“All I can say Jack is that I won’t wait for you. If you do it don’t count on me being here when you come home.”

I sat across the table from Betty and made a life changing decision. “Your choice Betty. So be it” I said and then I got up from the table and walked away leaving her sitting at the table. Twenty-four hours later I signed the papers and two days after that I was on a Greyhound and on my way to Fort Knox, Kentucky.

I remembered that I hadn’t told my mom where I had left my car keys so when the bus stopped at Marysville to pick up passengers I called home to tell mom where to find them. While I had her on the phone she asked:

“Why did you leave without saying goodbye to Betty? The poor girl was over here bawling her eyes out because you just up and left.”

“I didn’t need to say goodbye to her. She’d already said goodbye to me. The look on her face and her tone of voice when she looked me right in the eye and said she wouldn’t wait for me was as clear a goodbye as you could get.”

“I’m sure you misunderstood her Jack.”

“Don’t think so mom. Got to go. The bus is getting ready to leave.”

On the ride to Fort Knox I thought back on what had put my butt on that gray dog seat. I was an indifferent student in school. I wasn’t dumb; I just didn’t care for school. I saw no sense in some of what they were trying to pound into my head so I pretty much ignored it. I did just enough to hold a grade point average that allowed me to play football, baseball and basketball. I wasn’t all that great at any of them, just average or maybe just a touch above average. I was good enough to be a starter on varsity and I did have my moments, but I was never at the level where I could even remotely think of the pros. Hell, I was never at the level that I could envision getting a sports scholarship. I played because I loved to play and not because I expected to get anything out of it except the pure joy of playing.

Betty Gifford and I hooked up in the tenth grade. I’d known her since the fifth, but all we had ever been was classmates who knew each other. She was a sexy looking honey and she had fueled more than one instance of self-abuse if you get my meaning, but the truth was that I figured that she was so far out of my league that I never worked up the nerve to approach her.

She was the daughter of the wealthiest man in town and I was the son of a factory foreman. Nothing wrong with being a factory foreman, it was just a case of being in wildly different social circles. Things like she did her swimming in the pool at the country club and I did my laps in the pool at the YMCA. She went out to eat with her folks at the Algonquin Club or The Empire Dinner Club. When I went out with my folks it was to the Village Inn on Wilcox or the Denny’s on Perry Street. Her parents gave her a new Audi and a couple of gasoline credit cards when she got her driver’s license. My parents and grandparents got together and gave me a ten year old Chevy pickup and told me I needed to get a part time job to pay for insurance, plates and gas. Socially we were the equivalent of oil and water and everyone knows that those two don’t mix. I very much doubt that I ever would have approached her. We ended up together because she approached me.

It was a Thursday and I was in the school cafeteria at lunch time when Betty walked up to my table and asked me if she could join me. I of course said yes and she sat down. She cut right to the chase.

“Who are you taking to the dance tomorrow night?”

“I hadn’t planned on going.”

“But you were planning to go before you and Judy broke up right?”

Judy was my ex-girlfriend. We had been going together for a little over nine months. She had broken a date with me because some out of town relatives had come to visit and she needed to stay home and visit with them. I found out that she broke our date to go out with another guy and on the previous day-Wednesday-I had rather publicly called her a cheat and broke up with her and as Betty had surmised Judy was to have been my date for the dance. With Judy gone I had intended to skip the dance. I told Betty that and then she said:

“I really wanted to go to that dance, but I need a date and you are the only guy I know who isn’t already spoken for.”

“You need a date? What about your boyfriend? Why aren’t you going with Roger?”

“I thought you knew.”

“Knew what?”

“The guy who caused your breakup with Judy was Roger. I treated him the same way you treated Judy.”

“You really want to go to the dance with me?”

“I’m here asking aren’t I?”

There is an old saying – “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” – so I just smiled and said, “I’d love to be your escort.”

