Outpost Hospital Read Free

any moment. She must keep calm. When he asked her—
    “What can I get you, dearie?”
    The voice breaking in on her thoughts made her start. It was the plump woman who had served them before.
    Katherine told her she was waiting for someone, and after automatically wiping over the table with a damp cloth, the woman went back to the kitchen.
    Glancing around, Katherine caught sight of herself in the wall mirror. Her hair was clinging damply to her forehead, and her cheeks, usually pale, were bright from the buffeting of the wind. She rubbed her hair with her handkerchief in an effort to dry it and then found that she had no comb with her. Oh well, she sighed, he wouldn’t notice if her hair were bright green!
    A quarter to eight and still he had not come!
    Three times in the past ten minutes the door had opened and her heart had leapt; and each time a stranger had entered. So when it opened a fourth time she did not look up, but went on carefully smoothing out her damp gloves on the table.
    He had forgotten their appointment perhaps.
    But suddenly, there he was, looking bigger than ever in his gray raincoat, a few drops of rain glistening in his black hair. “Sorry I’m late, Nurse. Surgery was full when we closed the doors—mostly people with colds or flu who would’ve been better off taking a couple of aspirins and going to bed.” He took off his coat and hung it up. “What will you have?”
    “Just coffee, please,” she said.
    When it was brought, he wasted no time but came straight to the point. “Well, Nurse , what is it to be? Yes or no? Or do you want more time to consider?”
    “I don’t want more time, Dr. Charlton,” she answered steadily. “If you think I can be of use to you, I’ll come to Africa.”
    “Good. I didn’t think you’d disappoint me,” he said happily. His eyes were very blue; very bright; but they weren’t on her now, Katherine noticed with a pang. He was seeing a place very different from the dingy cafe; a place he had never seen in fact, but the picture in his mind was more vivid than anything else now. “There’s so much to do there, Nurse; so many people needing us.” He put his hand over hers and a shudder ran through her at his touch. “I don’t think you’ll regret it, Nurse. How soon can you be ready to go? If you give your notice in now, can you be ready when the month is up?”
    She told him she could.
    He nodded, practical now. “I’ve been accepted by the Mission Society, and I’ve begun winding up my affairs, so it shouldn’t be long before we’re on our way. I’ve had a letter from the minister in charge of the station. We’ll be living with him and his sister, at first anyway. He told me that a doctor is urgently needed in Ngombe—that’s the village we’re going to. It’s on the Benue river leading off the Niger, in the eastern part of the country. Kennedy, the minister, has found a site he thinks will be suitable for the hospital, so we’ll be able to start on it as soon as we arrive.” As he talked, Katherine began to be infected by his enthusiasm and to feel the excitement she had known earlier. “I’ll let you have any more information you need as I get it,” he went on.
    Then, finishing his coffee quickly, he stood up. “Now I must rush away. Got a couple of calls to make. Can I drive you anywhere?” She said no, and, after reminding her to put in her notice the next day, he raised a hand in a brief salute and walked swiftly away.
    The door closed behind him with a tinkle of its warning bell. There was the sound of his car starting up, driving away, and then silence.
    A man in the next booth started whistling under his breath. Katherine knew the tune; it was an old song—what was it called? Oh, yes. “All alone, I’m so all alone, And there’s no one else but you — ”
    He didn’t know how appropriate his choice was.
    She sat looking at the place where Mark had been sitting, at the stub of the cigarette he had been smoking. She