The Story of Dr. Wassell Read Online Free PDF Page A

probably untypical,
and though she was obedient to rules and regulations there were often ways in
which she acted with a curious patient individuality. For instance, Dr.
Voorhuys was very kind and very efficient, but very busy also; when he went
round the ward to look at the state of the burns, he sometimes tore off dead
skin with a swift movement that was really merciful, because if he had done
it slowly the pain would have been greater. But Three Martini was in no such
hurry, and while Dr. Voorhuys was doing the rounds from one end she would
start at the other, generally getting no farther than the first bed because
she took such care. But there was another reason. The occupant of the first
bed was Renny, who had severe burns, as well as internal injuries, and the
girl paid much attention to this boy. The other patients thought it must be a
romantic interest and chaffed them both about it, but actually it was not
quite that, or else it was more than that; it depended on how one interpreted
the facts, and as nobody except the girl herself (and later on the doctor and
another man) knew them, misunderstanding was inevitable. The chief facts were
that just before the men from the Marblehead arrived at the hospital
Three Martini had donated blood, and blood had been transferred to Renny
almost immediately after his arrival. Three Martini was certain (though
perhaps not on absolutely reliable evidence) that it was her blood, and it
gave her a curious feeling for Renny that she could not have explained even
had they had a language to speak in. When, after his friend Bailey’s death,
Renny seemed depressed and not to be making much of a recovery, the girl
attached herself to him in a way that could not be criticized because it
really did not mean that she neglected anyone else. It was a great day for
her (and for him also) when she learned to pluck off his dead skin with
tweezers so that the flesh below was not even touched. None of the other
nurses could do this unfailingly, though all of them tried. When Three
Martini found that the absence of this little extra pain made such a
difference to Renny, she contrived that no one else ever attended to him in
this way; she would stoop over his burned arm as over a piece of delicate
needlework, saying nothing because there was nothing to say either in his
language or in hers. Even when McGuffey talked to her across the ward,
cracking jokes that he knew she did not understand, she would merely smile
and continue her work.
    Only once did the men see her gay and excited, and that was (oddly
perhaps) just after Bailey’s funeral. The atmosphere of the ward was pretty
low- spirited that day; and all at once Three Martini rushed through the
doorway carrying a newborn child that had just been delivered in the
Maternity Ward which happened to be next to the men’s. It was a brown child
of her own race, and chattering all the time in Javanese, she held it up for
the men to see. Then, as if afraid of being discovered in such a breach of
rules, she rushed out of the ward as suddenly as she had entered, and when
she returned a little later she was perfectly quiet again.
    The doctor found other things to do for the men—little things,
mostly, and by no means the kind one had to be trained to be a Navy doctor
for. He bought quantities of oranges, for instance, and after much difficulty
found shops in the town that stocked certain kinds of canned goods that the
men liked. He also bought candy, because he worked it out in his mind that
youth requires sugar, therefore candy is a medicine. He did not tell the men
he was buying them these things, but gave them to the Dutch hospital
authorities and let the men think they were part of the regular rations. Nor
was it entirely his dislike of being thanked that made him do this, but
chiefly a desire to do his duty as liaison officer in promoting good feeling
between the Dutch and the Americans. The Dutch