On The Rebound
                 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.

Was my mother right, was there a hell, and a devil? But if I was
in hell, why had the pain been subdued? Why wasn’t it being
increased? I knew that I deserved to be in damnation, if such a
place truly existed. In the course of the war I had killed
people, and I had not saved patients that I should have. If I had
been a better medic more of my patients would have survived.

What was fueling my dilemma was the figure beside my bed. The
uniform was white, as I would expect to see on a nurse or
corpsman in a military hospital. What was different was the face.
I would consider the face to be attractive even with the bright,
bright red lips, and dark red eye shadow; but the long fangs
hanging over her lower lip and the black horns sticking out of
her head would make me change my opinion. I think there were also
high pointed ears sticking out of the platinum blond hair framing
that astounding face.

“He’s awake, doctor.”

I slowly opened my eyes again. The vision next to me had not
changed, but approaching from behind her was…A CLOWN! It was a
fucking bushy yellow headed CLOWN with a white face and big red
nose. WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON HERE?!?	

I tried to talk, but all I could do was grunt. There was
something stuck in my throat.

The clown was now beside my bed and spoke to me. “You are in
Frankfurt, Son. You had some pretty severe injuries so they flew
you up here to us. You have been kept in a coma while we worked
on you.”

My eyes must have been as big as saucers as I was looking back
and forth between the devil woman and the clown. The clown was
wearing a damn stethoscope.

“OH! Doctor, he doesn’t understand the makeup.” The devil woman
looked over at the clown, then back at me,” I’m sorry Mark, what
you must think; its Halloween today and we are made up for fun.
We try to bring some joy to people like you who have been injured
so badly. I can take it off if you wish.”

I shook my head no. The pain was starting to reinforce its
presence and I winced.

“We’ll give you some more morphine in a minute, son,” the clown
said, “but right now we need to see how you are doing and remove
the intubation.”

I nodded to show that I understood. The next two hours were pure
agony. The tube was taken out of my throat and I found out that
breathing was not something to be taken for granted. My throat
and mouth hurt badly and my whole abdomen was covered with
bandages. I found out some of what had been done after I left
Vietnam while a whole crew of nurses worked on me.

It seems that the NVA bullets had taken out my stomach and a few
feet of my intestines. From the discussions going on around me I
ascertained that eating was going to be an experience for me from
now on. My system was going to require huge amounts of help in
order to process food.

The rest of the day and into the evening I spent talking to
everyone who would listen to me. Most of the corpsmen, nurses,
and doctors at the hospital were dressed in some form of costume
for Halloween. I enjoyed looking at them, most especially my own
little devil woman. Someone brought around candy, but I was told
that I couldn’t have any. What a cruel way to celebrate
Halloween.

                
--------------------------------------------------------

Robin’s scream brought me back to the present. The group of teens
she had startled jumped past my hiding spot. I raised my arms and
shuffled forward. The teens were facing away from me looking at
Robin. When she had lifted the lid of the coffin a dim red light
had come on and highlighted her makeup. The bright red lips,
fangs and blond hair were the same as my little devil in Germany,
but Robin was supposed to be a vampire and didn’t have the horns.
She was still lovely, but there was one little girl with this
group of kids that was looking at my girlfriend and screaming her
head off. The little one turned from robin and then saw me. Her
screams went hypersonic and she froze in place.

The poor little thing ran out of breath and was starting to
blubber in between the high pitched chirps which were all she
could produce now. I ripped off the mask I was wearing and
dropped to my knees in front of her. I gathered the scared little
lamb (she really was dressed in a lamb costume, I assume her
older sister was little Bo peep) into my arms and pulled her
against me. I murmured in her ear as my hands softly rubbed up
and down on her back.

“SSHH little one. Its all right, no one is going to hurt you. No
matter what you think, this is not hell. I know, because I’ve
been there.”

             ***********************

I would love to say that the fun of the Halloween weekend and
having sex with Robin changed everything, but in reality there
was very little change at all. In fact; she started getting a
little distant. I was still working Friday and Saturday nights,
so I was unable to go to the games with her. She went with
friends, and didn’t come into the shop all the time; she said
that she was getting tired of pizza. We got invited to numerous
parties, but the only ones we went to together were the ones I
was invited to by my fellow workers. We never went to ones with
her friends together. The other thing I noticed was that
sometimes when I picked her up, she would be lifting my ring out
from her clothes as she was exiting the dorm.

