Circles in the Sand (17 page)

“Man, I wouldn’t lie ta’ ya’. That’s just what this guy told me.”

Clint said, “If you guys’d stay outa cat-houses, you wouldn’t have to worry so much. Cool it until you can scout a place out…and find a permanent type shack-up.”

“Hey listen to the voice of experience.” Lance Werner said. “That’s what I had in Berlin for a while. You had to beat the Frauliens off with a stick. And over there you was warned…the Russian’s Oriental Garrison Troops had already raped seventy per cent of the women in Berlin. Some as young as seven, to old ladies…raped  an average of four times. You know they had to pass along some bad things.”

“Look, the man says the V.D. rate among the pros is better’n seventy-five percent, an’ a lot of it’s syph. A man can’t afford chances like that,” Clint said.

“So where ya ‘gonna find a permanent girl friend around here. There aren’t any. If  you find one, and she’s willing to screw, chances are she’d been laying someone before you, so how d’ya know she ain’t infected already?” Alcocke   asked.

“Two ways, depending on what you latch onto. A lot a these gals around military posts are almost professional mistresses. They live with one guy until his tour is finished, and then he passes her onto someone else. If he hasn’t got a dose, you can be reasonable sure she’s clean. Just keep her that way.”

“Oh yeah, but that sure limits your action. Don’t know if I could stick with one that long,” Elsas said. “That’s too much like being married.”

“That’s the big problem with a true-lovin’ type,” Clint  said. “You may not be thinking of marriage…but you can bet your last capacitor that it’s on her mind…And you can get all messed up with a gal who’s been playing wife with you for a year or more. If you stick with one very long, you’re involved whether you know it or not.”
Boy, do I ever know it. Miriam could tell you guys a few thing.

“You mentioned two ways, Clint,” Elsas said, “What’s the other one?”

“To start with, there’s a heck of a lotta women around…in some places…that aren’t whores…sales clerks, teachers, secretaries, WACs maybe. If you latch onto one of them, get her checked over by the medics.”

“Oh man, Sergeant Clint. I can just see me taking some chick on sick call an’ asking’ the doctor, would he please make sure she hasn’t got anything nasty.” Alcocke said. “They’d throw us out on our tail!”

“You got the wrong approach, Ross,” Kline said. “Tell ‘em its your sister an ya think she’s got leprosy.”

“Ha, ha, big joke, jerk.”

“Ross’s got a point, Clint. Nearest medical facility is at Fort Peck. Those medics aren’t going to check anyone not entitled to medical service,” Sergeant Patton said.

“I didn’t say you should take her to sick call. But if you got a good thing going, it’d be worth the price of a couple bottles of Chevas Regal wouldn’t it? So you get chummy with a corpsmen. Invite him over to her place pick up the Scotch he forgot… and did he know the results of her Wassermann test for syphilis yet? And he says it must be misplaced…so he’ll take some more samples while he’s there, an let you know.”

“Just like that, huh?” Elsas said. “How d’ya know the medic’s gonna go along with that?”

“Look, it’s to his advantage too. He makes sure you don’t get a dose of something you’re not looking for, and he saves himself another patient who otherwise might get himself really screwed up.”

“You’re making’ it sound too easy, Sarge.” Elsas said.

“Well, sometimes a man has to try something when he thinks all else has failed…like the voice with the slides said, ‘If  you can’t keep your pecker in your pants, USE A RUBBER!’”

“Oh great.” Kline said. “There’s not even a drugstore here to buy any.”

Both of the Gilman girls assisted in the dinning room that evening. Lorena acted remote toward Clint, and didn’t chatter with the troops as much as she had in the past. Clint and Dorris exchanged small talk, each wondering where they were with the other. Clint sensed that Dorris wasn’t happy. She acted breezy, and polite, as though they had no relationship other than business. When she stopped talking to anyone, he saw her face close down.
She’s trying to hide her emotions
.

After supper, Clint led the charge of his troops down to see Chet. Each wanted to know how much of his pay he’d have to cough up to the bar keeper.

Clint reached over the bar to shake hands with Chet. “We finally got some money today, Chet. But they really cut us short…only a temporary emergency pay.”

“Oh, oh. I suppose you’re telling me that for a reason.”

“Of course. This isn’t a regular pay or pay period. Normally we get paid on the fifteenth and the thirty-first. We got less than half of our normal pay. “

“So? None of you owe me a fortune. What is the problem?”

Kline broke in. “You take most our loot…leaves little for the Boar Pen.”

