On The Rebound Ch. 03

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.

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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 Perdue 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.

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"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.

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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."

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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.