Chapter 5

Following their normal pattern, the battle group reformed and started a new round of operations meant to ‘show the flag’ and to train each ship’s crew in the art of war, or at least how to prosecute either an offensive, or a defensive operation, should war really occur. Again, Eddie had his peripheral responsibilities, and his techs were on top of all the equipment failures, as they occurred, which made everyone, from the captain to the department head, to Eddie’s division officer, happy. Because of this, his division officer and department head rarely interfered with his middle management position. Eddie knew his job and his dedicated techs, with their top-notch work ethic, made him look good. The roughly two weeks at sea period came to a close and they prepared to enter a ‘liberty port’. That port was on the island of Guam, a large island in Micronesia, which was also a U.S. Possession. It was also the home of a major U.S. Naval Station and Polaris Submarine Base.

Guam’s Apra harbor, which served military and merchant vessels, was a very busy port, and to arrive at their berth, they required a ‘pilot’, someone knowledgeable with the ‘hazards to navigation’ within the harbor, who could maneuver the ship safely. After the ship moored, and ‘liberty call’ declared, Al and Eddie went ashore to look around. The base had many beaches, and each was more beautiful that the last. Eddie was impressed with the beauty of the tropical Island, and it reminded him of the Caribbean. On their second day in port, Eddie and Al rented a twenty-foot sailboat at the base marina and sailed along the coast to a small lagoon, where they swam a bit, but chose not to go ashore. The reason for this was because the jungle came right down to the shoreline and they’d heard stories about some of the natives outside of the cities being unfriendly to the U.S. military, even though Guam was a U.S. possession. Maybe it was the word ‘possession’ that pissed them off. Anyway, after they returned the boat to the marina, they cleaned up and went to the Chief’s Club, where Eddie was introduced to Mongolian BBQ. He loved it. The Chief’s Club was also a hangout for WestPac Widows, whose husbands were assigned to the Polaris submarine base. Polaris subs deployed often, so that left a lot of lonely wives. During the course of the evening, he and Al danced with a few different women, but ended up with two friends, who happened to have adjacent rooms booked at the base lodge, saying it was because it was a long way to the Polaris base housing, if they were drinking. The two were friendly, and suggested they make a foursome, but Eddie and Al opted out. They still scored, but in separate rooms. The tryst only lasted a couple hours, because the women said they had to get back to their kids, who were with a babysitter. This soured it for Eddie, and Al, so they were back aboard ship in time to sleep in their own bunks. When in Guam, you ‘could’ find pussy, but it was usually the wife of a sailor stationed there, who was at sea on a submarine, or there are some native women, but Guamanian women tend to be large and muscular, so many sailors opt to go without, hence they considered Guam an acronym for ‘G’ive ‘U’p ‘A’nd ‘M’asturbate. LOL.

At mail call on the third day, Eddie got a letter from Steven, and one from Lorna, which he had not expected. Even more unexpected was the contents. She wrote:

“Hey, Sailor Boy, you son-of-a-bitch! Just kidding! If you were here, I’d suck your tonsils out through your cock; your beautiful, potent cock! The rabbit died! Well, they don’t use rabbits anymore, but I tested my peepee in my own lab, and I am going to be a mother. Eddie, I challenged you, and you fucking did the trick! As soon as I got the results, I put in for emergency leave, supposedly to visit my husband, whose mother ostensibly died. I may call him while I’m there, but I’m going to see my brother, the gynecologist. As far as anyone will know, my husband impregnated me while I was home for the funeral. I’m sorry I can’t let you take credit for this one either, but I love you for it, and will keep you posted on conditions, gender, etc. I’ll have my baby here, then be stationed somewhere else. I’m not sure where, yet. Eddie, I said you couldn’t claim this one either, but I’m not averse to you seeing our child, whenever you can. I’ll continue to let you know about me and our little one, and when I get orders, I’ll let you know. Not promising anything, but maybe I’ll be in a position for you to knock me up again. That would be wonderful. If we don’t manage to get together, I’ll always keep you in my heart, and remember the joy you gave me here, in Pusan, and the ultimate joy you gave me by making me a mommy. Kisses, hugs and all that shit! Lorna.”

Eddie had opened Lorna’s letter first, and when he finished reading it, he sat in the chiefs’ mess, dumbfounded. No one else was there, but Al walked in about then and saw the expression on his buddy’s face.

“What’s up, buddy? Bad news from home? Or is it good news, telling you your wife is going to divorce you and give you the kids.” he chuckled.

Without saying a word, Eddie handed the missive to Al, who asked before reading:

“This is your peepee doctor in Pusan?”

Eddie nodded and Al started reading, occasionally looking at his pal. When he’d finished, he gave a low whistle and looked at Eddie for a couple minutes before commenting:

“You, my fine fucking friend, are legendary in my world. I take you with me to a hospital, you hook up with a hottie doctor and spend all fucking weekend, uh, fucking. Apparently, from what I read, she challenged you to knock her up, and ‘son-of-a-bitch’, you did. I don’t understand about the husband, but you can tell me later. Bottomline, you made her an extremely happy soon-to-be-mommy, and I guess you made her happy that weekend, too. Whatever it is you’ve got, I wish some of it would rub off on me. So, Chief Studly, what next?” Al exclaimed.

