Aftermath
Dear Diary,
After the fighting was over, Geoffry and me went to the clinic where they was taking all the soldiers and did what we could to help the wounded. There was no shortage of wounded, and no lack of things to be done. It may have been a short war, but there was plenty of hurting to go around.
It was hard work caring for the hurt, hard and messy, the men bleeding and oozing all sorts of ugliness. There were men who had been cut and men who had been burned, men shot and blowed up and damaged in pretty near every way you can imagine, and we did our best to put them back together as best we could. By the end of a full day of nursing, working hard by my Geoffry and even taking some patients all on my own, I was so tired I could hardly lift my arms.
But I kept going as long as the patients kept coming. And though we lost some, too badly hurt for us to do anything but ease their pain as they passed, we saved a whole lot more. And while the work was hard, I was glad to do it. It helped make up for the people I’d killed, and putting a hurt man back together is a lot more satisfying than smashing up one who’s whole.
When the new patients stopped coming and the Nihonese doctors was able to handle what remained, Geoffry and me went back to the rooms that the others had snatched, a pair of palace suites that nobody else was using. I was exhausted after all the fighting and the patching up of folks, but tired as I was I was dirtier still, seeing as I was covered with blood from the fight before I even started patching up wounded which ain’t a clean job. I don’t reckon I ever been so filthy as I was then, and Geoffry and me chased everyone off from the bathroom and settled into the big Nihonese tub together.
It felt good to wash away the grime, and Geoffry scrubbed my back until I was scoured clean as a frying pan under steel wool. Then he held me in the hot water while I let loose my tears. He was awfully worried about me, had been all day, and he stroked my hair and rubbed my back and all over, and before long I started to calm down. We took one last rinse, then found a big fluffy bed to sleep in and I cradled close to my Geoffry for the first time in days, too tired to do anything but sleep.
It’s morning now and he’s still snoring. I reckon I should get up and see how Dusty’s doing. She took an awful fright yesterday and I reckon she must still be pretty shook up. I probably should have stayed with her yesterday instead of working in the clinic, but the wounded seemed to need me. She’ll probably snap back quick, she always does, and I’ll find some way to make it up to her.