The General Store

Chapter 14: The Cook Brothers

My first shift back was a night shift, 6 pm through until 8 am. I loved the night shift, the early hours of the morning often brought the best and the worst in everyone.
'Are you sure you're up to it? I don't want you passing out on the job Sister Murphy.' Matron Cleary clarified as she signed off on the roster.
'I haven't been ill for a week I'll be fine.' I reassured. Matron Cleary sighed and walked away, leaving me to my duties. I opened the door slowly and noticed different faces focusing on me almost instantly.
'Thank god you're here Sister, Paul over here isn't well at all.' Joseph stated quickly. The ward fell deathly silent, it frightened me to say the least. Joseph guided me over to Paul's bed.
'Is he going to be ok Sister Murphy?' The bloke in the bed next to him asked.
'Give her a chance Mark.' Joseph snapped.
I looked down at Paul, his skin was clammy and perspiration ran into his eyes. He'd been laid on his side, and he looked extremely uncomfortable.
'G'day Mate, you must be Paul.' I greeted with a smile. He nodded and clenched his eyes closed.
'I'm just going to pull the sheets away alright.' I informed and gripped the blinding white sheet. Paul's eyes were wide with sorrow as we all stood back in shock. Scarlett red blood stained the sheets, the bullet wound in his leg was haemorrhaging slowly and the cuts on his wrists were the deepest I had ever seen.
'What'd you do it with?' I questioned him.
'My razor.' He barely had enough strength to speak. I took it out of the top draw and placed it carefully on the top of the cabinet.
'Paul! How could you do this?!' Mark yelled, almost falling out of bed in desperation.
'Mum always said you took after dad.' Mark scowled.
'Mark please you've got to settle down mate.' I told him, grabbing gauze pads and pressing them onto the bullet piercing on his thigh.
'He's my brother!' Mark bellowed. 'Dad killed himself like this!'
'You don't think I know that?' Paul winced.
'Mark I'll send you out in a minute.' I said firmly.
'Look at all that blood Sister, he's not gonna live, I just wanna know why!' Mark stood over the side of the bed, glaring at his older brother.
'Mark it's hard to explain.' Paul said.
'Then explain it,' Mark snarled, gripping Paul's singlet sleeves. 'I've got time.'
Paul's eye lids started to grow heavy, I could tell he didn't need his brother's lip right now.
'Joseph, do me a favour and take Mark outside please,' I pulled Joseph down. 'Paul won't last long, there's nothing I can do.'
Joseph nodded and grabbed Mark's arms.
'No please! Paul why'd you do this?! Please no.' Mark burst into hysterics as Joseph dragged him out.
'I didn't want to go like this.' Paul stuttered, his hands beginning to shake.
'I hate that I can't do anything for you now Paul and I hate that I'll have to sit with you brother for the rest of the night and I wish I could've done something for you before it came to this, but Paul Cook, I hope that wherever you're about to go treats you better than here.' I smiled at him softly and he sighed.
'How long have I got? Honestly.' He asked.
'Five maybe ten minutes, hard to tell.' I swallowed.
'Get Mark back in here.' He groaned and I nodded.
'Joseph bring him in.' I called, nearly being knocked off my feet by a distraught Mark.
'I'm sorry Paul, I'm sorry, please don't go.' Mark fell to his knees beside Paul's bed.
'No, I'm sorry little mate.' Paul gripped his brothers hand, his spare hand running through Mark's Hair in attempt to console him.
'What am I going to tell Mum?' Mark frowned.
'I was shot,' Paul said simply. 'That's all.'
'But that's not how you died.'
'She can't know this happened.' Paul said firmly.
'You needed my help.' Mark wiped his tear away.
'There was nothing you could do.' Paul whispered, the two of them fell silent as did the ward.
'I'll let Dad know how you're going, look after Mum for me yeah?' Paul's eyes began to glaze over as he gripped tighter to Mark's hand.
'Yeah, I think I can do that.' Mark pressed his forehead against his brothers.
'Get back into bed, and face the door, I love you so much.' Paul mumbled.
'I love you mate.' Mark replied before climbing back into bed slowly. He rolled onto his side and closed his eyes, every man on the Ward watched as Paul's breathing began to decrease.
'Do you need anything?' I asked him, he shook his head and smiled.
'Look after him for me, he's a good kid.' Paul closed his eyes and his chest stopped. I heard a few men lay down in their creaky beds, sniffling and cries arose from different beds. I walked to the front of the ward, I took a deep breath, containing myself.
'Gentlemen, we have a long night ahead of us, but we're all going to get through it together. If you need me, let me know,  I'm not going to leave you, not any of you, because stuff like this is hard to comprehend. We need each other's support at the moment, it's going to be ok.' I reassured, "Thank you's" and nods came from the patients. I weaved my way over to Mark, 'don't worry mate, I'm right here.' I pulled a chair to the side of his bed.
'You don't think about loosing your big brother, he's always the strong one, the more reliable one, not in a million years is he meant to die.' Mark stated, tears gushing from his eyes.
'Especially like that, Dad did it when Paul was about 12, slit his wrists then bled out on our bedroom floor, Paul was never the same since.' Mark sighed. I didn't really know what to say, I'd lost a few men to suicide during my time in Vietnam but their deaths didn't hurt me as much as Paul's. Maybe it was because I saw his brother cry, maybe because his last words were to me or maybe because I'd forgotten how real death was.