Fool Me Once...

The two nurses moved about the steamship headed south, the vessel carrying them and the soldiers toward their fate.  The women wondered how many of these boys would not make the return trip home.  They knew the blue-clad warriors were pondering the same possibility, and so the ladies began to hand out handkerchiefs to them in hopes the pieces of cloth would perhaps remind them of the home they just left behind and help ease their mind in the turbulent times to come.