by Linda Ellen
He thought that was a bit odd, but with a simple shrug, he continued inside. Once again, Johnny Burkhart’s Orchestra was playing, I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling, and he quickened his pace, wishing he’d gotten there just a bit sooner, so that he could be dancing with Viv. That was their song!
He stepped into the room and searched over the sea of dancers for that special head of wavy honey-blonde hair. But, he didn’t see her anywhere. Hmm, maybe she’s in the ladies’ room or something. Or maybe she just couldn’t make herself dance with anyone else for this song. He grinned to himself at that thought and scanned the walls and tables, but couldn’t catch sight of her anywhere. Finally, he wandered over to the refreshment corner to request a Dr. Pepper. The woman behind the counter was a different one than was usually there, but she smiled in a friendly way and gave him his drink. He thanked her and moved over to where he could see the whole ballroom, and waited for Viv to appear.
Fifteen minutes went by and no Viv. He was beginning to become concerned and hoped nothing had happened to her – could she be sick? Would she have stayed home and not gotten word to me? Just then, he spotted her friend, Mary June, across the room dancing with a tall merchant marine. Gene waved and tried to catch her eye, but she didn’t look his way. After half the song had run its course, he finally gave up and walked over to the table where he and Viv had sat together several times before, thinking he would wait until either Viv showed up or Mary June took a break.
Forty-five minutes later, Mary June and a sailor made their way toward the refreshment corner. The girl came to a halt when she saw Gene smiling and attempting to flag her down from a table nearby, but then she raised her nose in the air and kept on walking as if he weren’t there. As she reached his side, he put out a hand and stopped her.
“Mary June? Hey, I’ve been waiting for you to take a break for an hour. You’ve got some stamina there, girl.”
She turned slowly, shooting daggers at him with her eyes. He was instantly taken aback.
“What…what’s wrong? I’ve been waiting for Viv, but haven’t seen her…” he paused, and a sinking feeling began in the pit of his stomach. Something wasn’t right. “Do you know where she is?”
“You’re a piece of work, you know that – Sergeant Banks? You rip a girl’s heart to shreds and then have the gall to act like you’ve done nothing wrong. Who do you think you are? Why, if I were a man, I’d let you have it, mister. Viv’s my best friend, and you…”
“Hold up,” Gene interrupted, rising to his feet to face the irate girl that had just unloaded on him. The sailor was hovering at her elbow, both fists clenched at the ready, in case she needed him to do bodily harm to the army sergeant. He looked like he would relish the opportunity.
“What in the Sam Hill do you mean I ripped her heart to shreds? I haven’t seen her since last Sunday night, but I’ve talked to her twice this week and she was fine.” He stared at her, but she just stood still with her arms crossed over her chest, tapping her foot and looking at him through squinted eyes. Her mouth was pursed as if she’d eaten something sour. “You gonna tell me what I’m supposed to have done?”
“Huh!” Mary June snorted. “As if you didn’t know!” Then, she turned on her heel, grabbed the sailor’s hand and growled, “I’m not thirsty anymore, Harold. Let’s go dance.”
“Mary June, wait!” Gene hollered, extending his hand to try and lasso her arm, but she slipped just beyond his reach and kept right on going.
Good Lord, what is going on? What is it I’m supposed to have done?
Shaking his head to clear out the confusion, he stalked his way to the door and found the girl at the entry table.
“Excuse me, Miss. Do you know Vivian Powell?”
She gave him an icy glare. “I do.”
Gene’s eyes flared. Does everyone know about this but me? He tried to calm his racing heart and soften his voice. “Is she here somewhere? I’ve got to talk to her. It seems there’s been some kind of mistake or misunderstanding, but I can’t find out what it is…please, will you help me?”
The girl looked into his eyes, and then forced Gene to wait while she welcomed several newcomers to the dance before she looked back at him. Something in his countenance must have gotten through, because she thawed a bit and said, “She didn’t come tonight.”