“Oh, I get it. All you cocksters are suffering from swollen balls. Don’t you know about jacking off?” Chet laughed.

“Not when I want a hundred bucks to have apiece of that Marie-Elena.” Kline was just smarting off. He had no idea of paying that much for a piece of ass, much less jeopardizing his testicles to Fritz’s threat.

“Forget it Kline,” Alcocke said. “You couldn’t cope with a hundred dollar whore.”

Looking at their stricken faces and listening to their grumbling, Chet decided customers who owed him, and would be back, deserved a break. “Tell ya’ what, Sergeant Greybull. Let’s me and you sit down and go over what each man owes me, against what he got paid. Maybe we can compromise.” Chet was rewarded by happy faces on the airmen. He and Clint arrived at a solution where no man had to fork over more than half his present tab.

With money in hand again, Kline said, “Hey Chet. Where’s the nearest place to buy rubbers?”

“Probably in Glasgow. There’s at  least one drugstore there. Say doesn’t the military still issue those pro kits? Maybe you could get them at Fort Peck.”

Sergeant Patton said, “Yeah, maybe we could get them from the Army. But to tell you the truth I’d rather pay for some I want, instead of those inner tubes the military issues.”

Kline looked at Clint. “Maybe what this man’s Air Force needs is a condom run to Glasgow. Seems to me that there ought to be some official reason to go there.”

Jewel said, “Unless someone who has a private vehicle here…”

With all his troops expectantly looking at him, Clint suddenly felt very popular. “Okay… Lance, if you’ll collect money…and a list of what everyone wants. I’ll drive us on up there.”

After Clint and Lance left, the troops ordered more beer. Although Jewel suggested the private vehicle condom run, he wasn’t concerned about it. The VD film and lack of rubbers slowed down the others from the Boar Pen, but not Peter Jewel. When he didn’t return from a trip to the men’s room, no one missed him.

When the first airman to knock on her door was a baby-faced man who didn’t look old enough to be in the Air Force, Olivia Gomez about fell out of her bra. “Come in young man, come in. What brings you here tonight?”

“You’re open for business aren’t you?”

“Of course. Would you like a drink? You are old enough aren’t you?” Olivia was more concerned about selling drinks to someone under age than she was about providing a woman.

Used to her question, Peter didn’t take offense. “Yes, I am Ma’am. But I’ve already had enough beer, I don’t want  anything else to drink. I want a woman.”

“Naturally. That’s why you came here. You have a number of choices, including an Indian girl. But please don’t tell anyone else about her.”

“She might be exotic, but what I want is one of those college girls.”

Tawny Franks stepped into the room from behind a beaded curtain. “I’m a college girl, handsome. Will I do?”

With a big smile Jewel looked her. Since he hesitated, Sheree Hahn appeared.

Olivia  said, “There you are. You’ve got a choice of two college girls.”

“Oh boy.” Peter was practically drooling. “I don’t have enough money for both of you…so…” He thought Tawny looked more like a teen-ager. He shrugged. “The first one.”

“Come on then…as soon as you pay Olivia.” He did. “My name is Tawny. What’s yours?” She wanted to ask if he’d ever had sex with a woman before. From the looks of him, he had to be a virgin.

“My name is Peter,” and anticipating her thought, “and yes, I’ve had a woman before.”

“Well, come with me Peter.” She stoked his crotch. “We’ll have a good time together.”

Being a weeknight, business was slow at the Boar Pen. Peter Jewel was the only customer at that time. About twenty minutes after Peter disappeared with Tawny, Sheree walked back into the reception area. “Baby-face must be some kind of stud. I’ve never heard Tawny carry on like that before.”

“Why? Do you think he’s hurting her?” Marie-Elena said.

“If he is, Tawny’s turned into a masochist.”

Marie-Elena walked back down the corridor opposite Tawny’s room, and returned. “Sounds like she’s having fun to me. What a surprise that little baby-face is.”

Sheree said, “Must have a  very unusual tool.”

Ten minutes later Jewel sauntered into the reception room. He looked directly in the eyes of each of the smiling women, and walking out the door, sang “Good Night Ladies.”

Peter was barely out of the parking lot, before Tawny screamed hysterically. “That son of a bitch! That dirty rotten son of a bitch! I’ll kill him.”

“What on earth…” The three women rushed down to Tawny’s room. “What is it Tawny?” Olivia asked. “What’s the matter?”

“Yeah,” Sheree said. “You sounded like you were having a ball at first.”