We had a great time even though Roger and Judy both came to the dance stag and spent the evening shooting nasty glances at Betty and me. They didn’t dance together; not even once and they seemed to stay as far away from each other as possible. It amused the hell out of Betty and me. When I walked Betty to her door she thanked me for taking her, told me that she’d had a great time and then kissed me on the cheek. I was on cloud nine as I walked back to my car.

I considered the night a gift from the Gods, but I still felt that Betty was way out of my league so when I woke up Saturday morning I got on with my life.

A week went by and then on Friday I was again in the cafeteria when Betty walked up to my table and sat down. Once again she cut right to the chase.

“Why haven’t you called me?”

“Why would I call you?”

“Are you saying that you didn’t enjoy our date the night of the dance?”

“Of course not. I had a wonderful time.”

“The why haven’t you called me for a follow up date?”

If she could be blunt and to the point so could I. “I didn’t realize that you expected me to. I figured that the only reason that we got together for that night was because you needed someone to take you to the dance and I was the only one available. In fact, as I remember it. Your exact words were “I need a date and you are the only guy I know who isn’t already spoken for.” I figured that all I was was a means to an end. It never occurred to me that you might expect more out of it.”

“When a girl gives a guy a goodnight kiss after thanking him for a good time she expects to be asked out again. What are you doing tonight?”

“No plans.”

“Pick me up at six.”

I picked her up that night at six and began a relationship that lasted through graduation and up to the night she said that she wouldn’t wait for me.

As in any relationship there are ups and downs, but the ups more than outweighed the downs. Betty was three months older than I was and her birthday gift to me on my eighteenth birthday was her virginity and less that twenty-four hours later she was talking marriage as soon as she graduated from college. Hey! I was all for it, but I knew it wouldn’t work.

For one thing instead of going to the small college in our home town she was going to college out of state and the college was nine hundred miles away. It was far enough away that coming home for weekends was pretty much out of the question. Likely we would see each other on holidays and other breaks. Add in the fact that there was no way on God’s green Earth that a girl like Betty wasn’t going to be constantly hit on and it was inevitable that she would date and quite possibly meet someone more to her liking than Jack Baily.

And certainly more to the liking of her parents. I shouldn’t have put it that way. I think her mother liked me, but her father on our first meeting left no doubt that he considered me totally unsuitable for his daughter. And to be honest with myself, I sometimes thought that was my biggest draw where Betty was concerned. That she was with me to spite him. Frankly, even though I would have loved to have one, I saw no future for Betty and me.

Graduation came and it meant summer vacation for Betty before leaving for college, but for me it meant find a full-time job and start my life as an adult. I found out that there were a ton of jobs available for a recent high school graduate. Unfortunately they were all low paying dead-end jobs. McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s and at least fifteen gasoline station/convenience store clerk jobs.

After three weeks of looking and finding nothing of substance I was having lunch with my Uncle Bob and bemoaning my lack of being able to find anything with even a remote future when he said:

“Why don’t you join the Army? You could learn a trade and take advantage of their educational benefits. Who knows? You might even like it enough to make it a career.”

That very afternoon I talked to an Army recruiter and he explained to me what the Army could do or me and what my choices were. I thanked him for his time and then left his office to think about it. I talked it over with my dad (he was a veteran) and after talking to him and thinking long and hard on it I decided to do it.

I had a date with Betty the next day and after the movie we went to the Village Inn for pie and coffee. I laid it all out for her. “My job prospects suck and I don’t see how I can make enough to support us when we get married.” I explained what the Army could do for me.

“You are basically going to be gone for the next four years anyway. By the time you graduate my enlistment will be over and I’ll come home hopefully in shape to find a decent job that can support us.”

“But we won’t see each other for three years.”

“Sure we will. I’ll get thirty days of leave every year and I’ll be able to get other time off. I can get three day passes and they have something they call ‘delay enroute’ that gives you extra time to get from one post to another. I figure that we will see as much of each other as we would if I went to work at Burger King and waited for you to come home on an occasional weekend or on school breaks. But if I did that I’d be no farther ahead and still wouldn’t be able to support us as a married couple.”

