Chapter 8

Standing beside a Russian truck, a very anxious Debbie waited for her husband and wife to arrive. The barren lifeless environment only fed her anxiety. It was hard to believe how desolate the area looked. Draught had cracked the hard ground into little bricks with inch wide cracks. Despite the sun in the sky, the air was chill. She turned to the Major who was seated on the hood of the truck and asked, "Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Very sure," the Major answered with a yawn. He stretched and leaned back against the windshield pulling his coat close around him. Bored, he said, "You might as well get in the back of the truck and take a nap. There's no telling how long we'll have to wait for them."

"When did they say they would be here?" Debbie asked. She pulled at the sleeves of the shirt she was wearing. She couldn't stop wondering how Georgia had managed to live in fatigues for so many years. They weren't very complimentary to her figure. It was her personal opinion that she'd look better in green fatigues rather than the brownish desert fatigues she was wearing. At least the green would compliment her red hair.

"A half an hour from now," the Major answered before covering his mouth and yawning. He found this kind of assignment rather boring. He expected to spend the next couple of hours out in the open doing nothing except watching the surroundings. Despite his boredom, his eyes were constantly searching the horizon.

"Why did we get here so early?" Debbie asked. Waiting around for a half an hour was going to drive her crazy. It seemed to her that her life was spent waiting for time to pass. Although the days spent in Israel had passed quickly, the nights had dragged on forever. She had missed Oscar and Georgia more than she could believe was possible.

"Because out here, a half an hour isn't a long time," the Major answered.

"Oh," Debbie said. She walked over to the cab of the truck and opened the door. Just before getting into it, she asked, "Do we have any water? I'm thirsty."

"You might not want to drink too much water out here," the Major said looking over at her. He wondered why he had been told to bring her out here just to pick up a couple of agents crossing out of Pakistan. She was definitely out of place in this wasteland. He figured that she would probably be more comfortable in a shopping mall.

"Why?"

He swept an arm in a gesture to take in all of their surroundings and asked, "Do you see any bathrooms?"

"Oh," Debbie said looking around. There wasn't even a bush to hide behind. She climbed into the seat and looked out the windshield hoping to see Oscar and Georgia appear by magic in front of her. A half an hour seemed like an eternity.

She had barely gotten settled in when the Major leapt off the hood of the truck. He went around to the driver's side door and opened it. Climbing into the truck, he said, "They're early."

Looking out the front of the truck, she couldn't see anything except dirt. Looking over at the Major, she asked, "Where are they?"

"About an hour's drive over that way," the Major answered pointing off to the side. He had spotted the bright flash of sunlight off a mirror in the mountain pass. It was the signal to let him know where to pick up the visitors.

Debbie frowned and asked, "Why were we waiting here for them? Why weren't we facing that way?"

"We don't want anyone to know where we are going. This is war and we have to be careful," the Major said. He glanced over at her and saw that she was still confused. His orders were to protect her at all costs. He said, "We parked far enough away from cover so that no one could fire at us without us seeing them coming first. By facing the wrong way, we didn't let anyone know where we expected them to exit the mountains."

Raising a cloud of dust, the Major brought the truck to a stop. He stared at the pair who had come out of the pass. He recognized Oscar and, with a moment of reflection, realized that it was Georgia with him. No one had bothered to tell him who was coming.

Debbie took one look at the pair and leapt out of the truck. She rushed towards Oscar with her arms outstretched. It was like a scene in a movie until she glanced at Georgia. Coming to a complete halt, she turned to Georgia and, mouth open in surprise, said, "Oh my goodness, Georgia! What happened to your hair?"

Despite that he had seen the happen when he had glanced in the future, Oscar stood waiting for Debbie with open arms. He still couldn't believe it when she stopped and raced to Georgia. Feeling rather foolish, he stood there with his arms out and watched the women greet each other. He looked over at the Major and threw his hands up in the air.

Hugging Debbie, Georgia answered, "I know, Debbie. It looks horrible, doesn't it?"

"It's white," Debbie said after stepping back a half pace. She didn't want to say that it made her look twenty years older. She reached out and touched a lock of her wife's white hair. It was so white that it almost hurt to look at it.

"I like it," Oscar said knowing that he'd get a reaction from her.

"It is granny hair," Georgia said in a curt voice while winking at Debbie to let her know that she wasn't that upset.

Interpreting the wink correctly, Debbie turned to face him with her hands on her hips. In a tone of voice that suggested he needed intense psychological counseling, she said, "My grandmother has hair exactly that color."

