Chapter 13: Roopy

“Are you ready yet?”

Roxie entered Wedge’s room wearing a red dress trimmed with white fur and, of course, the mandatory Santa hat. Wedge’s breath caught in his throat. She was beautiful. The white fir of the trim around her cleavage was striking against her flawless mocha skin. “You like?”

“I ... my god ... you’re beautiful.”

“I know, right?” she laughed. Roxie did a slow turn showing off the skirt that reached mid-thigh, the red nylons, red high heel boots and she flipped up her skirt to show the tops of her red stockings and red satin panties. She finished her turn and saw that Wedge was entranced. She put on her green shorty blazer to complete the outfit. “What do you think?”

“All I can think is... ‘promises promises.”

Remembering the joke, Roxie’s eyes lit up. “You wouldn’t be lying?”

“You’re gorgeous, and I’m such a schlub.”

“We’re a set!” she said. Wedge was wearing a dark green shirt, matching trousers, and a cherry red tie with a cherry red blazer. “Don’t be calling yourself a schlub, you’re mine. I won’t put up with it.” He held her coat open for her and grabbed his matching over coat. When the announcement for the squadron Christmas party was made, they went downtown to a Korean tailor and Momma Park whipped up their outfits in a couple of days.

“Let’s go,” and they stepped out and walked over to the Officers Club. There was about three inches of new snow on the base, and they walked the ten blocks to the O Club and when they got there, they made a big hit ... Correction, Roxie made a big hit. Being one of only ten women in the squadron, she was incredibly popular. There were a few Korean girls there, a couple of guys were married to Korean girls, and they lived off base, on the economy. One of the guys who works with Roxie’s specialists, Don Campbell, he lived down the hall from them and he had a tiny Asian woman hanging off his arm, but other than that, Roxie, Heidi and the other eight girls enjoyed their popularity.

Roxie had a crowd of men around her all evening, buying her drinks and peering down her dress. After a dinner of “Rubber Chicken” Wedge hung out with the senior sergeants in the squadron. As they talked, Roxie broke free from the crowd that hung around her and joined the folks around Wedge. Their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Walker, was telling “Wedge Stories” to the new NCOIC of the weapons flight. Roxie hung on Wedge’s arm with a huge smile on her face as Colonel Walker told the story of how the 80th Fighter Squadron nuked South Korea.

“It’s not me, it’s you, sir,” said Wedge. “When you’re not around life is normal. The dumb shit happens when you’re there. If you weren’t there when Captain Simmons landed the D model he wouldn’t have freaked out Colonel Getz.”

“What?” asked Wedge’s new boss, Sergeant Sams.

“Oh god,” laughed Josh. “That was classic!” He was there to watch the show, too.

“Colonel Getz promised us a new roof on the MARS shack if we make contact with the space shuttle via HAM radio. Captain Simmons said he could do it if he had the orbital data of the space shuttle. So, I got the data and wrote it down on a piece of paper. That day Captain Simmons flew the flight surgeon in the D-model and got him to puke so everyone was there when he landed.”

Roxie said, “we walked up to the plane as they’re trying to get the surgeon out of the back seat and Wedge shouts, ‘I got the data!’ and he waves it around.”

“Captain Simmons sees me holding the paper,” Wedge continued, “and he jumped out of the cockpit without a ladder, takes the paper from my hand, reads it, then eats it and leaves.”

Roxie laughed long and hard. “The wing commander was demanding to know what was on that piece of paper and I just said, ‘It’s a secret,’ and I left and let the Wing Commander grill poor Wedge.”