“Have your dad get you on at the factory.”

“He can’t. Things are slow there right now and there may even be layoffs coming soon.”

“Well I don’t like it Jack. I don’t want you to do it.”

“I have to do it Betts. It is the only way I can see getting what I need to give us any kind of a future.”

“All I can say Jack is that I won’t wait for you. If you do it don’t count on me being here when you come home.”

Once she said that I figured that even if I stayed there wasn’t much of a future for us anyway. I mean; what the hell!? The girl who claimed she loved me so much she couldn’t live without me could just flat out tell me not to count on her waiting for me?

Sure showed a hell of a lot of love there!

I got off the bus and followed the signs that told recruits where to go and two hours later I and six others were in a truck and on our way to Fort Knox.

I was in pretty good shape from the sports I’d played so the physical part of training was a breeze for me. Where I didn’t shine was in all the testing that was done to see where I would be the best fit in the Army’s scheme of things. I should have paid a little more time attention in school to things I had decided would be a waste of time in real life.

Initial testing showed the Army that (at least to their way of thinking) I wasn’t suitable for any of the combat arms and I was placed in an eight week basic training program instead of the sixteen week program that would be followed by the AIT (Advanced Infantry Training) course. To make a long story short I ended up in the Quartermaster’s.

I had a ten day delay in route when I left Knox for Fort Lee in Virginia. I of course went home to visit. Mom told me that I should give Betty a call since I was home, but I told her that I didn’t need to inflict that much pain on myself.

I spent the first two days at home with my parents, but on the third day I went out to see if I could meet up with some old friends. I did hook up with a few and since it was Saturday night we decided to go to the dance at the VFW. Their Saturday dance was open to anyone who could pay the twenty dollar cover and they usually had pretty decent bands. The cover was waived for unescorted ladies so there were usually plenty of girls to dance with.

As you might have probably guessed by now one of the first girls I saw when I got there was Betty. I was surprised to see her there because I had expected that she would be up at school. I found out later that she was on a semester break. She was out on the dance floor with Norm Taylor. It figured. Taylor was an asshole and I could never stand him. We’d even come to blows a time or two. The last time was when he tried to move in on Betty when she was dating me. I don’t believe that Betty saw me come in. If she did I’m sure that she noticed the look of disgust on my face.

My group found an empty tale and we sat down and started to scope out the place for girls. I saw several that I knew. One of them was Nancy Neubert and she saw me and waved. I waved back and decided to ask her to dance when the next tune started. The song playing ended and I saw Betty and Taylor walk hand in hand to a booth against the north wall. They sat down and held hands on the table. Well she had at least ben up front and truthful when she said she wouldn’t wait.

The next tune was a waltz and I got up and went over to Nancy and asked her if she would like to rip the light fantastic with me and she said yes. It was on our second turn around the floor when we went past Betty’s booth and she looked up, our eyes met and her face lost all color, and then we were past the booth. Nancy hadn’t seen the look on Betty’s face, but she did notice that I ignored Betty. I didn’t give Betty a smile when she looked up and saw me like you normally would with friends.

Nancy said “I heard that you broke up with Betty, but no one seems to know why. No one seems to know if it is just a tiff that you will get over and get back together or not.”

“We won’t be getting back together.”

“Good. Maybe now I’ll have a chance.”

“A chance? Why in the hell would you want a chance with me?”

“Don’t sell yourself short Jack. A lot of girls would like a chance with you. You never noticed because you were so wrapped up in Betty.”

I didn’t know what to say to that so I didn’t say anything.

“I’m a girl who goes after what she wants Jack. There is an empty table over there” and she pointed to it. “I’ll leave my group if you want to leave yours.”

Jack be nimble – Jack be quick. Jack jumped at it.

