Chapter 20

In spite of all of our efforts to talk Walter out of doing something rash, he and Carla drove all the way out to Nevada, and were married in someplace called Winnemucca. Carla got herself a job as a change girl in a casino there, and Walter found work as a laborer at a construction site. Because of his legal problems, he was unable to get clearance to work in the gaming industry himself. After a few months, Walter and Carla moved to Reno, because Walter's company had a big new building contract there. Carla went to work in another casino, this time as a cocktail hostess.

While all of this was going on, I was finishing up my high school career, and trying to decide about what I wanted to do after that. I had a few girlfriends, but really no one special that I had cared about like I had with Audrey. Audrey had run through a few boys as well, and spent more time with Brenda than she did with any of the boys. Like I had said earlier, Audrey and I spent some time on her mother's sofa, but it wasn't the same for either of us. Something had been lost, and neither of us was willing to go back in order to try to find it. I treated her nice, and she had difficulty getting sexually excited by that. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, I would whisper some nasty thoughts into her ear, but we both knew that it was merely me going through the motions.

At the very last minute, I withdrew my application to go to Northwestern. My parents were really upset by this, more so because I didn't have any other colleges that I'd applied to, or been accepted at. I was going through a dry period in my life, where nothing seemed interesting or exciting to me. Here I was, eighteen years old, and already looking backwards at my glory weeks and months. It was pathetic, really pathetic.

It was late in October when Walter showed up back home again. He had found out that Carla was having an affair with a bartender at the casino. For once, rather than solving his problems with his fists, he turned away from the whole thing and packed his clothes and left. It was a week later, after Walter got back home that Carla called us. Walter was out, looking for work, and I was the only one home. Carla spent ten minutes on the phone trying to explain to me that she had simply made a mistake. I told her to call back and talk to Walter. She said that she was coming back home anyway, and she'd see him when she got back. It was another month before Walter heard that she was back in town. She made no effort to get in touch with him. They were still married, since neither had filed for a divorce.

In November, more from boredom than any other reason, I enlisted in the Air Force, and was sent to San Antonio, Texas for basic training. That wasn't the brightest decision I ever made, but, after an accelerated basic, I was sent to Keesler A.F.B. in Biloxi, Mississippi for electronics school, to become a light ground radio repairman. The technical school lasted for thirty two weeks, and then I was transferred to an isolated mountain top in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. The Air Force radar station where I was sent to was about fifteen miles up a windy road from a little town near a winery, called Almaden. That was the name of the station as well, Almaden A.F.S.

I was assigned to a building with twenty four ground to air radios and a GKA-5 with a FRT-49 klystron amplifier system. It was a place separate from the radar operation, and was used to relay messages to planes overhead in our line of sight area. I never really had any idea about how to fix anything there, and spent most of my time making up the work schedule for the crew that rotated six days on and three days off over three shifts for my NCOIC. (Non-commissioned officer in charge) Basically, I stayed out of trouble and kept to myself. After three and a half years, they gave me a six months early out, and sent me back home again.

Now, I was twenty two years old, with no plans or ideas about living the rest of my life. I had no skills either, other than making up a duty roster for twenty five men, once every nine days. Not exactly the type of skill that was likely to be in big demand. I hadn't kept in touch with my parents as much as I should have, coming home on leave only twice, in the three and a half years that I was in the Air Force.

I had been home for about three days when Walter mentioned that he and Carla were still legally married, although neither of them had spoken a single word with each other since the time that he had left Nevada, almost four years before. Walter was still working construction, and now had worked his way up to heading a framing crew. He still lived at home. Walter wanted me to go speak with Carla, to find out whether she wanted a divorce or not. I asked him why he didn't call her, and he said that he just didn't trust himself to do it.

"Do you want a divorce Walter?"

"If she does, then yeah, I do too."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Find out why she doesn't."

"And then what?"

"Then tell me what she said." Luckily for all of us, I had nothing else that I wanted to do that was more important than that. I drove over to Carla's apartment. Walter gave me her address. It was on the second floor. There were about six apartments on each floor. It wasn't a very good part of town, but it wasn't in the worst section either. Carla's apartment was the one furthest from the stairs, way down on the end. I got there around four in the afternoon, but no one was home. I saw a pool below, and decided to go there to wait for her. I took off my shirt while I waited. It was late April, and the day had heated up nicely. The sun felt good on my chest. Two or three times, cars had pulled into the carport across from the pool, and I opened my eyes to see if it was Carla, but, each time, it was someone else. It was five thirty when I decided to give it up and try it another day. I didn't want to leave her a note to call me, because I was curious about how she looked now. I was finishing putting my shirt back on when I saw her pulling into her parking space.

The first thing that I noticed was that she had cut off most of her beautiful hair. It was her best feature, and she had just chopped it off. She still looked a little bit cute, but not like before. I moved over to the pool gate and started walking over to the stairs that she would have to take. I had almost reached the stairs before she got there.

"Barry? Is that you?"

"Hi Carla. So what's new?"

"What are you doing here? Did Walter send you?"

"No, Walter doesn't even know that I'm here. I just got back from serving my hitch, and I thought I'd look up some old friends. so, here I am."

"How's Walter?"

"Walter's fine. He works, he watches TV, and he sleeps. He's already old. What did you do to your hair?"

"I cut it. It kept getting in my way. Too much trouble keeping it brushed and nice." All the time we were talking, I was following her to her apartment. We had finally arrived at her door. She made no move to open it, just stood there, it was like she was waiting for me to leave.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?"

"I don't think so Barry."

"I've been waiting a couple hours for you to get home Carla. I need to use the restroom." I could see a strange look coming over her face, part fear, and part something else. Finally, she turned and put her key into the lock and opened her door. the apartment opened up into the living room, with a kitchen area off to the right. In the middle of her living room was a kid's playpen. I stopped right where I was and looked at it. Walter hadn't said anything about Carla having a baby. You would have thought that he'd have mentioned it if he knew. "Does Walter know about the kid?"