Gene let out a breath, knowing where his next stop would be. “Thank you,” he said to the girl.
She just stared after him as he ran out the door.
“I don’t know why you felt you could come here tonight and bother my daughter, but you’d better get yourself on away from here before I do something we’ll both regret,” Vivian’s father declared, holding the front door to the house only about six inches open.
Gene twisted his cap in his hands; his heart was hammering in his chest so hard it was downright painful. “Please, Mr. Powell. I’ve got to talk to her. Something’s not right. Can you tell her I’m here? Please?”
“She knows you’re here, Sergeant,” Mr. Powell sneered. The use of his rank instead of his name, and in such a tone of voice, hit Gene like a fist in the gut. Viv’s father had been calling him Gene, or son, for weeks. “When she heard your car drive up, she told me she doesn’t want to see you. She told me to tell you to go away and not bother her again.”
“But…why? What have I done?” Gene demanded, his voice catching on the last word. His patience was at an end. How could he defend himself if they wouldn’t tell him what he needed to defend against?
Mr. Powell lifted an arm and pointed behind him, into the house. “Because my little girl is in her room right now, cryin’ her eyes out – over YOU – that’s why!” he shouted, nearly spitting the words, his face red with anger. “And if you think I’m gonna let you anywhere NEAR her after what you did today, you’re crazy. I think you’ve got to be crazy anyway to do what you did to a sweet, wonderful young woman like my Viv!” He brought himself to a halt for a moment, gulping in air as he tried to calm down. Gene could hear a woman’s voice on the other side of the door, probably Viv’s mother, cautioning him to remember his blood pressure and urging him to shut the door. Mr. Powell pointed a blunt finger in Gene’s face. “If I wasn’t a Christian man, or if I was a bit younger, I’d come out of this door and whip the tar out of you for hurting my little girl like that – army sergeant or not. Now you go on,” he flung his hand toward Gene’s car. “Get back to your girlfriend, and stay away from my daughter!” With that, he slammed the door in Gene’s face so hard the glass rattled, near to shattering.
Gene stumbled back a few steps, so shocked he could hardly breathe. His hand went to his forehead. Girlfriend? What in the world? Had everyone gone crazy??
He backed up a few more steps, trying to remember which room was Viv’s. Seeing a light on in a window on the far side, he staggered over to it and banged on the glass. “Viv! Viv, honey, open the window! Talk to me! Tell me what it is you think I’ve done! Sweetheart! Viv, please!!”
The curtain moved and Gene saw her mother’s face with tears in her grave eyes, glaring at him like an enraged mother bear. Her father came to the edge of the front porch.
“Sergeant!”
Gene tried one more time, his warm palms pressed against the glass leaving steamy handprints. “Viv, what about your promise? You said you would stand by your man no matter what. Remember?”
Her father stepped down off the porch with a baseball bat in his hands. “Leave my property right now Sergeant Banks, or so help me, I’ll call the cops, or the Army, or Fort Knox, or someone, and have you forcibly removed!”
People in the house next door were coming out on their porch to watch the spectacle.
Defeated, Gene’s shoulders sagged and he let out his breath. There was nothing else he could do – tonight. He’d have to leave. Getting arrested wouldn’t help anything – and he could tell Viv’s father was dead serious on that account.
He shuffled to his car and stumbled in. Looking up at the porch, and the seething man standing there still
brandishing the bat in his hands, Gene started the engine and backed up to turn around. An image of the girl he loved crying her eyes out over something she believed he had done tore him up inside. He wanted to go to her, comfort her, and tell her that this betrayal she was so positive he was guilty of, wasn’t true!
With no other options, he shut his eyes and prayed.
Oh dear Lord, help me sort this out. And…comfort Viv…my sweet Viv. Let her know I love her… Please Jesus…
A tear rolled down his face, but he didn’t feel any better. Slowly, he pulled out of their driveway and down the road. He could barely see where he was going; it was as if his eyes and his whole face were numb. And where would he go? No way was he driving back to the base tonight. Back to the club… He had no place else to go…
There was nothing for it but to come back tomorrow and try again. And they could be sure he would.
