THE HAPPY HAT Read Online Free

corpsman checked him over with Kaplan in attendance.” She looked at Kaplan. “His own personal corpsman? Unusual isn’t it?”
    “Sort of. I got my orders to Queens Naval when Boomer got hit. They were short-handed all along the way so I opted to stay with him. I’m also a part of a continuity of care project.”
    Zettler went through her check list for what-to-do with total body plaster patients and looked back at Kaplan. “I never heard of that. Has he had his malaria pills?”
    “Yes ma’am.”
    “He doesn’t seem to be in much pain for so many fractures. His urine bag is clear. That’s also unusual for a long term indwelling Foley catheter.”
    “He doesn’t have a bladder catheter, ma’am. It’s a condom catheter–for convenience. Boomer has complete control of bowel and bladder, ma’am.”
    “Dr. Norman will check him into orthopedics. You may have to report to him on arrival if you have orders for staff duty at Queens Naval.”
    “Yes, ma’am. You can see by my orders, I’m also to be assigned to the orthopod who gets Boomer on his ward. It’s part of a new continuum of care protocol as I mentioned.”
    Zettler looked at the orders and back up into Kaplan’s brown eyes. “Boomer…his nickname? Okay, this kind of air-evac order is a first for me. But go ahead and make room on the ambulance. See Dr. Norman in the ER.” She watched as both gray US Navy Pontiac ambulances went slowly with their red lights flashing for the one-mile trip to the emergency room.
    Norman arrived as the ambulance got ready to proceed on the short trek to the ER.
    “Okay Paul. Just sign off on these forms and the train can leave.” Zettler smiled.
    Norman signed the train transfer for the patients and watched as the engineer gave three “toots” and then clanged the bells as the train moved slowly from the Queens Naval Hospital depot.
    ‡
    “They’re both here.” Crosley Bizetes put the binoculars down. “We’ll find out where the two patients go from our inside guy.”
    “When do we connect? I have to get set up in our lab.” Jetta Minone looked around their Chevy pickup and then back out the windshield. He grabbed the binoculars. “Holy shit, she’s lookin’ at us.”
    “Who?”
    “The charge nurse with the air-evac ambulance. She’s lookin’ straight at our friggin’ truck.”
    “So what?” Bizetes grabbed the glasses. “She’s just lookin’ in this direction. For Christ Sake Jetta I need the binoculars to see her. She can’t see nothin’ but a gray truck parked legally.”
    “Yeah, but we got our motor runnin’.” Minone tried to grab for the binoculars again but Bizetes pulled them out of reach and put the strap around his neck.
    Bizetes looked at his colleague. “Man are you jumpy. She’s just a friggin nurse and it’s almost fuckin’ February. It’s snowman cold for God’s sake.”
    Minone looked around again, his neck twitching right-and-left. “We’re the only live-parkers. We stick out.”
    Bizetes handed the glasses to him. “Okay she’s not lookin’ at us anymore. Time to go home. Take it easy, the nurse was never lookin’ at us.”
    ‡
    LT Paul Norman sidled up to Zettler with his clipboard and watched her take off her heavy navy blue cloak. “The interns will check them over for anything acute. What do you think so far? Candidates for ICU.”
    Zettler smiled and rubbed her hands together after stowing her gloves in her cloak pocket. “Surprisingly no. The chest tube turns out to be just a drain for a chest wall abscess and the total body cast soldier is practically pain free and has bladder and bowel control.”
    “If I confirm your first impression and the interns don’t find anything, we can send the chest drain guy to plain dirty surgery and the plaster guy right to orthopedics–but I’ll send him to a first floor ortho ward, they have more help with the incapacitated.”
    “Oh, I forgot. The chest tube guy with the Australian bush hat has a double-barrel