Chapter 2.

CHAPTER 2

Joel stepped off the ship as it docked at Boston Harbor, a big smile on his face. Right from where he had been seated in the ship, as soon as he had got on the ship from England, all his thoughts had been about home.

He was finally coming back home to his family. It had been a long time- years of medical training in England and he had not seen them, not once.

He wondered how his town would look like, different from how he left it or still the same? It had to be different though, because he knew that change happened everywhere.  The houses must have been replaced with newer ones and some people he knew may have left to start a life somewhere else.

But that was not the only reason why he was happy. He was coming back after a long time of being away, as a hero. The most educated man in his town. He had worked hard, found a way and had gotten admission into a university in England. How many people from his town had done the same?

He pictured the look on his mother’s face when she would open the door- how she would look at him with a big smile on her face. Her thought about how his father would pat him on the back and tell him how proud he was to be his father.

With that mental picture in mind, he picked up his luggage and walked down into the streets, expecting to see one or two persons who would instantly recognize him.

But, as he walked down- further and further, past the shops and the houses, the looks he saw on the faces of passers by, people seated outside their house, people being carried around on stretchers shocked him.

There were men, missing a limb or two, nursing a cast- seated in front of houses. There were some, looking dirty and haggard- the expression on their faces, hopeless and full of grief. He saw mothers clutching their children in one hand and a plate to beg in another- malnutrition and hunger clearly written on their faces and evident in the bones that jutted out of their emancipated flesh.

He saw one or two bodies on the streets, dead and left for whoever owned them to make claims. The houses he thought would have made way for slightly better ones looked like they were falling to pieces. Everything looked like it was falling apart and no one could do anything about it.

The scenario he took in was one that was hopelessly bleak.

Joel had gone to England before the start of the civil war, as soon as he got the admission and although he had not been back since, he had no idea things were this bad. He had written to his folks from time to time and his father had kept him updated on the situation at home, but this- what he was seeing wasn’t it. 

This wasn’t a tragedy. It looked like a complete devastation. There was no hope on any face he saw, no hope that things would get better. And he could see and smell the ashes of houses that had been burnt and pillaged in the war. How many people died? He wondered.

The sound of a crying woman made him glance sharply behind him.

A soldier- missing an arm and another that had a bandage wrapped around his chest, were carrying a man on a stretcher and the woman was walking behind them, holding a child and pregnant with another.

“Where are you taking him to? I told him not to go to war! That we needed him. We needed him here!”‘the woman was in hysteria.

Joel walked on further, his steps and heart heavy. Would be find casualties like this everywhere? Had some of the people he left behind died? The last time he got a letter from his parents had been months ago. He had assumed that it was a mixup in the mail delivery, but now…

Cries came from every corner and Joel’s heart broke for the people he passed by. How could they get better if there was no one available to take care of the injured or alleviate the pain of the ones who lost a loved one?

Joel stopped for a moment. This was why he went over the seas into a foreign country to study medicine. This was why he had to work hard, the purpose why he was in his field of practice.

He was a doctor and doctors took an oath to help people. These people needed his help. They needed any help they could get and he knew just the right way to do it.

With his expertise, all the medical training he had, he could help treat this people. He just had to start somewhere.

He walked up to a man who was lying on that ground, his hand pressed to his side.

“Sir, are you hurt there?” he asked, pointing to the spot the man covered.

 The man nodded.

“Is it a new wound or an old one reopened?” Joel asked.

“Reopened. Nurse at the camp did some patching and told me I could keep it for a while but I needed to do more stitching on it. Never got around to it because there was no one to do the job,”the man managed to say between grunts.

“Okay. I am going to help you do something temporary so it doesn’t get infected and then I will come back later to stitch and bandage it,”

“Thank you.”

“Do you have a place we could do it? Somewhere secluded? If I open your wound out here, I will be exposing you to bacteria infection,” Joel inquired, glancing around to see if there was a place they could stay, but everywhere he looked, there were people gathered around.

“I do not. My house was burnt down in the war by some rogues. I came back to look for my wife and haven’t found her yet. If you can patch me up here, I will be careful not to reopen the wound again,” the man said.

“Okay, okay,” Joel agreed.

In normal circumstances, he would protest about that state of the environment, but this was a different case. If he did not do it here- on the streets where other people sat or walked around, some hopeless and others looking for people they left behind, there was no where else he could.

“That should be okay for a short time,”

Joel told the man, standing up.

“Thank you very much,” the man answered.

“I would have to come back and stitch it because you cannot go on like that for a long time,” Joel reminded him.

“This alone makes me more fortunate than some people. Thank you.”

Nodding, Joel began walking away. He needed to get home and see his parents. To know how the war affected them. Had the house been burnt down? Did they move away when the war casualties got severe?

When his family house came into view, he allowed himself a brief smile. The house was still around and that meant his parents would be in. With quickened steps he walked faster till he got to the door, and knocked.

The look on his mother’s face when she opened the door would be one of joy, no doubt.

“Joel?”

Joel looked at the door and the small smile on his face fell when he saw his mother. She looked tired and exhausted.

“What  happened?” Joel asked.

“It’s best you come in,” his mother said softly ,” I have bad news”