ONE AND ONE AT THE FREE-THROW LINE
(A STORY OF TWO HALLOWEENS)
by Sagacious
(Note: This is set in the Backcourt Blues series and occurs
during the first story, “On The Rebound”)
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 would 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.
------------------------------------
“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 long 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.”