Chapter 3

After Robin stowed her emergency stash in my closet, we had a surprisingly good time swimming. I found Brenda to be a pleasant and intelligent girl. We were eating lunch when Don showed up with the beer, and he seemed to be pleased that Brenda was there. A brief discussion when the girls were in the kitchen, disclosed that he was in no hurry to move on from Brenda. He said that she was not clingy like other girls, and that he had fun with her. I didn't want to tell him that it was probably because she was the first girl smart enough to figure out how to hold on to him. It would do him good to settle down for a little while at least, and now we could go on an actual double date, one in which I was as likely to get lucky as he was. That would indeed be a change.

When the girls came back in I suggested that very thing, and they were enthusiastic about it. We went roller skating that evening, and double dated at least once a month from then on. It was a lot of fun.

One memorable date was on Halloween.

I was a zombie, the rags and makeup said so. I was standing in the shadows of the spook room of the church in Lebanon. When my girlfriend sits up in the coffin and screams, the kids jump towards me. I then shuffle through the sticks and leaves we had covering the floor, raise my arms, and groan. That would send them on to my buddy Don, the ghoul with the chainsaw. The debris we had covered the floor with came from the wooded area next to the church and provided an atmosphere of this room being a cemetery or other such place. Small fans swirling the air and minimal lighting completed the illusion.

Looking over at my girlfriend, Robin Howell, I couldn't help but think back to last night. Part of my problem was that Robin was my first real girlfriend, and I was trying to be careful with her feelings. I had gone on dates in high school and done some making out just like everybody else, but there had not been one girl that had grabbed my interest like Robin had. I do mean grabbed too, she had refused to take a no until I paid attention to her. I'm still not sure what her attraction to me is, but I'm not going to fight it anymore, I'll just enjoy myself.

It had been late on Friday night when we got to my apartment. We had spent most of that day setting up the spook room and then driving back to Lafayette. Robin and her friend Brenda had cleared it with their dorm mother to be out for a couple of nights. They were supposed to be staying with Brenda's parents in Lebanon, but I'm pretty sure that my place was in the plans all along. Brenda and my buddy Don were going to be on the hide-a-bed and Robin was going to be with me in the bedroom.

As we got ready for bed I expected this to be the same as our previous make out sessions. She would give me a hand job and I would go down on her. I loved eating her pussy and didn't expect intercourse yet, I was in no big hurry as long as I got to spend time with her naked blond body.

I was surprised when she pulled my shorts down and declared, "Time for the next step, Mark. As much as I love your mouth on me, I need some dick, and this one will do just fine. I've been thinking about this all day and talking with Brenda about it, and I am ready. Now climb on up here and show me that you love me."

Neither one of us was a virgin, but Robin was tight enough to be one. My only previous experience with intercourse was with Hai, the woman who took care of our rooms in Vietnam. We paid her well to keep our quarters clean and as a matter of course she took turns sleeping with the four of us. I had become quite fond of her before I left country.

The first time this night was fairly quick, as could be expected. I wasn't going to rush her, but I had been looking forward to this for the last couple of weeks and Robin's slender blond body excited me a lot. Luckily for me Robin had been anticipating this so much during the day that she popped off twice before I came. With a little talking and snuggling I was ready to go again and my blond girlfriend showed me that the flexibility she was required to have as a cheerleader could be very useful in the bedroom as well. We tried several positions I had never even heard of before. I lasted a lot longer this time and became familiar with the feel of her pussy spasming around my cock as she had an orgasm. I was definitely looking forward to tonight.

Okay, enough day dreaming, time to move back to my position for the next batch of kids. I had to brush the leaves and sticks back into place so they would make noise when I shuffled forward. I leaned down into the coffin on my way past to give Robin a quick kiss.

The four of us were students at Purdue University in West Lafayette and we were helping out here because Brenda had asked us and we had volunteered. It was something different to do and helped others as well. Brenda was from Lebanon and a few years ago her parent's church had begun offering an alternative Halloween night for their members and neighbors. Most of the kids coming through our spook room were teenagers old enough to not feel right trick or treating with the little kids and without this alternative they would probably be out getting into trouble. The attraction had gotten big enough that many families sent younger children to us as well for the fun to be had. Those youngsters made us temper our scares to keep from getting too far overboard while still having fun.

