A Loop in Time (7 page)

When Susan got to work, even more casualties from Vietnam had arrived. The retaking of the highway was costing more than expected. A group of them had run straight into an ambush and gotten decimated. Those lucky enough to be still alive were filling up the wards of the hospital.

Susan started in right away changing bloody bandages. It was an all day process. The next day would come the operations where they would patch up the soldiers as best as they could. It would be someone else’s turn for changing the bandages.

She was dead on her feet by the time lunch came around. She sat down next to Mary, one of the other nurses. On bandage changing day Susan would not eat because the sight of mangled flesh upset her stomach. She thought that she would adapt over the years, but, if anything, it was getting worse.

With just a cup of coffee, Susan’s tray looked empty compared to Mary’s, who always had a large appetite. No one could figure out why she stayed so petite.

“I hear you went on a date with Doctor Ralston.”

“Oh, yeah. He probably dates all the nurses,” Susan replied.

“I wish. He’s so debonair, a real gentleman. No, silly, he only has eyes for you.”

Susan blushed a little. She had no idea. “What makes you say that?”

“I hear him and the others doctors talking when I am in the back. He is just head over heels for you. He’s really jealous that you are living with that amnesia guy.”

“His name is John, and we are not living together. He’s just there until he gets on his feet.”

“Sure, sure.” Mary replied. “But you know what they say about temptation. The closer it is, the easier it is to fall. I wish I would have offered him a room at my place. He’s a hunk.”

Susan got up. She didn’t like how the conversation began and she sure wasn’t comfortable with where it was going. “I need to get back to work,” she said as she headed back out onto the floor.

The second half of the day didn’t go much better and by the time she got home she was exhausted. As she entered her front door she could smell something wonderful cooking on the stove. “What is that?” she asked John as she entered.

“I found a recipe in your cook book. It’s Texas Chili. I hope I didn’t make it too spicy.”

She grabbed a spoon and dipped it right into the pot. She blew on it to cool it and then tasted it. “Yum, that is amazing. I will have to mark that recipe.”

“I’ll get some bowls,” John said and then the two of them sat down to eat.

“This is good.”

“Thank you. I thought that since I wasn’t working, and you were, that I would have dinner ready for you when you got home.”

“It’s wonderful.” Susan could not get the lunch conversation out of her head. “Do you like it here?” she asked.

“Yes, it’s great. You are good company. I know that I will have to leave as soon as I have enough money for an apartment.”

“Another one of the nurses has offered you a place to stay. I’m pretty sure the no hanky panky rule would not apply at her place.”Susan just blurted it out. She wanted to see what effect it would have on John.

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” John looked hurt.

“No, no, of course not. There was just an offer made and I thought that I would tell you about it.”

“I don’t really want to get passed around by the nurses as a fresh piece of meat. No, I will stay here, if that is all right, until I have enough to pay for an apartment.”

The conversation fell off at that point. Susan felt horrible for even bringing up the subject.

When he started watching television while sitting on the couch, she went and sat beside him. He wasn’t talking so she decided to get his attention by snuggling close. He still didn’t react, so she picked up his arm and put it around her shoulders.

He turned and smiled and then pulled her a little closer. She reached up and pulled his face towards her own and gave him a mad passionate kiss. He responded by putting both of his arms around her.

It was then that she realized what she was doing. It upset her that she had let it get this far and stood up from the couch. “You men are all alike, give you an inch and you want a mile.” She then stormed off to the bedroom and slammed the door.

John sat there totally stunned. He wondered why it had gotten passionate and then why it stopped. He was fairly sure of one thing, however. It wasn’t his fault. After getting up from the couch he walked to her bedroom and flung open the door. “What just happened?”

She was already in her underwear and getting ready for bed when he barged in. She let out a small squeak and then grabbed a blanket to wrap herself up in.

“What?” she asked trying to maintain her composure.

“That’s what I want to know. That was the best kiss I have ever had, of course it could have been the worse kiss. I don’t know. I do know that it was feeling good and then I got yelled at for something you started.”

“Uh, I, um,” she stammered.

“I am thinking you have a fear of commitment. Tell me what is going on.”

He said it in such a gentle way that she decided to tell him the truth. “I do. My twin brother and I were abused by an alcoholic father. My mother did not dare intervene because he nearly killed her a time or two. Then when we were sixteen years old, we took off. We ran away from home. We managed to live on our own for a couple of years, with the help of relatives, but it wasn’t a life. Moving all the time as we wore out our welcome. I finally had had enough. I told my brother that I was going to join the Army. At least they would give me a place to stay.

“He didn’t want any part of it, so we split ways. I headed west and he headed east. That was the last time I saw him. I tried to look up my mother but I found out that she was dead. My father had finally killed her. He is in prison now and will be the rest of his life. I am afraid of marrying a man like my father. I don’t trust men. I should not have led you on. It was a heat of the moment type thing and I am sorry.”

John stood in the doorway not knowing what to say. He finally got out, “I am sorry for your loss.” It wasn’t enough but it was all he had.

“Do you mind shutting the door? I am not very well dressed.”

It changed the mood and he turned a little red. “Oh, sorry,” he said as he shut the door.

She barely slept that night because she was feeling guilty and frustrated. Her father was still affecting her after all these years. Why had she thought that every man was going to turn out like him? She could not sleep at all so she got up and grabbed a book and read the rest of the night.

John lay down on the hard mattress. He had worn out his welcome and now he had to find a way to get out and leave her alone. Men were evil in her mind and he was a man.

