Chapter 2

Robin and I had a nice dinner that we had worked together to make. That is, it was nice until I brought out my after meal requirements. Her eyebrows rose a bit at the three pill bottles, but when I grabbed the bottle of Southern Comfort to take them with she almost freaked.

"Mark! What the hell are you doing? Don didn't say anything about you being an alcoholic."

"I'm not Robin. Did Don tell you that I was injured in Vietnam?"

"He said something about that, but not how bad it was."

I sat down and took a deep breath. "Then I guess that it is time for a little more truth and discovery here. The last time I flew into a hot zone for dustout, it was still hot, very hot. I was injured and when I woke up in a hospital bed I found out just how lucky I was to be alive. The pilot, one patient, and I were the only ones still living on the helicopter when it got to the MASH unit. If we had gotten there any later, I wouldn't have made it either." While I was telling her my tale of woe, I was at the same time drinking most of the pint of Comfort and taking my pills during pauses. Robin's expression was wavering between horror and pity.

"Oh my god, how bad was it?"

"I lost my stomach, and about ten feet of intestine, as well as one of my kidneys. Do you want to see the wounds?"

"I don't know, are they bad?"

"That depends on how squeamish you are. They look like ugly belly buttons. The scar tissue is getting better; I have a salve that needs to be applied daily."

"Do you mind if I look at it?"

"If I minded, I wouldn't have asked Robin."

I stood up and raised my shirt. Robin gasped when she got a look at the 3 puckered scars in my abdomen.

She tentatively reached toward one and asked, "Do they hurt?"

"Not any more. The one on my left leg still twinges once in a while, but these don't hurt now. What they do though, is to make it so that I need a lot of help in order to digest food. I have to take these pills, and have alcohol with every meal. These things make the plastic stomach I now have work for me. I also have to take a large number of vitamin and mineral supplements to replace things that my system cannot recover from food."

"But don't you spend a lot of the time drunk?"

"No, alcohol doesn't really affect me now. Most of the absorption is done in the stomach, so it takes me a lot of booze to get drunk, in fact, I don't know that I can get drunk. I haven't actually tried. My biggest problem was that I wasn't 21 until this summer, my dad had to buy my booze till then."

"So you can get me drunk whenever you want to, eh?"

"No, I can't. I will give you a glass of wine or beer with dinner, that is only civilized after all, but I will not contribute to the delinquency of a minor. If I get caught at that, I would be in a lot of trouble."

"Oh, I thought that you might let me and my friends have a little fun."

"Okay princess, this is our first 'prom queen' moment. I will not be the booze connection for you and your friends; I have no wish to go to jail so your friends can get drunk."

"Oh, I didn't think of that. What do you do when you eat out?"

"I either set it up with the manager beforehand, or I drink in the parking lot after the meal. I have a card with permission to carry an opened bottle of alcohol in my car; otherwise I could be arrested for having it. They know all about me at work and no one says anything when they see me drinking."

"Yeah, I guess it would kind of shock people for you to just pull out a flask and knock back in a restaurant. I'm sorry for being so selfish Mark."

"That's okay, just remember that I am going to call you on it when you get too self absorbed. Now that you have heard some of my history, how about you tell some of yours; who is Robin Howell?"

"Well, I am from Dayton, Ohio, and I have a sister who is a year and a half older than me. Actually she is my half sister; her father is different than mine. We never heard much about him, but I think that he left when he found out that mom was pregnant. My dad married my mom right after Rachel was born. He is great. I was a cheerleader in high school, but I couldn't make the team here. There were too many seniors on the squad to let more than a couple of freshmen on it. I'm a Liberal Arts major and so far I'm carrying a 3.0. My boyfriend in high school went to Ohio State. He is playing football on the second string team this year and hopes to be first string next year."

Robin sat back, seemingly pleased with herself. She didn't realize that she had told me more about the people around her than she had about herself. That she knew what was going on with her former boyfriend was also very telling. It was also interesting that she had mentioned her dad as being great, but her mom got short shrift.

"Would you like to go to a movie Robin?"

"Sure Mark, let me go back to the dorm and change. You can pick me up in about 45 minutes."

"Do you need me to take you there?"

"No, I drove over here today. I wasn't too sure what kind of reception I was going to get, or if you would be willing to take me back. I don't drive very often, because my car isn't too reliable. Dad says that he has a replacement for me when I come home for Christmas."

"What kind of car is it?"

"It's a 1966 Ford Falcon. Daddy got a deal on it, and I thought that it was cute when I got it; but now I will be glad to just get rid of it."

"Well, we'll try to let it stay at the dorm as much as possible. Maybe I can take it over to my dad's one weekend soon. He and I can see what we can do for it." I thought of something about then, if we were truly going steady, I should give her something to display that fact with. "Wait here a moment Robin, I need to get something."

"Okay."

I went into my bedroom trying to decide what to get. I didn't have a letter jacket as I had not been on any teams. The only two rings I owned were my Army ring, and my Jefferson High School ring. That would work, but it was much too big for her to wear. Wait a minute, there was a nice gold chain that I had found under a table at work one night. Robin would never know where it came from. I walked back out and asked her to close her eyes. I looped the necklace through the ring, and placed it over her head and around her neck.

"Okay, open your eyes. Will this be enough to declare that you are going steady?"

"Oh Mark, I love it. The other girls are going to be so jealous." Robin held the ring up to look at it, and then pulled my head down for a kiss. Our first kiss was nice, no bells and whistles, but nice. I could smell her hair and perfume, and it was more intoxicating than the Southern Comfort had been. My hands moved up and down her back, and hers were locked around my neck.

After a moment, Robin stepped back. "Mmm, that is nice, and you taste of the drink you had, very sweet. Now I need to go if we are going to make a show before curfew. We'll do that again before the night is out, I guarantee it."

This having a girlfriend could definitely have its advantages.

"Butterflies are Free" was on at the theatre. All I could think of during the movie was that the cute guy got the beautiful woman, even when he was blind.

The movie let out just after midnight, and I took Robin back to her dorm. She was right about more kissing. The windows in the Dart were getting steamed up when she said the she needed to go in. I walked her to the door and gave her a peck on the cheek goodnight.

This set the tone of our dating. I knew what I was going to be doing on Wednesday and Sunday nights from then on. We talked on the phone every day at least once.

I had been overly optimistic about my trip to the VA hospital. The appointment was only to do the paperwork. I would not see a doctor for another month.

On the second Saturday we were dating I had her follow me to my folks' house. Dad knew we were coming and had the garage empty. I pulled the falcon into the garage; I didn't want to take the chance that she would scrape the narrow entry. I took her in and introduced her to my parents as my girlfriend. I then took my life in my hands and left her with mom, while dad and I went out to see what we could do with her car.

As soon as we opened the hood, part of the problem became apparent. The fan belt was worn to the point of near failure. Further investigation revealed that the oil was almost solid, and the plug wires were cracked. We put a voltmeter on the battery and it showed good; but after we started the engine, the alternator did not. Dad called my cousin Danny, who worked at an auto supply store, and told him what we needed. He would bring the parts over to us. Dad backed the car up, and then after I placed the ramps, ran it up on them. While he pulled the belt and alternator, I drained the oil and popped the filter off. We then pulled the plugs, points, and wires from the electrical system and while we were at it took out the air filter. When everything was back in this car should run much better, and be a lot more dependable.