by Linda Ellen
“At the American Tobacco Company plant at Thirtieth and Madison. I work on a four-person cigar rolling machine.”
Viv whistled, impressed. “Wow, I can’t imagine – that sounds complicated…”
Louise laughed softly. “In a way, it is. Takes a while to learn. But, I could roll cigars in my sleep now.”
“Sometimes, you do,” Vic teased, laughing when she swatted him on the arm with a gasped, “Victor Herbert!” Louise’s face was red, and not from the heat.
“What? I didn’t mean anything bad,” Vic professed, pasting an innocent look on his face. She swatted him again.
Vic chuckled and propped himself up on his hands to watch a boater sailing down the river. He looked around at the surrounding trees and then glanced over at Gene.
“Isn’t this about where we found that mule carcass up in the tree?”
“What? Ew!” the ladies squealed simultaneously, causing the fellows to laugh again.
Gene flashed his friend a wry smile as he yanked apart his tie and unbuttoned his uniform shirt so that he could peel it off. He left on his white tee shirt, which he pulled out of his trousers for comfort. Leaning forward to unlace his shoes, he grinned at the girls. “He means after the flood. We were coming back from delivering some supplies in a truck and we came across the ghastly sight. Made me about lose my lunch.”
“Green Gene,” Vic laughed, catching Gene’s flung shirt and flinging it right back. “And you’re a first sergeant now? How’d you swing that with such a delicate stomach?”
“By being good at my job, you knucklehead,” Gene shot back. Vivian eyed them, making sure they were still only ribbing each other. They were, their eyes were sparkling without malice as both men were grinning like fools and snickering.
Vic laid back and linked his hands under his head. “That reminds me, did you ever find out the answer to that problem you hinted at when we went to the movies a few months back?”
Gene lay down on his side, facing the others. Images of the incident in question swam before his mind’s eye. The visitor who had brought him the final piece of information…The moment when he and several MP’s opened up the warehouse door and caught the perpetrator in the act of loading boxes of parts into a jeep…The look of anger and hatred on the face of the guilty man as he glared at Gene for discovering his operation.
Giving his head a shake, he focused again on his companions. “Yep. I guess I can talk about it now, since the perps are behind bars. Viv, you probably won’t be surprised, but…Hendricks was caught red-handed in a smuggling racket.”
Vivian’s eyes rounded. “Oh my goodness!”
“Yep,” Gene tilted his head in the affirmative.
“Who’s Hendricks?” Vic asked, his interest more than piqued by Vivian’s reaction.
“Would you believe, my roommate? Staff Sergeant Blake Hendricks.”
Vivian turned to Louise and shuddered. “Eww, he’s an awful man. Remind me to tell you sometime about my experience with him.” She reached out to Gene and grasped his hand, picturing the moment when he had punched the vile scoundrel in the mouth in defense of her honor.
Gene winked at her and continued, “Seems he had recruited a couple of civilians, one of them a nurse who must have needed extra money or something. I’m not sure what her part was, maybe medical stuff. Anyway, they had somebody at the landfill and somebody in the warehouse and they were cleaning up used parts and switching out boxes of new ones when they came in, then selling the new ones on the sly. Seems he’d done that at the last post he was at, but when the heat got too close, he put in for a transfer to Knox. The brass at the other post never knew he was behind the scheme. The thing is I should have figured it out because of other things I caught him at. He was never without a jeep anytime he wanted one, and out at Knox right now, captains and majors get first dibs on them.”
“People like that really irk me. Why don’t they put their energies into honest work instead of illegal shenanigans?” Vivian groused, catching a long look exchanged between Vic and Louise. She wondered what that was all about.
“Yeah, I know,” Gene agreed. “Oh, and Vic, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you, but a corporal in one of the other motor pools is the one who blew the whistle. He actually came to me and clued me in on where to catch them because he knew I knew you – and guess who it was?”
Vic sat up, his attention fully on Gene. “Who?”