An idea swam through the misery and he headed his car in that direction. Maybe someone separated from the situation, a friend on his side, would help him see things clearly.
Someone’s got to help him out of this nightmare!
He wiped his face and drove on toward his friend Vic’s home.
Vivian grabbed another hanky, having filled up two others with tears that wouldn’t stop, as she heard her father screaming at Gene. Oh, what a mess! What an awful mess! I can’t believe he actually came here to the house! What is he thinking?
When she had come running out of the store in tears, sticky grape soda all over her stockings and her dress, her father had demanded to know what had happened. Not wanting to cause a scene, and only wishing to get as far away from Gene and his girlfriend…that word made her heart spasm – as she could, she had told her father she was just embarrassed at having dropped the two bottles in front of strangers who had laughed. She had begged him to drive on home.
Before long, however, she couldn’t contain it anymore and had burst into sobs. They’d crossed over the 2nd Street bridge by then and her father had immediately pulled to the side of the road and tugged her into his arms, pleading with her to tell him what was wrong. So, she had. And oh my, did the fur fly.
Furious, her father had turned the car around, and gone back over the bridge, paying the toll again, and driven at breakneck speed to the little store – only to find that the black Ford was gone. He threw the car into park and went inside anyway, but neither Gene nor the girl were anywhere around. With no further recourse, they had turned back around and gone home.
Vivian had run to her room and thrown herself on the bed. Her heart hurt so much from Gene’s betrayal, she could barely breathe. Her mother had hovered over her frantically, trying to console her, but no words made any difference. It was Walter all over again, only ten times worse.
Mary June had called to ask if she could borrow a dress for the dance, and her mother had told her the whole story.
Now, after six hours and a warm relaxing bath, and with no sign of appetite for lunch or supper, she had heard his car in the driveway and had dissolved into tears again.
In her room with the door shut, she could hear her father’s voice clearly – and she could hear Gene’s too. He sounded so sincere, like he had no idea what he had done. Why? Oh WHY is he doing this? Can he be that cold hearted? Could he possibly think he could have me, and that…that red-headed floozy too? She had told him about Walter’s deception with another girl, and he had sworn to her that he would never EVER do anything like that. He had even joked that he would go after Walter if she wanted and take a bullwhip to his “sorry hide.”
So…why???
Viv sniffled and then pressed the hanky over her mouth as she heard Gene knock on her window and beg her to talk to him. Her mother mumbled something along the lines that he should be ashamed of himself as she pushed the curtain aside and glared at the offender. How can he sound so sincere? Did I ever really know him? He must be crazy – but why did I never see it before? He really had me fooled. Well, no more. What’s that old saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Never again, Eugene Banks. Never again.
Viv put her hands over her ears, but it wasn’t enough to stop her from registering Gene’s voice asking about her promise, and her father’s threats as well. Oh, how she wished this night were over.
It was the worst night of her life.
CHAPTER 16
The next morning when Vivian woke up, everything somehow seemed… better.
Perhaps it was the bright sunshine streaming in her window…or perhaps it was the vivid dreams she’d had the night before. She’d dreamt crazy dreams, about the Sabotage movie she and Gene had seen – Barry Kane running from the police, declaring his innocence, while Pat stubbornly declared him guilty. Somehow, though, the face in the images was Gene instead of the actor.
Now, as she broke free into the waking world, Gene’s friends Vic and Louise came to her mind – and Louise’s warning about misunderstandings. She remembered Gene’s words at the window the evening before, begging her to remember her promise to stand by her man.
Could this be a bizarre misunderstanding? But…how? She had come face to face with him, and another woman calling him her boyfriend! Somehow, she felt as if the Lord were urging her to let him explain.
