Jake woke up in a hospital bed & didn't remember what had happened. He looked down at his body; it was cut up pretty bad. His uniform was still on so he couldn't have been at the hospital for very long. Other men in uniform, body casts and worse were scattered around on crappy make-shift beds. Jake realized he didn't even know what state he was in. Didn't know if the war was over. It had been a tough battle and he had fought with his platoon for over three years. The last thing he remembered was being thrown to the ground by a fellow soldier and hearing the explosion of a grenade.
He looked around the hospital at all the hundreds of pretty nurses in blue & white striped dresses. They bopped around tending to the injured men, bringing them water, changing their bandages, listening to their woos and cries. Finally it grew dark. Most of the men drifted off to sleep. Jake couldn't sleep. Not that he wanted to anyway. It was nice to just lie down. He fiddled in his pocket for an old photo he had of a sweet young girl he had once loved. She was pretty, with short yellow hair and green eyes like spring grass. She looked innocent in the picture. Like the kind of girl who didn't know war. Jake looked up at the nurses tending to the sick, to the wounded, to the dead. They knew war. They knew pain. How could Jake return to the yellow-haired girl in the photograph when she could never relate to his experience? Jake tucked the picture back in his pocket and put his hands behind his head. He winced in pain. He looked at his left arm which had been the source of it and noticed for the first time a thick bandage. It was seeped to the core with red blood.
"Would you like me to replace that?" said a voice to his right. It was dark, but Jake could make out her entrancing brown eyes. Her hair was tied back into a long brown pony tail. Her lips set in a straight line as she sat on a stool beside his bed and reached for his arm. Jake held back a cry as she undid the bandage.
"You probably don't remember. You came in yesterday. Gun shot wound," she said & pointed to the injury. "You'll be okay. The doctors extricated it, no infection."
Jake attempted to smile at her but his lips were too chapped.
"My name is Maggie, by the way. Maggie. If you need anything, just ask!" she said perkily.
Jake opened his mouth as far as he could and whispered dryly, "water." Maggie finished tying the new bandage into a neat little bow & reached for the stand next to her. She filled a tin cup with icy cold water and leaned over Jake. With her left hand she supported his head while her right hand held the cup up to his lips. She slowly tipped the cup and Jake closed his eyes with relief as the ice water trickled into his lips down his throat. The sight of Maggie leaning so close to his face was slightly arousing, but Jake was a Southern gentleman, & he would never make a move. Maggie smiled.