We spent the next two hours dancing, talking and sipping our drinks. From where we were sitting I could see Betty and she could see could see Nancy and me. I noticed that when she wasn’t out dancing with asswipe she as looking our way. I don’t know if Taylor knew it or not since his back was to us.

Nancy and I had just finished a two-step and after walking her back to our table I left her to go to the men’s room. After taking care of business I walked out into the hall and found Betty standing there waiting for me. As was her usual habit she went right at it.

“Why haven’t you called me? Why didn’t you let me know you were home?”

“Why would I bother? You told me that you weren’t going to wait and I notice that you were at least honest about it, but with Taylor? The guy I stomped because he called you a bitch?”

“It is just a date Jack. There isn’t anything going on with us.”

“From the way you were dancing with him when I came in and the way you are holding hands in your booth you sure couldn’t prove that by me. Whatever. I’ve got to get back to my date.”

“She isn’t your date. She got here hours before you did.”

“That was then; this is now.”

I started walking away from her and she said “Call me Jack? Please?”

“Maybe” I said over my shoulder and “Maybe not” I said to myself. As I walked back to Nancy I was thinking that it was clear that Betty wanted to mend fences, but it was equally clear to me that she wasn’t going to sit around while I was gone and I saw no reason to set myself up for failure if you take my meaning.

When I sat down at the table Nancy said “I saw Betty head you off. Is she trying to cut in on my action?”

“Your action?”

“I already told you baby; I go after what I want and I want you.”

I’ve always been honest with myself and I knew that I was nothing all that special so Nancy’s interest in me didn’t make sense to me, but she was a sexy girl and I wasn’t brain dead so of course I was going to ride with it. We spent another half hour dancing and then they announced last call so we got up to leave. As we headed out together I happened to see the look on Betty’s face. She was not a happy camper.

We stopped at the Waffle House for coffee and an early breakfast. We made a date for the next day and then I drove her home. I received a very nice kiss when I walked her to her door and I drove home in a pretty good mood.

My date with Nancy was dinner and a movie followed by pie and coffee at the Village Inn after the show. We talked and Nancy wanted to know why Betty and I were no longer a couple. I told her why and then explained my thinking. I didn’t expect her response.

“What did you expect Jack? She’s young and she isn’t ready to live like a nun. She is going to want to go out and have fun and for girls our age that fun is naturally going to include boys.”

“Answer me this Nance. What were you doing last night?”

“Out having fun.”

“Yeah, but with who?”

“You know who Jack; you went to school with all of us.”

“So you went out with Carol, Bev and Liz to have fun. You do it often?”

“Once a week and usually on the weekend.”

“It seemed to me that the three of them had a good time. They were out on the dance floor most of the night.”

“So?”

“So you managed to have a fun night without being on a date with guys. You telling me that Betty couldn’t have done the same for the amount of time we would be apart? Keep in mind that even if I stayed here instead of joining up we would be apart for most of the next four years anyway what with her being at school nine hundred miles away.

“I’m not stupid Nance. I know she is going to want to date, go out and have fun, but you can do that without getting into a serious relationship. She said that she wouldn’t wait for me, but she expected me to wait for her while she was off to school for four years. I would get an occasional weekend, get to see her over the holidays and maybe part of her summer break. Is that any different for her waiting for me to come home on leave or on a three or four day pass?

“Bottom line is that she said she wouldn’t wait for me and she didn’t. I’m not even gone three months and I walk into the VFW and find her with her head buried in Taylor’s shoulder and his hands all over her ass so don’t tell me I was wrong to break up with her.”

“I guess I can see both sides here, but be honest with me Jack. I know that you and Betty were getting it on and once people our age get a taste of sex we want more and more of it. Do you really think that Betty could go cold turkey for four years? Could you?”

“Other people have done it. My grandmother managed to while Gramps was off fighting in World War Two. My mother managed when dad went to Vietnam. The point I’m trying to make here is that she wouldn’t have to go without for four years. She would only have to go without while we were apart. Again, beating a dead horse, if I had of stayed home I would have had to go without while she was away at school. It would have sucked, but I would have done it and if she was really wanting to be mine she could have done it too while she was away at school. Whatever. It is a dead issue as far as I’m concerned. She made her choice and I’ve moved on.”

