Cilka's Journey(57)
She learns all there is to know about the disease, such as how to recognize the different stages and when to diagnose the more severe internal bleeding and respiratory distress that will likely lead to death. No one can explain to her why some patients get a nasty red rash over their bodies while others don’t, or why this symptom is not necessarily an indicator of a poor outcome.
With the first flush of spring flowers and the melting of some of the snow the number of new patients presenting on the ward each day begins to decline. Cilka and the other nurses begin to enjoy caring for only a few patients each, giving them the attention they would have liked to have shown to all who went before.
One day, Yelena appears on the ward. Cilka is overjoyed to see the familiar face of the doctor.
“How are you?” Yelena asks warmly, wisps of blond hair escaping from her braids and framing her face like a halo.
“Tired, very tired, and very happy to see you.”
“You and the other nurses have done an amazing job. You have saved many lives and you’ve given comfort to others in their final moments.”
Cilka tries to take this in. She still feels as if she should be rushing about, doing more.
“I … We did what we could. More medicine would have been helpful.”
“Yes, I know, there is never enough medicine here. We have to make hard decisions over and over about who gets them, who doesn’t.”
“I understand,” Cilka says, that rush of guilt coming again for the medicine she has stolen.
“So, my girl, the question is … what do you want to do now?”
“You mean I have a choice?”
“Yes, you do. Petre will take you back on the maternity ward tomorrow. However, your friend Olga is also enjoying the work.” Cilka understands that what Yelena is saying is that going back may displace Olga from her now much better position in the camp. “And I was wondering if you would like to come back and work on the general ward, with me?”
“But…”
“Gleb Vitalyevich is gone. He was transferred a few weeks ago. The administrators finally looked at his mortality figures and decided, in the interests of productivity, it would be best that he move on.” She smiles.
“Where to?” Cilka asks.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m just glad he’s no longer here. So that means you can come back to my ward. If you want to, that is?”
“I do enjoy working with Petre Davitovich and helping the babies into the world.”
Yelena nods her head, thinking she has her answer.
“However, I would like to come back and work with you and the other doctors, where I can make more of a difference, if that’s all right.”
Yelena wraps her arms around her. Cilka responds stiffly, moving one hand to Yelena’s back, then pulls away.
“Of course it’s all right,” Yelena says. “It’s what I want; you do make a difference. Petre Davitovich is going to be very angry with me for stealing you away though.”
“He’s a good doctor. Will you tell him how much I appreciate what he has done for me, what he has taught me?”
“I will. Now go back to your hut and I don’t want to see you for two days,” she says, taking a pen and paper from her pocket to write a note. “Get some rest. What you have done here over the past few months, you must be exhausted.”
“I am. Thank you.”
Cilka looks out at the daylight, thinking of the coming short summer. “Yelena Georgiyevna?”
“Yes?”
“You know Josie had a little girl.”
“Yes, I heard, and I hear both mother and baby are doing well.”
“I’d love to see little Natia. Is it safe for me to visit her, given where I’ve been working?”
“I wouldn’t go near her for another two weeks; that is the incubation period of typhoid—maybe even three weeks to be safe.”
“I can wait another three weeks, but not a day more.”
CHAPTER 16
“It’s like you never left. Welcome back,” Raisa greets Cilka on her return to the general ward.
“About time you showed up,” Lyuba calls out from the other end of the ward. “Get your coat off and help us out.”
“Have you two not done anything to clean this place up since I left? I swear that dirty towel was lying there more than a year ago,” Cilka throws back at them.
“Has it been that long?” Raisa says.
“Long enough,” Cilka says.
Screams from the patient Lyuba is caring for divert their attention.
“Is everything all right?” Cilka asks.
“Come on, we’ve got plenty for you to do,” Raisa says. “There was an explosion in one of the mine tunnels yesterday; quite a few men died, and we have several who are badly injured. Some have been in surgery and we have two who had to have limbs amputated.”
“Just tell me where you want me.”
“Go and help Lyuba. That poor chap was badly burned and she’s trying to change his dressings; we’ve given him something for the pain but it’s barely touching him.”
Cilka joins Lyuba, forcing a smile for the man lying in the bed, his arms and upper body wrapped in bandages, his face red and raw from flash burns, his sobbing producing no tears.