisfactory condition as Dr. Willard and two corpsmen wheeled him back to the isolation tent. Ann was there; she and a corpsman would stay with him.

Only after the surgeons had left, and Cherry had dismissed Marie and the nurse and the corpsman, did she allow herself to think of the mystery here. Mrs. Flanders cleaned up the table, while Cherry sterilized and put away instruments. Bessie was crossly silent, so Cherry had a chance to think about the shattering discovery this might be.

“Not so fast,” Cherry warned herself. “We haven’t discovered anything yet. There’s only a suspicion. But a strange wound, plus strange fragments, plus Gene’s uncanny silence—it all begins to add up. It looks as if——”

Bessie softly groaned. Cherry was startled out of her thoughts. She dropped the instruments she was wiping, and ran around to the other side of the hut.

“Bessie! Bessie, what is it?” The older woman’s face was wan and drawn. She was leaning weakly against the wall, her eyes almost closed.

Cupped in her hand were two tiny pieces of metal.

“Careless of me,” she started to say. Cherry, noticing that Bessie was on the verge of fainting, grasped the 114

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fragments and shoved them into her pocket. She led Bessie to a chair and made her sit down.

“Are you sick, Bessie?”

“No—not sick—–”

“I know what’s the matter with you,” Cherry said, trying to repress a giggle. “You’re hungry.” Bessie weakly nodded. “So hungry I’m faint. Go on, scold me.”

“No, I’m not going to scold you. I’m going to feed you.

Can you walk over to Mess with me? Here, lean on my arm, you—you dieter!”

Mess Hall was deserted. Cherry sat Bessie down at the long rough table, and wheedled some light, warm food from the cook. She brought it back, and sat beside her nurse while she ate. It was strange to see big Bessie so weak and pale. She confessed that she had eaten scarcely anything substantial for nearly two weeks now.

“I’m sorry I was—irritable,” she said as she finished her food. “But—you see—I’m so tired of people poking fun at me because I’m fat.”

“No one would have thought of you as fat, if you had not started it yourself,” Cherry pointed out. “You were never fat.”

“But I am fat! I’m huge—awkward—funny-looking—” Bessie could not laugh about it now. Real distress filled her blue eyes.

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