THE HAPPY HAT Read Online Free Page A

colostomy. A Claymore mine got im.”
    “Okay he goes to the colostomy dirty surgery ward after a day-or-two on the infected wound ward.” He looked up from his clipboard. “Here comes the MOOD.”
    Dr. Ronald Loomis was a Board Certified General Surgeon and as senior staff today was the designated Medical Officer Of the Day. He was as tall as Norman but thinner than the muscular JMOOD. He listened as Norman gave his take on the two train air-evacs and then walked out of the ER. Norman turned back to Zettler.
    “Ron told me the air-evac bus is thirty minutes away. When the orthopedic tech checks out our train guy, have him stay for the bus.” Norman smiled and touched her left hand.
    “Yes, sir. Anything you say sir.”
    “I’ll take you up on that when we’re off duty Lieutenant.” He watched her cute bottom as Zettler disappeared into the triage area.
    ‡
    G-3 was on the third floor of the sand brick “new” part of Queens Naval Hospital. The tan brick edifice was built for the Korean War and still looked pristine compared to the “ramp” wards left over from WWII. The single story ramp buildings were all wooden single floor structures sprawling from the main tan brick structure. They were designated with letters from where the main building left off. Immediately off the primary corridor of the main building where the enlisted and officers mess halls abutted the central auditorium the ramp wards began with “H” and went to “Z”. During WW II every bed in the hospital was occupied, as it was now. The last three ramp buildings–X,Y,Z–were now a tuberculosis center for the Navy’s Atlantic coast.
    G-3 Corpsman Second Class Amstel Perkins smoothed the plaster for the long leg cast with both latex-gloved hands. Perkins looked at his dripping hands. “Not too much water. I’ll have plaster on my eyelashes for Christ Sakes.”
    The cast extended from the ankle to the right crotch up to the patient’s exposed genitals. Perkins wore a thin rubber apron with a tee shirt underneath to spare his uniform top from the white gypsum cast material. He looked at the Army sergeant lying on his back on the gurney with his hands behind his head. “How long you had the other cast Adams? There wasn’t a white space left on it.”
    The clean shaven Vietnam returnee started to reply when the ward nurse entered. “Miss Gomez… please.”
    Ensign Delilah Gomez smiled. “Sergeant Adams, I’m a nurse and have seen everything about a man there is to see.” She paused and gave him a smile. “And I’ve seen you before, remember.” She turned to the corpsman and the assisting cast technician, also a hospital corpsman. “We’re going to need you both in the ER for the air-evac. And we have one coming from the train in a total body cast but apparently in good condition.”
    Perkins looked up. “What’s the ETA?”
    “Twenty minutes.” Gomez looked at her watch. “So speed this up.” She gave Sergeant Adams a pat on the head. “But do a good job.”
    Adams and the other corpsman watched Gomez swivel from the cast room. Adams looked at his new white cast and then at Perkins. “Two weeks.”
    The assistant cast tech looked at Perkins with raised eyebrows. “Two weeks what?”
    “I had the last cast on two weeks. I came in the air-evac two-days ago and you guys just changed it now.”
    Perkins looked down at his patient. “So you got it first after your surgery in Subic Naval Hospital, like it says in your chart and this is the first cast change since then. Right”
    “Right.” Adams strained his head to look at his crotch. “Who’s going to clean my groin up and get rid of the excess plaster–Miss Gomez?”
    “No Sarge. I’ll do it.” The assistant smiled and grabbed the old cast remains. He began to walk from the cast room.
    “Where you goin’ with that?” Perkins shouted so loud it startled both Adams and the assistant who froze at the doorway.
    “I’m takin’ it to the trash bin.