A Gift for the District Nurses by Annie Groves

Author:Annie Groves [Groves, Annie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-09-21T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

‘What are you doing, Gladys?’ Ruby asked, poking her head around the door of the district room. It was Friday evening and she was surprised that the other young woman was still here. ‘Why haven’t you gone home yet?’

‘Tidying this place up a bit,’ Gladys replied. ‘And then I’m going out directly from here. My mother can sort out the rest of them for once. I made a nice lamb stew for them all earlier; all she has to do is heat it up and dish it out.’

Ruby looked more closely at what Gladys was up to. ‘Is that a broom handle?’ she asked.

Gladys nodded. ‘That’s right. It’s how you keep these pieces of mackintosh from sticking together – you got to roll them around something and a broom handle is easiest. Can’t have them ripping in two when you nurses want to use them when you’re treating a patient, can we?’

Ruby instantly remembered the little boy having his tonsils taken out. She’d had to use the mackintosh sheeting then. He’d made a good recovery, so after next week she wouldn’t have to see him any more. He was back to chasing around the house with his little sister, wearing his mother’s nerves thinner with each passing day.

‘Where are you going this evening?’ she asked, starting to replace the items she’d used from today’s cases as she spoke: castor oil, Vaseline, surgical spirit.

‘I’m going to the pictures with Ron,’ Gladys said with a big grin. ‘Gert and Daisy are on up at Clapton. Want to come?’

‘Oh, no.’ Ruby tucked her new supplies tidily into her Gladstone bag. ‘I don’t want to be a gooseberry.’

‘You won’t be,’ Gladys assured her, stowing the rolled mackintosh back in its cupboard. ‘Me sister is going to be there and Belinda said she might come along too. And remember I told you about Ron’s friend Kenny? He’ll be there as well if he ends his shift in time.’

Ruby looked dubious. She wasn’t at all sure if she wanted to be set up like this. At least it sounded as if it was a big group of friends, not just a couple with add-ons. Moreover, she did like Gert and Daisy – the comic characters always made her laugh. After such a busy week she could do with that; not all the patients were recovering as fast as little Roy.

‘Well, all right,’ she said, suddenly filled with the urge to do something different for once. ‘Yes, why not?’

Gladys automatically straightened the boxes of Dettol as she passed them. ‘Really? You’ll come? You won’t regret it,’ she predicted. ‘We might even go for a half of shandy and a bit of a sing-song after. I mean, you don’t have to, but just to warn you. Ron always says it does you good to let your hair down a bit at the end of the week. I tell you straight, I’m looking forward to it. I done three nights in a row at the first-aid station and a change of scene is just the ticket.

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