Thanksgiving was shared between my folks and Brenda’s. Robin and
I would travel to Ohio for Christmas, and Don’s mom really didn’t
care. She would go to parties with her friends and ignore Don for
the most part. She had been this way as long as I had known Don;
I only met her a few times.

The four of us spent the morning with my parents, and dad did me
proud with pancake sandwiches, a stack of fresh made pancakes
with two over easy eggs on top, with bacon and whole hog sausage
on the side. Brenda and I had grits with this, Robin and Don
declined. Some people just don’t like them for some reason,
whereas I love good grits. I learned to like them in basic
training.

We all had a good time, and then drove to Lebanon to spend the
evening with Brenda’s parents. The feast they laid on was
stupendous, but I missed a couple of dad’s specialties that I
hadn’t had in years, but maybe he would save some for me. They
were going to mom’s sister’s house and dad was making a green
bean casserole and a carrot cake to take along.

There was no curfew during the holidays, so Don and Brenda got to
spend another night on the hide-away.

Before we left for the Christmas holidays, dad and I did a brake
job on Robin’s car, as well as putting on snow tires and
winterizing her radiator with antifreeze. The car was now about
as good as it could be. Robin wasn’t worried about driving it
anymore, and even better, I wasn’t worried about riding in it.
That was good, because we were taking her car to Ohio. Her dad
had gotten her a new car, and she needed to trade. My opinion was
that, unless it was a brand new car, she would be better off with
the Falcon.

I didn’t have to pull in a lot of favors to get the time off from
work. The reduced number of students at the school meant that not
as many workers were needed, and they could get those from the
kids who weren’t going anywhere.

I bought Robin a tennis bracelet and a couple of albums for
Christmas. I had them in my suitcase for the trip. We agreed to
do presents and such with everyone in Indiana after we got back
in January. Driving to Dayton is about as easy as it gets, you go
south to Indianapolis and turn left.

The arrival at her home gave me a whole new look into Robin’s
personality. I was introduced to her parents and immediately saw
the dynamics of the household. Her father was a big, fast talking
blowhard. Eddie Howell sold appliances and furniture. He had a
store in one of the malls and was doing pretty good. Mrs. Howell
(I was never given her first name) on the other hand, was a
mouse. She did not meet my eyes, or speak above a whisper. She
was not even at the door when we arrived, Eddie called her in
from the kitchen to say hello. Her handshake was brief, as was
her hug with Robin. She then quickly returned to the kitchen.

“Hey Binky, do you want to see what daddy got you to replace that
old car? It’s out in the garage and all ready for you. Rachel
says that she has a job and will need transportation, so I’m
going to let her have your old car. Here’s the keys baby, go
ahead and check it out.”

BINKY?

Robin jumped up and gave her dad a hug, and then she raced out to
the garage to see what he had gotten for her. Just like a little
princess at her birthday party.

Her dad probably didn’t know that the Falcon was better than it
had been, so that told me something about what he thought of
Rachel, what the pecking order was in this household. In most
families, the older daughter would get the new stuff, and the
younger would get the hand-me-downs. The fact that Robin didn’t
say anything meant that this was normal for them.

I followed her out to the garage and saw the car as soon as she
did. I thought daddy had done her bad with the Falcon, but this
time he had gone to a new low, a Maverick; a 1971, orange,
Maverick with plaid seats. It was the ugliest car I had ever
seen. Robin of course was ecstatic; she jumped up and down,
squealed, and clapped her hands.

“Oh daddy, I love it. Rachel can have that old junker, I love
this one. Thank you Daddy, thank you.”

Robin jumped up and hugged her daddy again, then she ran around
to the driver’s door and got in.

“Open the door Mark; let’s take a drive to check this out.”

I opened the garage door, and then had to move the Falcon out of
the way to let her out. I parked the Falcon in front of the house
and got out. Robin pulled up next to me, just as another car
pulled up in front of the house. A tall black girl got out and
waved to the girl driving it. She stepped over to the Maverick
and leaned in to Robin.

“Hello sis, I see dad couldn’t wait to show you your new toy.”
She looked up at me, “this must be Mark, hi there. I’m Rachel,
Robin’s half-sister. Robin told us that you would be with her
when she came home.”


(to be continued)