Gene grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “A real nice light-skinned black fella. Said he was in the C’s with you. Name is Floyd Grimes?”
Vic and Louise both laughed out loud. “Floyd?”
“Good ol’ Floyd!”
“Yes, we know him. He saved Vic’s life when they were serving in the C’s together,” Louise explained. “He was one of Vic’s closest friends – and we just saw him not long ago.”
“He never mentioned anything…”
Gene shrugged. “Well, he was probably told to keep it under his cap, at least until all of the t’s are crossed and the i’s dotted.”
“Makes sense.”
Gene turned to Viv and caressed her arm. “Oh, and I found out something else. Remember we kept wondering why Hendricks acted like he had a personal grudge against me?”
“Yes – did you find out?”
“Yeah…well, in a way. I went to the lockup and had it out with him, and he ‘reminded’ me of seeing him steal something back in high school and turning him in. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about, but he just sneered at me and turned his back. Wouldn’t say anything else. So, it’s still a bit of a mystery.”
“Where’d the jerk go to high school?” Vic asked.
Gene’s eyebrows furrowed as he searched his mind, but then gave a small shrug. “Someplace up in Indiana, I think.”
Changing the subject, Gene leaned over and whacked Vic’s leg. “Hey pal, I need to talk to you about something. Take a walk with me?”
He stood, and then leaned down to give Vivian a good, long kiss that left them both tingling. When he pulled back, he whispered, “Be back in a few. Miss me.”
“You know I will,” she innocently purred back, giving his lips a final smooch and caressing his smooth, warm face with one hand. Her eyes shimmered with happiness; his gleaming with desire.
Vic, not to be outdone, grabbed his wife and plunged her back over his arm in a move that would make Valentino look like an amateur, kissed her thoroughly, and set her up again.
All four erupted in peals of laughter as he parted with, “Don’t sit under the apple tree with nobody else while I’m gone, babe.”
Vivian watched the men saunter down to the edge of the water, deep in a friendly conversation. She sighed softly as she watched the man she loved, he was so handsome, so sweet, kind, and generous – not to mention romantic! That kiss, oh my! Sometimes she couldn’t believe she had found someone so perfect.
“So, when’s the big date?” Louise playfully bated, watching Viv watch her soldier.
Vivian turned her head and smiled at her new friend. “Don’t have one yet…but I think he’s working up his nerve to ask me. Matter of fact,” she added with sparkles in her vivacious honey eyes, “I’m hoping he’s asking Vic to be his best man right about now.”
“Mmm, in that case, I’ll worm the information out of a certain brown-eyed fellow,” Louise declared, causing both girls to lean against each other and dissolve into giggles.
Spent with cheer, they turned to the business of emptying the basket of its food and setting up for lunch, figuring their men would be hungry when they returned. Viv sighed again, feeling as if she would burst if any more joy tried to pour into her heart.
“Oh Louise, I’m so happy. I’ve found the perfect man – he’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of. I’m wondering how I got so lucky.”
Louise chuckled, leaning a bit to watch the two men who were about a hundred yards away now, lingering along the shore still deep in conversation. At that moment, Vic turned his head and caugh
t her looking. She sent him a wave and he waved back.
“I feel the same way. You probably don’t know this, but…I was married before, and I have a son by that man. But Vic was always my first love, and he was always in my heart. We had a terrible fight and a stupid misunderstanding that broke us up. But, I’m so blessed to be married to him now.”
Viv had stopped her movements and met her friend’s eyes. “Wow, Louise, I had no idea.”
“I figured you probably didn’t. I’m telling you this because…I know how fast things can happen. A silly misunderstanding, and wham, it’s like a bomb goes off and everything is wrecked.” She paused, placing a hand on Viv’s arm and catching her lip between her teeth as if she were trying to choose her words carefully. Finally, she added, “Gene’s a good guy, I’ve known him for years…but he’s a man, you know? Don’t put him up on a pedestal…” At Viv’s startled look, Louise went on, “I just mean he’s human…subject to mistakes or bad choices. Just…don’t let any misunderstandings happen between you two, okay? A pastor friend of ours named Doc Latham always says that sometimes when two people fall in love…it’s like it stirs up the devil or something, and he sets out to see if he can ruin it so they don’t get married…”
Viv felt a chill sweep over her body at Louise’s warning. It was as if she knew something Viv didn’t.