“I can’t say that I’m unhappy about it because it gives me a chance. I guess the next question I have is do I have a chance?”

“You do, but you need to understand what you are getting yourself into. I’m only here for four more days and then I have to report in at Fort Lee. I’ll be there ten weeks before I will be able to come back home and even then I don’t know how long I’ll have. It could be another delay in route to my next post or it could be a five or ten day leave. I have no way of knowing at this time. Can you live with a drop in relationship for my three year enlistment? I expected Betty to because she professed to love me and was even talking marriage before my enlistment. You and I don’t have that deep of a connection yet.”

“Maybe not, but we have four days to try and build a connection.”

When I got her home she slid over next to me and gave me a kiss that turned into a half hour make out session and before I walked her to her door we made a date for that evening.

I woke up late on Monday morning. Late being seven-thirty which might not seem late to some, but it is when for the last three months every morning started at four in the morning when the barracks lights were turned on and a Sergeant yelling out “Drop your cocks and grab your socks.” I had breakfast with mom and dad and after he left for work mom told me that Betty had called. I shrugged and didn’t say anything.

“You need to talk to her Jack.”

“Why? She was quite clear in what she told me before I left.”

“Maybe she realizes that she made a mistake. Maybe once you were gone she woke up and realized what she’d given up. It won’t kill you to talk to her Jack.”

“Okay mom; I’ll give her a call.”

She got up, went over and got the phone and brought it to me. I looked at her and she said “Do it now before you talk yourself out of doing it.”

“No thank you. I have a date this afternoon and I want to be in a good mood for it. I have a feeling that after talking with Betty my mood might not be all that great. I’ll call her tomorrow.”

I had a great time with Nancy and had another steamy make out session when I took her home. When she asked me if she would see me the next day I told her probably not and then I told her why. “I expect that I’ll be in a downer of a mood and I wouldn’t want to inflict it on you.”

“Nonsense! It will be my job to get you back into a good mood.”

If she didn’t care I didn’t see why I should so we made a date for the next afternoon.

I woke up at five, dressed for it and then went on a run. I put in five miles before returning home, taking a shower and then going downstairs to make myself some breakfast. Mom was in the kitchen and she told me that she had saved me some breakfast so I sat down and ate it. Mom kept looking from me to the phone and then back to me. I got the hint and told her I fully intended to talk with Betty. I finished my breakfast and picked up the phone and called Betty’s house. Mom left the kitchen so my side of the call would be private. Her father answered the call and when I asked for Betty he asked whom he should say was calling. I told him.

“Why don’t you leave her alone? Haven’t you done enough damage? Haven’t you hurt her enough?”

I lost my cool. “Fuck you old man! I didn’t do a damned thing to her except ask her to understand my position and she said she couldn’t be bothered. She asked me to call her and so I’m doing it. If you don’t want her talking to me just hang up the phone and have it out with her. Now are you going to get her or not?!!!” I heard him holler out “Betty. It’s for you.” Several seconds later I heard “Hello?”

“You wanted me to call so what do you want?”

“We need to meet and talk Jack.”

“Why? You have obviously moved on so what is there to talk about?”

“We need to talk about us.”

“There is no ‘us’ Betty. You ended ‘us’ when you flat out told me that you wouldn’t wait for me. You put an exclamation point on it by the way you were when you were out with Taylor the other night.”

“There is nothing going on with me and Taylor. It was just a date.”

“That’s not what he is telling everybody. He says that your blowjobs are the best that he has ever had.”

That was a flat out lie of course, but Taylor was an asshole; I didn’t like him and if I could poison his relationship with Betty I’d do it in a heartbeat.

“He is lying Jack. He never even got a kiss.”

“So you say. Just another case of “He said-she said” I guess.”