Viv put her hands up to her face and scrubbed the thoughts away. Mechanically, she rose and performed her morning rituals, dressed, and nibbled some breakfast. Her parents questioned if she felt up to going to church.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she sent them a tiny smile. Then she went to them both and embraced them. “Thank you for loving me.”
Her father hugged her in response, murmuring, “Honey, you’re easy to love.”
His words gave Viv strength and fortified her resolve to open the door of What If and see what was on the other side.
Gene pulled up in front of the church. He was late, having overslept after a night of tossing and turning far into the wee hours of morning. Having driven to Vic and Louise’s place, he had poured his heart out to his wise friend. Vic had advised him to do everything he could to get to the bottom of the mystery. Then finally, Gene had crashed on their couch, and this morning they’d been kind enough to feed him some breakfast and send him on his mission.
Louise had offered to try and talk with Viv if Gene thought it would do any good, but he had declined. Deep down, he felt he had to make Viv see the truth on his own merit. He knew if she doubted his veracity at every pothole along the road, and needed the intervention of others to get them back on course, their relationship would be torpedoed before it even got underway.
Now, checking his watch and realizing the service was almost over, he decided to wait in the car and try to talk to Viv in the parking lot.
Twenty gut-twisting minutes later, during which Gene spent begging God to soften Viv’s heart and make her listen, the doors to the church opened and the parishioners began to disperse. He watched them tarry at the door, shaking hands with Pastor Rodgers. Gene climbed out of his car, scanning the people and waiting, his pulse pounding with a mixture of trepidation and hope.
When Viv and her parents emerged, Gene immediately moved forward.
“Viv.”
She looked his way, and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Her parents bracketed her on either side as if prepared for battle.
He came closer anyway, braving the wrath of Mama and Papa Bear.
“Viv, I’ve got to talk to you. Please. Just…just give me five minutes. After that, if you still want me to leave you alone, I will.”
Gene held out one hand, praying she would give him hers. His heart pounded as the seconds ticked by, but he kept his gaze locked on Viv’s face, ignoring the throng of the departing congregation who had lollygagged in an effort to watch.
Finally, she moved a bit and placed her hand in his. When their fingers touched, he felt the same zinging tingles he did every time. Judging by the way her eyes flared for a brief second, he knew that she felt them too. He just had to make her listen
!
Holding on to her hand, he gently tugged her over to the car. They stopped by the door and he turned her so that her back was to the disapproving stares of her parents.
“Viv…honey…I’m not sure what happened, but I want to get to the bottom of it,” he began. Vic had advised him to lay all his cards on the table and go for broke, so he took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “This wasn’t how I pictured saying the words the first time, but…Viv…I love you. I love you more than anyone or anything in the world. I’ve never been in love before, but I fell in love with you the first time we met. I…” he drew in another breath. “I kind of figured you knew how I felt…and I kind of thought you felt the same way. Please…tell me what that was about last night?”
Vivian’s eyes misted, but she didn’t pull away. He wished he knew what she was thinking. She seemed to be fighting to control her emotions. Finally, she gave a little. “That girl, Gene. She called you her boyfriend, and you didn’t argue with her…”
Gene shook his head, totally at a loss. “What girl, Viv?”
Exasperated, Viv flung an arm in the general direction of Indiana and snapped, “At that little store over in Jeffersonville, Gene – yesterday at about 11:00? That girl? I saw you with her. How can you say ‘What girl’? You both laughed when she made me drop the bottles and get grape soda all over my brand new pair of stockings!”
What in the world?? Gene grasped both of Vivian’s hands and looked her straight in the eyes. “Viv, I admit I was in Jeffersonville yesterday – about 9:30 in the morning. I dropped my roommate and his cousin off at his grandmother’s house, and then I stopped…at another store,” he paused for a moment, knowing that probably sounded guilty, “but then, I headed straight back over the bridge. I was in Louisville at 11:00. I swear it on my honor as a sergeant in the army of the United States – and as a gentleman.” He waited, searching her eyes. “How could I be in two places at once? You’ve got to believe me – I’m telling you the truth!”