Before she could ask, the guys came jogging up the bank.
“Hey ladies, we’re hoping you’ve got the food ready, cause we’re a couple of hungry males and we just might take a bite out of you!” Gene jokingly called out before he flopped down next to Viv, wrapped her in his arms, and zoomed in to nibble her neck with a mischevous growl.
She responded with a squeal and playfully pushed him away, forcing a piece of fried chicken into his hand as he came at her again.
“Here, Sergeant, chew on this!”
Once again, the four dissolved into laughter as they resumed their leisurely afternoon together.
Viv did her best to put Louise’s ominous warning out of her mind…
The following weekend, Gene finished getting ready for his liberty. He had some important errands to run in town before the regular dance that night. He also had plans for Sunday – big plans. Plans that involved asking a certain older gentleman for permission regarding said gentleman’s daughter. Gene shook his head at himself that he was a bit nervous about the asking part. He wanted it to be a moment neither he nor Viv would ever forget – a memory that they would cherish for the rest of their lives.
As the door opened, he turned to smile at his replacement roommate – a newly promoted staff sergeant named Bob Sells.
“Hey Bob,” Gene greeted as he finished tying his shoes. “Hope that phone call wasn’t bad news or anything.”
“No, it wasn’t. I’m glad I caught you before you headed out, though. Got a favor to ask.”
Gene glanced over as he sorted out necessary things to put in the pockets of his clean uniform. “What’s that, buddy?”
“My grandmother lives across the river, in Jeffersonville, and she wants me to come and stay with her this weekend. Problem is, I don’t have any way to get there. Sure, I could take a bus into Louisville, but…then what? Would you mind playing chauffeur?”
“I could take you over there, no problem,” Gene answered in his usual, carefree manner.
“Thanks, man,” the other man replied. “She wants me to pick up my cousin on the way, too, and she don’t drive. Is that all right? And – don’t worry about Sunday night, I’ll catch a ride back on the bus, even if I have to walk over the bridge,” he added with a laugh.
“No problem,” Gene returned with a grin and a friendly pat on the back as they exited the room and closed the door behind them.
“What are roommates for, huh?”
Thirty-five miles north, Viv and her parents were eating breakfast. Viv was slowly leafing through a copy of Bride’s Magazine. She sighed as she came to a picture of a dress she particularly liked, but it looked like it would be way too much money.
Her father looked at her from his newspaper, and over the top of his spectacles. “You got something you should be telling your mother and me, pumpkin?” he asked waggishly.
Viv look at him, smiling impishly. “Not yet. You’ll be the first…well second to know when I do.”
Her father expressed his mirth with the situation and smiled at Viv’s mom as he reached for his coffee cup. He looked at Viv again. “Listen, I don’t suppose you’d want to go run some errands with your old dad, like you used to when you were a kid, hmm?”
Viv’s face showed her delight at the invitation and she put the magazine down. “I’d love to, Daddy. I miss doing things with my favorite guy.”
Her father raised his eyebrows and teased, “Oh now, I don’t think I rate that moniker anymore, but I’m willing to share that spot – provided the guy deserves it.”
Her smile grew even wider and she got up to give his cheek a kiss. “Oh, he does, Daddy. He does. I’ll be ready in a jiffy.”
She hurried on to her room, a smile on her face as she heard her beloved father chuckle.
Two hours later, Viv and her father were coming back from an errand he’d had to run over in Indiana for his job as a machinist for the railroad. Although gasoline was rationed, and he normally got just enough to go back and forth to work and not much else, he’d been given an extra few ration stamps by his boss to do this particular job.