Thinking he would help out of a mess, the Major said, "Hey, I think it looks nice."

Both women turned on the Major and, in one voice, said, "That's sick."

The Major threw up his hands and walked away. There were some fights that couldn't be won and under those circumstances discretion was often the better part of valor. The Major understood that. Glancing over at Oscar, he said, "They are all yours."

Smiling at the strategic retreat, Oscar said, "Yes, they are."

Winking at Georgia where Oscar couldn't see, Debbie asked, "Did he at least offer to get you some hair dye?"

"No. The brute never offered to get me some hair dye," Georgia answered with a pout.

"There was no place to buy hair dye," Oscar said.

Georgia held a lock of her hair in front of her eyes. With a sad expression on her face, she said, "It was one of the Powers That Be who did this to me. I'm not sure of the wisdom of coloring it."

"You poor thing," Debbie said understanding why Georgia would question the wisdom of dying her hair to a more natural color. The news concerning the origin of the white hair was rather surprising. For a second she thought Georgia had become a Druid, but the lack of a medallion around her neck dispelled that possibility.

"Oscar has been truly horrible about the whole thing. Not one little hint of sympathy about my situation. He keeps saying that he likes it. Can you imagine that?" Georgia said shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

"I can't believe it," Debbie said even though she could believe that about Oscar. No matter what happened to their appearance, Oscar would still see them as being beautiful. It was one of the things about him that she loved.

"That wasn't the worst of it. He also kept trying to get me to wear a burka. He kept saying it was sexy," Georgia said looking over at Oscar.

"I wish I had known that he was that sick before I married him," Debbie said surprised to hear that. She looked over at Oscar questioning his sanity for the first time in the conversation. No one in their right mind would see a burka as being sexy.

"You should see her in it," Oscar said looking from one to the other.

"Sick."

"Definitely sick."

"Yes, but he's ours," Georgia said with a smile.

The pair of women grabbed Oscar and a three way hug ensued. With tears flowing down her cheeks, Debbie said, "I missed you both so much."

"We missed you, too," Georgia said running her hand through Debbie's red hair. She had missed her wife far more than she had expected.

"We've really missed you," Oscar said before kissing her. It felt so good to be holding her in his arms. It felt right holding both of them. He didn't want to let go.

After spending three hours in bed celebrating their reunion with passionate abandon, Debbie rose from her position between Oscar and Debbie. While slipping on a bathrobe, she said, "I need to run a quick errand."

"Stay here," Oscar said wishing that she'd remove the bathrobe and return to bed. He didn't want the reunion to end.

"I'll be right back," Debbie said with a smile.

Oscar and Georgia watched her leave the room with puzzled expressions. Georgia asked, "What's so important that she has to go?"

"I don't know," Oscar answered. He was tempted to see if an explanation existed in the future, but resisted the temptation.

"She's so beautiful," Georgia said. Seeing her lover naked after the separation had driven home what she had missed. It was as if she was seeing the lush red hair, the pale white skin, the green eyes, and the perfect body for the first time.

"Yes. I'm so lucky to have married two such beautiful women," Oscar said. He leaned over and teased Georgia's nipple with light kisses.

"I'll give you forever to stop that," Georgia moaned. The time spent traveling with Jumah had been frustrating in the lack of privacy that their camp afforded them. She had missed sex with Oscar. The anticipation of a week spent with Debbie had exaggerated her desire.

Oscar was quite willing to continue forever, but the sound of the door to the room closing interrupted him. Looking up, he spotted Debbie. He patted the bed beside him and said, "Come back to bed."

"We don't have time for that. We've got to get up and get over to dinner. They've got steaks for us," Debbie said.

After living in their clothes for the past few weeks, Georgia and Oscar didn't feel like getting dressed. After being separated from Debbie for so long, they didn't feel like missing a single minute expressing their love for her. Oscar reached out for Debbie and said, "Come back to bed with us."

"You've got to get up. Georgia's sister went to a lot of trouble to ship steaks all of the way out here for you two," Debbie said wanting to join them, but resisting her desires.

While the offer of steak was tempting, the chance of making love with Debbie was even more tempting. They exchanged a look and then Oscar said, "We'd rather spend more time here with you than eating steak."

"That's sweet, but you've got to go eat," Debbie said wondering what it was going to take to get them out of the room.

Smiling at her wife, Georgia said, "I'll even settle for MREs tonight if you come back to bed."

"You'd give up a steak dinner and settle for an MRE just to spend a little more time with me in bed?"