Summer Fire by Bevan Deniz

Author:Bevan, Deniz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2017-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

It was a shame that tents had no doors you could slam. Ayşe ran out of the gloom back into the sunlight, and trod on Hakan’s toes.

He caught her about the waist and held her close. “What happened to you?” He tucked a folded piece of paper into his back pocket.

She wrenched herself free of his grasp. “Nothing. Let’s just go meet the other doctors, okay?” Her voice came out high-pitched. So much for the grown woman act. She felt just like a teenager, again, crushing on a cool guy who turned around and hurt her. Revealing the depth of her feelings, only to have him send a friend to reject her.

This was the sort of thing taking risks led to, the kind of heartbreak that left scars, why she’d always done her best to keep her head down and focus on her work.

A long-drawn groan, punctuated by a few choice swear words, came from inside the tent.

Murat ran up from the main building. “Doctor Nadjari’s operating on a couple of soldiers, he says he can’t come.”

Over the sound of another groan, Hakan spoke through clenched teeth. “And the other nurses?”

“Busy.” Murat looked almost gleeful.

“Wipe that smirk off your face and go boil some water,” Hakan snapped. Murat shrugged and ran off.

Hakan turned to her, reaching for her hand. “Ayşe, can you help me? I promise I can explain everything.”

“So explain.”

Another groan. Roslyn called out for help, and the cot’s legs scraped against the rocky ground.

“Fine, forget it.” She yanked her hand from his. “I’ll do it for her, not you. Get a lantern or something, will you?”

Lifting the flap, she returned to the tent, blinking in the dusky light.

* * *

Roslyn’s baby was born at sunset. Ayşe did most of the work—grateful for a month-long stint she’d been assigned last winter in the obstetrics ward, an experience more recent than Hakan’s—with Hakan by Roslyn’s head, helping her with the breathing and the pain. Murat hung around, pacing, and occasionally fetching a needed item.

The camp had no epidural or anaesthesiologist, and Roslyn’s screams were deafening. At one point, Murat went out to collar one of the soccer players to stand by the entrance, and keep nosy neighbours from peeking in.

Hakan left after they’d evaluated the newborn’s Apgar score and measurements, to seek out a nurse, or one of the camp residents who might have training, who could stay with Roslyn for a few hours and help clean up. Ayşe washed herself and Roslyn and the baby boy as best she could, demanded and got a change of sheets for the cot from Murat, and set about combing and braiding Roslyn’s hair. The new mother did not say a word, either in thanks or in further accusation against Hakan. She kept glancing down at the swaddled baby beside her, and grazing its cheek with her pinkie finger.

When another nurse came in, Ayşe went out. Hakan had not returned. She couldn’t leave the camp without him, as she had no

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