Chapter Two Thousand Eighty
3rd August 1971
Rio Gallegos, Argentina
No sooner than the 7th Recon finally received orders to move out then a winter storm had shut everything down for a few days. In the meantime, they needed many of the things that had already been loaded into the Iltis utility vehicles and that caused a great deal of trouble. Especially when Christian ran afoul of a nail in a crate of batteries that Moser thought that they needed. He ended up with a hole in the sleeve of his coat and the shirt underneath which was annoying. There was also a gash on Christian’s arm that he had bandaged, but Manfred had insisted that he go to Medical Services to get it looked at and had even pulled rank to get him to go.
Hours later, Christian was still fuming about how Manfred had done that. Didn’t he realize that there was a bloody war on? And Christian would get green tagged the instant he walked in and told to wait while they sorted the cases that actually needed medical attention. Which was exactly what happened.
“Unterfeldwebel Wiese?” A bored looking Nurse called out, “We’re ready to see to that arm.”
Following her into a different room in the hospital, Christian saw a woman who was around his age wearing surgical scrubs. “So, you are Christian?” She asked with a smile on her face. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” She had a pleasant face, and she looked a bit familiar, but Christian couldn’t place where he might know her from.
“Is that so?” Christian asked in reply.
“Yes” She replied, “Now hang your coat up and roll up your shirt sleeve. And I suppose I’ll need to see your tag. Any nasty allergies I ought to know about?”
With that, Christian handed her the triage tag that had the pertinent information on it. “Its superficial” Christian said, “I only came in because Oberleutnant von Mischner ordered me to.”
Something crossed her face when he mentioned Manfred as she grabbed a pair of scissors off the tray.
“The tag says it is a bit more than superficial” She replied, “Now let’s take a look.”
As soon as she finished cutting the bandage away, the gash started bleeding again. If anything, it looked messier than it had before.
“That is going to need stitches and I would recommend a tetanus shot as well” She said, “Before that, I am going to need to need to clean it. Are you going to have too much trouble with a bit of pain? We can arrange a local…”
“Just get it done” Christian replied, “I’ve already wasted enough time in here today.”
She gave him a look. “My usual patients don’t complain about time spent in my care” The woman said.
“Good for them” Christian replied.
It hurt just as much as she said it would, but Christian meant what he said about wasting time. He felt the jab of the needle as the local anastatic was injected into his arm to numb it so that the wound could be cleaned and stitched up with causing him too much discomfort. When he got back to his Squad, he figured that they would be up to their usual deviltry, making jokes about how his numbed arm could be used. He wouldn’t be interested in listening to that though.
Even with the local it still hurt a lot and Christian was very aware of the tugging as the stitches were done. The tetanus shot at the end was anticlimactic.
As the woman was putting a fresh bandage on Christian’s arm, she said. “Normally, this is where I would pat you on the head and tell you that you were good boy before giving you a treat.”
Christian gave her a startled look. “What kind of Doctor are you?”
She started laughing. “I’m not a doctor of any kind” She said, “I’m actually a veterinarian.”
“You are telling me that normally your patients are dogs and cats?” Christian asked in disbelief.
“And horses” She replied, “Don’t forget horses.”
She seemed a bit wistful when she mentioned horses. Everyone had favorites and for a second Christian felt a bit of guilt about how many times horse meat had been on the menu over the last few months.
“Yet you did this” Christian said, holding up his arm.
“When the war started the Oberst in charge of this Regiment asked me if I wanted to volunteer, being a civilian and all, no one could order me to do get involved. I was amazed when they told me I would be taking care of minor cases and it really isn’t too much different from what I was doing before.”
Listening to her carry on, Christian wondered what sort of madness must had come over that particular Oberst to resort to this sort of measure. Minor cases? He should have anticipated that something like this would occur.
“Whatever” Christian said, trying to recall if he had seen a wedding ring on her hand before she had put on gloves. “Well, thank you Fraulein…”
“I’m Ina von Mischner” Ina said, “You know, Manny’s sister.”
“Well, shit… Er… That’s well and good” Christian replied. No wonder she must have heard a lot about him. Manfred had probably mentioned him to her dozens of times over the last few years.
“And if you could tell him to stop by for a visit before his outfit takes off, I would be thankful” Ina said. Then she shooed Christian out the door.