Tawny quit crying long enough to say, “Oh at first, it was wonderful. Do you know what that bastard did?”

“No…you’ll have to tell us, Tawny…What did he do that was so great at first.”

“Would you believe that baby-faced boy went down and licked my cunt. He ate my pussy! No one’s ever done that before.”

Olivia said, “No wonder you were so happy.”

“Oh I was. I’ve never experienced joy like that before. I just exploded with it. Oh God, it was sooo good!”

“So, why are you hollering and carrying on now?”

“Oh that dirty little devil. While I was out of my head with pleasure, he screwed me. After he was gone, I realized he hadn’t used a condom. The little bastard got me pregnant!”

“Oh come on, Tawny. You can’t know you’re pregnant. Don’t be ridiculous,” Olivia said.

“If I ever was to get pregnant again, it was tonight. I had to be so open, I’ll have twins!”

“So?” Marie-Elena said, “You get another abortion.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You’ve never had one.”

“Yeah I did. You just don’t know about it. The train trip I made from Missoula to Seattle.”

“Wasn’t that taking and awful chance?”

“No. A real doctor did it. Not a butcher like you had last time.”

“Wow,” Sheree said. “Wouldn’t there have been an explosion… if Fritz Deutsch knew you were knocked up.”

“The reason I went far out of town.”

Clint and Lance found the only drugstore in Glasgow just in time. It closed at 6 PM. Because they had only one brand of condom, Lance bought a gross and hoped that would suffice. Looking around outside, Lance said, “Troops probably aren’t going to use these till week end. No reason we can’t quaff a beer in Glasgow.”

“Now, that’s senior NCO thinking  Lance. Why not?”

The only bar Clint was familiar with was attached to the dance hall where he’d entertained Dorris.

“I’ll be God-damned. Last time I was in here that sonovabitch Basil Tree gave me a hard time. And would you look at who the hell is in here again?”

“Looks like he’s got reinforcements tonight. That’s Fritz Deutsch sitting next to him, ain’t it?”

“Oh yeah, and they see us too.”

“Want to leave?”

“Hell no. Those two aren’t driving me out of nowhere.”

In sitting down at a table, Lance laid the package of condoms on the chair next to him. They watched as Fritz and Basil noted their entrance, and glancing at them exchanged a few words. “What do you think  they’re saying , Clint?”

“I don’t give a rats ass what they’re saying. Nothing complimentary. They’re really not any concern of mine.”

They watched the two ranchers get off their barstools and walk over toward them. “Looks like we ‘re gonna have company,” Lance said.

Outwardly cordial, Fritz said. “Mind if we join you two fellows?”

“Don’t mind at all, Fritz. Plenty of chairs. Help yourself.”  Clint said.

Lance lifted the package of condoms from the chair and put it on the table top.

“I was out at the airfield after that strange plane came in. Kinda weird lookin’ wasn’t it…with those two bubble eyes?” Fritz said

“Yeah. Crew Chief said it was a C-74, and there’s only fourteen of ‘em. Probably won’t see it again.”

“Well I guess he might not want to come again…after you run him down with a Jeep. That was pretty dramatic acting.”

“Well, I didn’t want any extra Second Lieutenants hanging around. He seemed to think that because he didn’t have wings, they didn’t give a hoot if he got aboard or not. That’s a pretty shitty attitude toward another member of the Air Force.”

“Maybe so. But weren’t you taking an awful chance blocking that plane with a Jeep?”

“Yeah, well Lt. Townsend said he hoped I didn’t get court-martialed for it. Not likely. Who’s going to complain? The pilot? An enlisted man in a Jeep forced me to stop taxing? I don’t think so. Dumb sonovabitch could have waited five minutes for the passenger.”

“Seems to me you got more nerve than brains, Sergeant.” Fritz said. “Same applies to that bomb range. Do you really think you can start bombing our cows and sheep?”

“No, I don’t…because you’re no dumbbell, I believe you’re smart enough to move them out of harms way.”

“Yeah? I don’t believe I’m gonna hafta move ‘em. You guys are gonna be run outa there before that happens.”

“What you going to do? Start some kind of local war? Don’t be silly. You’re opposing a war effort. You do know there’s one going on in Korea, don’t you?”

“Hey, smart ass!” Basil Tree spoke. “Don’t you be talking to Mr. Deutsch like that…or callin’ him silly!”

Fritz waved at him to be quiet but he kept right on. “What you need is a lesson in the proper way to talk to a gentleman. Why don’t you just step on outside with me?”