The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

02: Easy and Alive

Charlie heaved a sigh and slumped back on her bunk, exhausted. Trying to find the rest of her unit amongst the hundreds of nurses on the ship was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Not, of course, that she'd know anything about that. But no matter how many people she'd asked or how rigorously she'd searched the crowd for uniforms with patches identical to her own, finding anyone who was bound for the same tiny English village as her had been impossible.

She supposed it made sense that there wouldn't be too many nurses in a unit. There weren't enough of them to go around in total, across the entirety of America, let alone to spread generously throughout Europe and have enough to spare for Africa and the Pacific. Still, she hoped she would be able to find at least one other girl in the same unit as her before the ship docked and she had to make her way to London, and then from London to Aldbourne; she'd never had to travel by herself before and doing all of that alone seemed like a baptism of fire.

By the time her fourth day on the ship rolled around Charlie decided to give up looking for others altogether. Whilst it was true she'd hoped to spend at least half of the eleven days on the ship with the other girls she was due to spend the war with, the odds seemed to be tipped against her; it didn't seem as though any of the other girls in her unit were on the same ship as her at all. Maybe they'd gone over to England earlier than she had, had perhaps decided to opt out of visiting home first. Or maybe they were going later - perhaps not all of the nurses were needed overseas at the moment. Perhaps they were still finishing their training.

Really, Charlie thought it was ridiculous that they kept them so in the dark about everything. She had no idea who she was serving with, where she'd be living, or how long she'd be staying there for. All she'd been told was the name of her unit - the 23rd Field Hospital -, where it was stationed, and the hospital she'd be serving in whilst awaiting deployment to combat. It had seemed like all the information she could possibly need to know when she'd first received the letter detailing everything, but now she found it sorely lacking. Could they not have taken the time to put at least one name of someone in her unit in the letter, someone she'd be travelling with? Frustrating. The whole thing was frustrating and she hadn't even made it across the Atlantic yet.

Her final Thursday morning aboard the ship was ushered in with wind and rain. The wind of late February had been chilly back in New York but as they neared Britain it became biting. Charlie braved the cold if only to get some fresh air. After living in the pockets of all of the other girls bunking with her for so long, she wasn't sure how much more of the overwhelming heat and the thickness of pre-breathed air she could take.

Out on the deck and leaning against the railing, Charlie closed her eyes against the lashing of the wind and the spray of ocean water on her face, letting the rainwater flatten her hair. Her cheeks started to sting with the harshness of the cold and her ears began to ring, her fingers bright red and shaking even where they were clenched tightly into fists in her pockets. It was all still a welcome relief from the terrible heat and noise inside. At least no one was stepping on her fingers or knocking into her legs whilst climbing up the bunks on the way to their bed.

She remained that way for a while, letting the wind and rain beat at her face and neck, allowing the sounds of the waves beneath her to calm her pacing heart. Strands of light brunette hair tore loose of the updo she'd styled it in and stuck to her cheeks and lips but she didn't mind; it was better to have them stick to her skin with rainwater than with sweat, in any case, as they had been for the better part of the last week.

"Oh, wow," gasped a voice which started coughing the moment the words were out.

Charlie opened her eyes and squinted against the salt water, turning to the door she'd emerged from herself only about ten minutes previously.