Waiting for the next batch of victims my mind wandered again, back to a much less pleasant time.

"TANGO TWO VICTOR, TANGO TWO VICTOR. THIS IS DUST OFF BRAVO. IT'S A TRAP, WE ARE TAKING FIRE, I SAY AGAIN, WE ARE TAKING FIRE. WE NEED COVER, SEND THE HOGS BACK, WE NEED...

The voice of Chief Billings yelling in my headset abruptly quit as I heard the unmistakable sound of bullets hitting the aluminum shell of our Huey. I didn't have time to look at him, but I saw the grunt medic in front of me drop. He had just finished helping me load the last of the four litters of casualties we could carry in the UH-1D and I was clamping it into place on the rack. Beyond the medic I could see black clad men with AK-47's emerging from the vegetation. They must have been waiting far back in the forest because the gunships had sprayed the area with massive amounts of gunfire and rockets preparatory to our landing. The Landing Zone had been declared clear before we set down, but Charlie had other plans. No matter what you might say about the black pajama clad North Vietnamese Army, they could learn, and their lessons were deadly. This unit had waited for the dustoff choppers to land before they attacked. Unarmed medevac helicopters are a lot easier to shoot down than the well armed and prepared gunships. This whole situation had probably been planned far in advance of the long range patrol getting ambushed.

I could feel the floor of the helicopter pushing against my boots as the pilot, Chief Cosman, increased the cyclic and power to lift off. I thought we were going to make it, when a machine gun opened fire and I saw my crew chief's head explode as his helmet flew off. I looked back at the patient in front of me and saw him take rounds from what sounded like a captured M-60. Suddenly there was an incredible amount of pain in my middle, and I blacked out. My last thought was, 'Damn, I'm supposed to rotate out of this goddamn sewer of a country next month.'

I woke up for a few minutes at the MASH unit and found out that the pilot and one patient were the only others to make it out of the LZ. I was in a lot of pain, but they had given me something that kept it at a distance.

"Be calm, Specialist, I'm going to give you something to put you to sleep now. Count backwards from..." And I was gone again.

Waking up the next time was a different experience entirely. It felt like I was swimming up from a great depth trying to reach the surface. The more I strained to break free, the less it seemed I was getting there. There was something in my mouth and throat and my eyes were stuck shut. There was pain, but it was still at a distance and I could ignore it.

The closer I got to the surface the more sounds started nagging for my attention. The first was a constant beeping from nearby. I had spent ten weeks of Advanced Individual Training in a hospital and I recognized the noise as belonging to a heart monitor. Oh yeah, I had been wounded and I was in a hospital. I wonder how bad it is? Would I be sent home to Indiana, or just back to the states to complete my enlistment?

I kept getting closer to the surface, and the next thing I noticed was that it was cool. I knew that the Mash unit didn't have air conditioning. Was I in DaNang? How long had I been out?

"I think he is starting to come around now. How about it, Specialist Reynolds, are you ready to join us?"

The voice was female and sounded nice. I doubt she'll look as good as she sounds, not many of the women who enlisted were beauty contest winners. Not that it mattered to horny GI's though, all they wanted was a shot of leg, any hole would do.

"Come on, Mark, open those eyes and greet the world."

Oh damn, I have to see what she looks like now; but I still couldn't get my eyes open. I tried to lift my hand to rub my eyes and maybe get them open, but found that I was tied down. What the hell?

I started to panic and began pulling on the straps holding me to the bed.

"Take it easy soldier. Here, maybe this will help." I felt a cool damp cloth rub across my eyes. I tried again, and my eyelids slid up and light attacked my head. Oh fuck that hurt! I snapped my eyes shut again and groaned. When they were closed again there was an image against my lids of a form just to my right. I tried again, slowly, and soon I was able to make out the room I was in and the person next to me. The light again caused pain and I shut my eyes again, but not without seeing my surroundings a lot more clearly.

I was most definitely in a hospital room, but not Danang. I have spent way too many days there and all the walls were light pastel colors. The wall and ceiling I saw were bright blue and white respectively. My musings on the surroundings had taken my mind from thinking about the figure I had seen beside me. Now I had to consider it, and the closer I examined my memory of the figure, the greater my confusion.