The next day, John sat in his bedroom listening to the noises of Susan getting ready for work. He didn’t come out until he heard the front door close and then he got dressed and left. The first order of business was getting a Social Security card. He used Lieutenant Granger’s trick and it worked admirably. He had one in less than an hour.

He then went down and bought a newspaper to see how much apartments were. He also noticed the car ads. It only cost a little over two thousand dollars for a brand new Ford Mustang. There was no way he could afford one on his part time salary. He sat there dejected. He was so trapped. He then toyed with the idea of going to live with Susan’s nursing friend, but he didn’t even know who she was and he was quite sure he didn’t want to get into a bad situation with another woman.

After throwing the paper away, he went over to the hardware store to show his boss his new Social Security card. When he arrived there his boss was glad to see him.

“Hey, I had one of the girls call in sick. Do you want to take her shift?”

“No problem,” John replied. He was actually quite excited to get some extra money. “Oh, by the way, do you know of an apartment for rent? I need a new place.”

“Yes, across town. A friend of mine has a place for $200 a month.”

“Can I afford that on my wages?” John already knew the answer, but he wanted Chuck to think about it.

“No.” There was no hesitancy at all. “Wait, though, I have an uncle who has a small spot over his garage. He is looking for a renter there. Maybe he will charge a hundred a month or so. You can just squeak enough to get that place.”

“Great. After work, point me in the right direction.”

“Yeah, sure.”

It was a long day for John. At the end of it, Chuck introduced him to his uncle Bill. Bill was a small man with grey hair and a slight limp. He had a lot of laugh lines in his wrinkled face.

John looked at the apartment. It was small, only one room with a bathroom off to the side. There was a lot of junk stored in the one room and he just assumed that he would have to work his way around all of the stuff. Still he needed a place and this was all he could afford, if indeed he could afford it. “I’ll take it,” he said to Bill.

“Great,” Bill seemed genuinely happy to have him there.

After Chuck left, Bill got John aside, “He wanted me to pay him a finder’s fee for locating a renter. I told him to get lost.”

John laughed, “He is a bit of a cheapskate isn’t he?”

“A bit? No, he’s a cheapskate through and through. I don’t know how much he is paying you, but I know it isn’t much, so for the first two months the rent is free. After that, it’s fifty dollars a month, but there is one condition.”

Fifty a month sounded affordable. John was happy. “What is the condition?”

“I travel a lot and I need someone to kinda keep an eye on the house. In exchange for cheap rent, I need you to be a watch dog.”

“No problem. When can I move in?”

“Give me two days to get it all cleaned out, then you can move in anytime you want. Do you have a lot of stuff?”

That was good news that he was going to clean out the place. John had to admit though, “All I have it three shirts and two pair of pants.”

“Oh, dear, well it’s good that I have a bed up here then. I have an old couch I was looking to get rid of but I will put it up here instead. I guess it’s time to buy Mrs. Bill a new pot and pan set. I will bring her old stuff up here also. You should be all set.”

“Thank you very much.”

John was excited as he walked across town. He didn’t know how Susan would take the news. He was hoping that she was not going to be too excited about it. When he arrived home dinner was already on the table.

“Where have you been?” was the first thing out of her mouth.

“I ended up working. The food smells wonderful. What is it?” He wasn’t ready to tell her about the apartment yet.

“It’s just hamburgers,” she replied. “I don’t smell anything at all.”

That did not work as he had planned.

“Oh, by the way, Doctor Ralston called. He has some paperwork for you saying that you have been diagnosed with amnesia. It should help you get your Social Security card or identification for a driver’s license. I told him you would call him back as soon as you got in.”

“Oh, okay,” he said. He started looking around for a phone. He had never seen her on it before so he didn’t know where one was.

She saw his dilemma. “It’s by my bed. You can use it, as long as you don’t comment on my messy bedroom.”

“Thanks,” he said and after getting a phone number he walked into her room. He pushed all of the numbers n the rotary phone, but nothing happened. He had to sit and stare at the phone for a minute trying to figure out what he did wrong.

Susan noticed he was taking a while. She thought to herself, ‘he had better not be going through my underwear.’

When she turned the corner to her room she stood in the doorway and watched him stare at the phone. Every once in a while he would push on a number and then scratch his head.

She went up to him, “Is there a problem? Don’t tell me they don’t have phones in the future.”

“Just tell me how it works, please.” John was impatient by this time.

“You pick up the receiver and then put your finger on the number you want and then rotate it up to the silver stop there.”

John tried what she had suggested and was delighted when it worked. He was just a little embarrassed that he could not figure it out for himself. “Thank you!”

After making arrangements with Doctor Ralston to pick up his paperwork, John went out and sat down for dinner. As they were eating he told her, “Good news. I have found a place to live. I will be out of your hair in just two days.”

She got wide eyed but managed to say, “Good.” It was only momentary control because she soon burst into tears and went running into her bedroom. She looked at the bag of stuff on her dresser that she had bought on the way home from work. Grabbing the bag she pulled out the blue negligee and wadded it up and threw it into the corner. She wasn’t going to need that tonight after all. ‘So much for hanky panky,’ she muttered to herself.

John was completely dumbfounded. He waited for her to come back out, but she didn’t, choosing instead to read herself to sleep. It wasn’t long in coming after being up all night the night before. He finished his burger and then watched television before retiring for the night, still wondering what he had done wrong.