It was hot out, over ninety degrees, and before they got on the road to pay their toll and cross the bridge back into Kentucky, they stopped at a corner grocery in Jeffersonville for something cold to drink.
“I’ll get it, Daddy. What would you like?” Viv asked as she climbed out of the car and leaned in the window.
“Get me one of those Grapette’s you like, I’ll give that a try,” he said, feeling content.
“Two Grapette’s, coming right up,” she chirped cheerfully. Practically skipping, she made her way up to the store, which was actually a converted house of modest size. There was an extra room built onto the back for storage and who knows what else. From the looks of it, the owners lived upstairs.
As Vivian walked up to the door, she noticed a black ’32 Ford Sedan parked near the entrance. Hmm, isn’t that odd – that looks just like Gene’s car. There’s probably a million of them running around. It’s a Ford, after all. She knew it couldn’t be Gene’s, as she was sure he was still at the base.
With a shrug, she opened the door and went inside. She wandered around the two aisles, looking at different things, nodded to a tall red-haired woman wearing bright red lipstick, and finally stepped up to the cooler and rummaged around until she found what she was looking for. As she turned to go up front and pay, she ran smack into a hard chest.
“Oh! Excuse me, I’m sor…” she stopped dead, gasping for breath as she came face to face with her favorite pair of sky blue eyes.
“Gene! What are you doing here?”
Not giving him time to answer, she rushed on, “I didn’t know you’d be over in Indiana today.” Juggling the ice-cold bottles, she put her arms around him. “I’ve missed you this week,” she murmured against his neck. Vaguely wondering why he hadn’t taken her in his arms and kissed her yet, she explained, “I’m out running errands with Daddy.”
She pulled back, beaming up into his face. Wiggling her eyebrows, she flirted, “Well, soldier? Aren’t you going to kiss me?” When he didn’t move, but merely stared at her as if stupefied, she added, “Are you that shocked to see me, or are you waiting for me to make the first move?”
“I…” he began, when suddenly, a high-pitched voice yelled from behind Viv, “Hey, you hussy! Get your filthy hands off my boyfriend!”
The red-haired woman came charging up and rudely grasped hold of Vivian’s arm, jerking it hard and causing her to drop both of the bottles. They crashed onto the scarred hardwood floor, the glass shattering and splashing purple liquid all over Viv’s legs. “I said get your hands off him
!” the woman growled.
He glared at the woman, while she, in turn, looked down at Viv’s purple stained legs and started to laugh and point. “I hope I ruined your only pair of stockin’s.”
“Shut up, Roxy,” He grumbled at her, then shifted his eyes back to Viv, his expression one of sympathy.
Viv’s heart dropped to the floor and tears immediately sprang to her eyes. Oh my gosh. It’s happened again…just like with Walter! It’s happened again!!
With a cry, she put her hand up to her mouth and turned to run out of the store. When she got to the door, the woman behind the counter yelled, “Hey you! Where’s my money for the two bottles you just broke?”
Viv stopped, tears blinding her eyes as she fumbled in her pocket for the money. Shaking uncontrollably, she slammed it down on the counter and pushed through the door without looking back at the two still by the cooler.
She had never felt so humiliated in her life. This time around, it felt even worse than it had when she’d caught Walter in the arms of another girl.
This time, her heart was crushed beyond repair.
CHAPTER 15
Gene parked his car along the street in front of the club and climbed out, whistling happily. It had been a productive day. He’d taken his roommate over to Indiana, picked up the cousin, dropped them both off at their grandmother’s, stopped at a jewelry store he happened to see on the way back – and found the perfect item he’d been searching for at just the right price, and then had finished all of the other errands he had planned. He’d hoped to get done before now, but at least he had completed his mission.
With a jaunty step, he took the stairs at the front of the building two at a time and whipped through the door, his quarter ready.
The girl at the table looked at him with a frown, and without saying a word, merely took his quarter. She didn’t even wish him a good time.