“Please jack; we need to talk.”

“You sure that daddy will let you?”

“Piss on him.”

“Okay. When and where?”

“As to when and where as soon as possible and wherever you say.”

I looked at my watch and the said “The Village Inn in half an hour.”

“I’ll be there.”

I got to the Village Inn first and I took a booth in the back. I saw Betty come in, look around, spot me and then head my way. She started to sit down beside me, but I blocked her and pointed at the other side of the table. She frowned, but moved to the other side and sat down.

“You called this meeting so get with it. Speak your piece and let’s get this over with.”

“Can’t you lighten up just a little bit?”

“Why should I? The woman who professed to love me and who was already making wedding plans for us tells me flat out that she wasn’t going to wait for me? I took it at face value and moved on.”

“Okay, okay; I screwed up, but you could have taken some time and eased me into the idea instead of just dropping it on me. I was pissed and so I lashed out. I’m sorry. After you got up and walked away from me I realized what I had done. It took me a bit to work up the courage to talk to you, but by then you were already gone. I begged your mom to get you to call me. But you never did.”

“I didn’t see any reason to. You were quite definite when you said what you did so I took it at face value.”

“I don’t want us to end Jack; I really don’t.”

“That may be Betts, but things have changed. I’ve come to realize that I was being totally unrealistic to expect you to wait for the time when we could get together. As I see it there isn’t any way you can spend four years at school and not get involved with others. You are too good looking not to get hit on. There isn’t any way that you are not going to go out on dates and the way you took to sex with me tells me that you are not going to go four years without.”

“I can do it Jack.”

“No you can’t Betts. The way you were comfortable with your head on Taylor’s shoulder and his hands on your ass while grinding into you tells me that.”

“He didn’t even get a goodnight kiss Jack. It was just a date to get me out of the house.”

“That’s what you are saying now, but given what I saw there isn’t any doubt in my mind that if I hadn’t shown up the night would have ended up with the two of you on a bed.”

She started to protest, but I cut her off saying “And I have to be honest here. I’m pretty sure that I can’t go my whole enlistment without getting laid. It would be great if it could be with you, but the odds are pretty good that my leave times won’t coincide with your college breaks. So all things considered it is probably best that it has ended between us.”

“You can’t mean that Jack. Okay, so there might be some rough spots, but we never planned to get married until I finished college. I will wait for you Jack.”

“The problem Betts is that I don’t believe you can do it. You took to sex like a baby duck takes to water. There isn’t any way that you can make me believe that you won’t date and eventually have sex with one of those dates. That could lead to an emotional attachment that could lead to God only knows what and I don’t want to be sitting somewhere a year or two from now reading a Dear John letter. Best we just let it go now.”

“No Jack; I won’t let it go. I’ll give you that I might not be able to go without sex for the time you are gone. In fact I have come pretty close to it since you left, but I can wait for you. I will not get emotionally involved with anyone else and if you can say the same there is no reason why we can’t treat the next three years as a physical separation and not an emotional one. When you come home at the end of your enlistment we can get back together. I won’t ask you about what you did while you were gone and I won’t tell you about whatever I might have done. We start with a clean slate. Can you buy into that?”

I could, but I still didn’t believe that she could. Still, what did I have to lose? It would happen or it wouldn’t. I told Betty that I could go along with it and she smiled and said: “Good. Let’s get out of here and find a motel room where we can make up for the last three months.”

She got a very pissed off look on her face when I told her that I couldn’t. “I’ve got a date tonight with Nancy and I can’t break it on such short notice.”

“Why not?”

“Because I owe it to her to tell her that you and I are somewhat back together.”

“Why? What business is it of hers?”

I told her what had gone on with Nancy and Betty snarled “I’ll fuck that bitch up!”

“No you won’t. I was the one who told her that you and I were history and things went from there. I’ll see her tonight and let her know that things have changed. I’ll call you in the morning and we will see what we can work out for my last two days here.”