Nora
The hello girls were some brave women who operated the telephone in ww1. This is their headset.
The Headset of Memory
I wince as the nurse peels of my bandage. The gaping hole is as big as ever, and it is still bleeding. The nurse says that it is infected, and we have to amputate, but I hardly realize her words through the pain. It has hurt like this for a week. The words finally register in me. Amputate! “No,” I plead, “Please don’t take it off!” The nurse looks at me sadly and stabs my leg with a shot of morphine. Then she saws it off, stanches the bleeding, and I only have a leg from the knee up. I look at it, pass out, and drift off…………………….. The time is one week before. I am sitting in a chair. I am wearing my headset and responding to a call from Colonel Jackie. It turns out that there were some assassins on the front, and he warns me to watch out for germans. I respond that nothing is wrong. I lay down to rest, and let the night shift girl for my spot, Ethel, to take the phones through the night Ethel is intelligent and creative, but can also be a bit untidy. I brace myself for the mess of my spot in the morning. Little do I know that that will be the least of my worries. When I wake, it is 11:30. I go downstairs for a nightcap, thinking a drink will help me sleep. Who is there but my friend Florence, her lacy nightgown on and her black hair falling down her back in waves. “Are you awake too? I’m worried about Josh. Did you hear how bloody the battle of Ethenberg was? He was there, Emma, he was there!” Just as I was about to comfort her, say her Fiance Josh was alright, the alarms sound. A bomber is here! As I run, a bomb explodes behind me, in Mimi’s room. Poor Mimi, her three children in the city. Now their mom will never come home. Florence is by my side, we rush to the table to get our supplies. I grab the headsets, and she the receivers. We run out the door. I get out first, and when I look behind me, the doorframe has collapsed! I turn around. “Florence!” I yell, Florence
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Hello Girls!