“There is no ‘next’ with Lorna. She said she’d keep me informed, so I must wait for her to write to me again. I now have three kids I can claim, and soon three I can’t.” Eddie sobbed.

“Uh, maybe three you can’t claim, that you know of. There may be more little Eddie offspring running around out there, buddy” Al suggested.

“Al, I’ve been more careful than that, but if there are more, they apparently don’t need me to support them, so that’s a plus, but I’d hate to think one of my kids is cold and starving, or worse yet: aborted. Now, I’m going to have nightmares about that. Thanks a bunch, Al!” Eddie groused.

The conversation died as four other chiefs came into the mess, preparatory to eating supper. Eddie collected the letter from Lorna and put it in his pocket with the one from his son, planning on reading about happenings on the home front, when he found a time and place of solitude. As unsettling as it had been, Eddie rationalized it by telling himself Lorna was happy, and praising him, rather than damning him. It ended up giving him comfort, though he dearly wished to be with Lorna, supporting her emotionally, if not physically. It wasn’t until later that evening that Eddie found some alone time so he could read what Steven had to say:

“Dad, I don’t know how to tell you this, but we think mom’s had her body taken over by an alien. She’s acting so differently. You remember us telling you about her new friend, the MILF down the street, Mrs. Brady? It seems like whenever Mrs. Brady comes to our house, mom tells us not to interrupt them, as they have important matters to talk about, then they go into your bedroom, and we don’t see them for an hour or so. It was just weird, because she’s never been that chummy with anyone before. We were wondering, and then yesterday, mom had gone to Mrs. Brady’s to ‘talk’ to her and she was gone a long time, so Marley went there to check. The Brady’s have a little girl, about ten, and she let Marley in the house, and said her momma was in the bedroom with Mrs. Nolan. Marley knocked on the door, but got no response, so she went in. Dad don’t freak out, like we did. Marley saw mom and Mrs. Brady in the shower together, naked! Marley snuck back out and came home to tell me and Breeanne. We just can’t get our heads around it: Mom and another woman! Maybe she’s been into women all the time and that’s why she won’t let you screw her, hardly ever! We’re trying to just act like nothing has changed, but it’s hard. We wish you were here, to help us make sense of all this shit! By the way, her husband is on your ship. Anyway, we love you. Of course, the girls mean it in the biblical sense, or at least want to. LOL. Love, Steven, Breeanne and Marley.”

When he’d finished reading the letter, Eddie burst into gut-wrenching laughter, and thanked his lucky stars he was alone. They would have thought he was demented. With tears streaming down his face, he thought back on his married life, but did not recall any incidents to indicate his wife preferred women. It was a complete mystery to him, but he had one place where he could possibly get some answers.

The next time in the chiefs’ mess, Eddie sat down by PNC Roberts, the chief who ran the personnel office on board. They had spent time talking with each other, at various times since Eddie came aboard.

“Hey, Lynn, what’s up?” he opened.

“Hi, Eddie. Same old shit, different day. How about you?” he returned.

“Lynn, do we have a crewmember named Brady?” Eddie inquired.

“Um, uh, yes: SM1 Harold Brady. Likes to be called Hal. Why do you ask?

“Oh, I just learned from my family that we may be neighbors in Navy housing. That’s all.” Eddie admitted.

“Yeah. I found out I was neighbors with one of the snipe chiefs. We don’t have much in common, so we don’t interact with him and his family. Seem to be nice people, though.” Lynn observed.

“From what I hear, the wives have struck up a friendship. Just thought I’d get to know the husband, just in case the ladies want to socialize when we get back.” Eddie declared.

“Sounds like a smart idea.” Lynn agreed.

“Thanks, Lynn. See ya.” Eddie said as he got up and left the mess.

An Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigate is not that big of a ship, being one of the smaller classes of warship. Eddie had spent most of his time on the main deck and his equipment rooms on the 01 deck (one deck above main deck). He’d only been on the signal bridge a couple times, as he had to cross it to get to the ladder to access the mast, where he had to climb to inspect and see if preventative maintenance was done on his communications and radar antennas. The signal bridge is usually one of the highest decks on the ship since the signalmen are the ones to send and receive visual signals from ship to ship. Besides running up pennants on the flag hoist, each individual flags acting as part of a message, they were the sailors who operated the signal lights for sending, receiving, encoding and decoding visual communications. They also used the hand flags, or semaphores, hence the nicknames of ‘Sigs’, ‘flags’, or ‘skivvy wavers’. When Eddie had time the next day, he went to the signal bridge to find the Signalman First Class Brady. Being in port, the main job for the signalmen were to clean and maintain the flag locker, signal lamps, bulkheads and decks of the signal bridge itself. Most of that had already been accomplished and it was obvious they were doing ‘busy work’. Eddie found SM1 Brady in the signal shack, sipping his can of soda.