Nurses: Claire and Jan by Bette Paul

Author:Bette Paul [Paul, Bette]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Matrix Digital Publishing
Published: 2008-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

JAN’S

JOURNEY

Prologue

Everyone clamoured for attention. “Water – for the love of God a drink of water!”

“Bring me a bed-pan – quick!”

“The blood’s seeping through. More bandage, please.”

“Something for the pain, please, Doctor.”

Jan Buczowski smiled grimly to himself; it was nice to be addressed as “doctor” even though he was only a medical orderly. His smile faded as he remembered the real doctor of the family – his mother. She’d always wanted him to follow her profession and he’d always resisted. Well, she’d be proud of him now, wherever she was. But where was she now? And his father? Not in conference with some government committee these days, surely. Across the river at home with Granya, he fervently hoped, though they might as well be on a different planet; there was no chance of getting back there now the tanks had entered the city.

As if to echo his thoughts, a series of dull thuds started up quite close. Jan stopped adjusting the patient’s drip for a moment and looked across at Sister Radski. She nodded and they both moved away from the bed.

“They’re getting close now,” said Sister.

“But surely they won’t attack the hospital?” Jan protested.

Sister Radski shrugged. “They’ll attack anything in their way,” she said. “Round up the children and take them down to the basement.”

“What about these people?” Jan looked around the ward, where everyone was badly wounded, immobilized.

“I’ll wheel them across to the inside wall, well away from the windows.”

“And you?” he asked anxiously. Tanya Radski had been a good friend to him – and a good teacher; what little he knew of nursing came from her. They’d been on duty together on and off – mostly on – for over a week now and Jan had learned to admire the tough little Sister.

Through the dust and grime on her face, and the exhaustion in her eyes, Tanya smiled. “I’ll stay here – well away from the windows, don’t you worry.”

But Jan did worry. As he heaved injured children down the flights of narrow steps, along the sandbagged passages and into the candle-lit store rooms deep under the hospital building, he wondered how Tanya was getting on.

I’ll go back and help her, he decided, just as soon as I’ve finished here.

But as soon as he’d got the children to safety, the adult patients were on their way. They lined the stairwell, supporting each other, two, sometimes three abreast. Jan knew he couldn’t leave them there; he stood at the bottom of the steps, lifting, heaving, pushing them in through the door to the basement, like so many hunks of meat.

And all the time he was aware of the dull, heavy thud of gunfire and, he realized, the steady rumble of traffic. The tanks were coming up the hospital drive! Even then he couldn’t make himself believe they would fire on the hospital; not until he pushed his way up to the ground floor to help a couple of walking wounded down. There, he was almost knocked down as a

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