It was packed and stuffy in the hospital. Carly was a tall girl, but even standing on her toes she found it hard to see.
Dora yawned. ‘I can see why Dr Cooper wasn’t thrilled about coming,’ she said. ‘Not much of a party. Where’s the food?’
Carly agreed. ‘Let’s go back,’ she said.
The girls squirmed through the crowd to the door and trotted back onto the lawn. When they were out in the fresh air, they held hands and whipped the shawls off their shoulders. And once again, darkness fell upon them.
When their vision cleared, they were back in the bedroom at the boarding house.
‘Whew!’ said Dora, putting a hand to her pigtails. ‘I’m glad to get rid of that bonnet.’
‘Me too. But the car was great fun.’
‘What car?’
Simone was standing in the doorway. Her foot was bandaged and she had a crutch under one arm. Her lower lip stuck out in a grumpy pout.
‘... er ...’
Simone looked around the room. ‘Where’s Ellie?’ she said. ‘I thought she was with you.’
Ellie! Carly and Dora gazed at each other
in horror. They had left her back at Lady Lamington Hospital - a century ago!
Before they could speak, Simone had turned and hobbled back out of the room, shouting, ‘ELLIE! ELLIE!’
‘We’ll have to go back!’ Carly cried.
‘Of course!’
Shaking with dread, they picked the shawls up off the bed and flung them roughly around their shoulders - and tumbled back into the past.
Carly knew at once that something was wrong.
There were no buildings, no roads, no river. The sounds and smells were all wrong. Even the air was not right: damp and frosty and biting.
Worst of all: there was no Ellie.
‘Where are we?’ Dora whispered. She was shivering. Carly looked at her and saw with a shock that icicles were hanging from Dora’s pigtails.
Carly hugged her shawl closer, trying to shut out the icy wind. She realised that in their haste, they had put the shawls on upside-down. A sick feeling of dread fluttered in her stomach. What was going on? Carly looked around and saw bare, scrubby ground and distant mountains. A little way down the dirt track was a huddle of low white tents.
‘It’s some sort of camp,’ she said. ‘What’s that noise?’
The girls stood still and listened. A dull pounding noise hammered in the background. On the horizon, puffs of dust rose into the sky. Carly and Dora looked at each other in shock.
‘Guns,’ Dora mumbled.
Carly wrapped an arm around her friend’s shoulders. Dora was shaking with cold and fear.
‘Come on,’ Carly said firmly, ‘Let’s go to that camp and find out what’s happening.’
They trotted towards the tents, moving
quickly to try and pump warmth into their frozen toes.
As they drew closer to the camp, they saw that they were not alone. People bustled around between the tents, and cars rumbled about, churning up the dusty ground.
‘C-C-Carly,’ Dora said between chattering teeth. ‘They’re all w-women!’
She was right. All the people running around the campsite were women. They were all wearing the same dresses - long-sleeved white dresses that fell just below their knees - and old-fashioned headscarves that covered their hair.
‘They’re nurses,’ said Carly. Then she noticed a large tent with a big red cross painted on its side. ‘It’s a hospital!’
But why would there be a hospital out here, in the middle of nowhere?
Just then a loud BOOM! shook the earth, and in the distance a cloud of smoke bloomed into the sky. Carly’s stomach dropped.
‘I know what it is,’ she said. ‘It’s war!’
War!
That’s what was shaking the earth and sky and making these women run to and fro in their nurses’ uniforms!
Carly and Dora crept forward, clutching each other’s arms with frozen fingers. They saw a truck that was parked under a tree outside the hospital tent. Its hood was open and someone in a dark grey skirt and boots was leaning over the engine with her head buried deep under the bonnet. Banging and clattering noises rang out from the truck. As the girls drew closer, the woman stepped back, pulled her head from under the bonnet and straightened up.
Carly recognised her at once. It was Jo Bedford.
Jo’s hair was messy and her face was smudged with grease, but she was smiling. She raised her right hand, which was clutching a spanner, and waved it in greeting.
Carly was about to wave back, but Dora put out a hand to stop her. ‘Sh-she’s not w-w-waving at us,’ she said, still shivering. ‘She’s looking over there — see?’
Carly looked to where Dora was pointing. She saw another woman, dressed just like Jo in a heavy grey skirt, suit coat and boots, striding towards the truck.
‘It’s Dr Cooper,’ said Carly.
Beside Dr Cooper, two women were carrying a stretcher between them. Carly didn’t like to think about what was on the stretcher... but it looked human. Dr Cooper was frowning as she trotted alongside the stretcher towards the hospital.
Who are you?’ a voice boomed behind them. Carly and Dora almost leapt out of their boots. They spun around to see a tall, strong-looking woman staring at them.
‘I’m ... I’m Carly. And this is Dora.’
‘I’m Dr Bennett. I don’t suppose you’ve got any nursing skills, have you?’ the woman said, then bent forward to squint at them. ‘You look very young, but we’ll have to make do. Dr Cooper’s about to go into surgery and she could use a hand—’
‘No!’ said Carly, but the guns boomed again and the woman didn’t hear her.
‘Hurry up, we’ve got to get you scrubbed up—’
‘We’re not nurses!’
‘You’re not?’ Dr Bennett’s shoulders sagged. ‘You look too young to be doctors. How are you with cars? Could you help Jo Bedford with the ambulances?’
‘Sorry—’
‘Never mind, come with me - we could use some help to roll bandages.’
She turned and ran, and the girls had no choice but to follow her.
