Circles in the Sand (25 page)

Clint, being no dummy where women were concerned, noticed her appearance immediately, and wondered if Dorris really wanted him over there. “Oh yes, ma’am. This’ll do just fine.”

“That’s good. The shower and toilet are just down the hall. Any time…you need anything…
anything at all
… please let me know.”

“I hope I won’t be any trouble for you and Ollie.”

“Oh don’t worry about a thing. It’ll be easy for me to check on your wound too.”

“I really appreciate you doing this. I’ll get on over to Gilman’s and collect my gear.”
Ho, boy. Wonder what this ol’ troop is getting into?

“Aw, she’s just an old flirt. Too old for me anyway.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Lance grinned. “Looks to me like she’s still built for action.”

Earlier, with his arm in a sling, Clint couldn’t carry much by himself. To move just cross the street didn’t require use of a vehicle, but he did need another arm or two, and both Lance and Rodger toted some items over for him. Clint introduced his friends to Ollie and Lilith. Ollie said, “You guys, and any of Clint’s other friends, feel welcome to visit over here. Our house is Clint’s house.”

“That’s right.” echoed Lilith, her face glowing.

Walking back to Gilman’s, Lance continued his assessment. “Hey buddy. Does Dorris know about Lilith. She can’t keep her eyes off you…hungry.”

“Well, moving was Dorris’ idea. To protect her reputation.”

“Yeah, well, who’s going to protect yours. Make sure there’s a lock on your bedroom door…unless you don’t want to.” Grinning, “Say, if you end up in Lilith’s clutches, can I have Dorris?”

“Hell no you can not. Don’t get carried away just because I’ve got a wound. Screw Lilith. Anyone else after Dorris will run into stiff resistance from this ol’ troop.”

“Just kidding, Buddy. Good luck.”

“If things get too hectic, I may have to set up my camper bed in Q-1, and hide out.”

News of Clint’s change of quarters sparked all kind of questions among the troops. At breakfast, Kline said to Lorena, “Rumor has it that our fearless leader has been kicked out of here. I gotta wonder…was it you…or your mom gave him the boot?”

“Mom said it was his own idea.”

“Just like that, huh. No reason. You sure you didn’t tell your mom what a brutal fellow he is, how he picks on defenseless maidens?”

“Hah, I bet he just wants to get away from you smart-alecks once in a while.”

“Maybe it was your mom, huh? Thought he was too fresh with her daughter?”

“Well, fresh face. What ever his reasons, no business of yours.” She turned to the new comers. “I hope you new guys are nice, not jerks like some in here.” She flounced off to the kitchen. The rest of the week flowed along uneventfully. Clint was doubly thankful for Rodger’s management of the work schedule. With plenty of cement and other materiel, including wire and fields phones, Rodger kept the troops busy. On Wednesday, one crew constructed the RADAR tower. Another crew set the posts in cement for the first spotter tower

From some distance away, Basil Tree studied progress in the bomb scoring site. He reported to Fritz. “They’ve erected a tower out there in the center. Not too tall, but easy to see. There’s some work going on southwest of it. Can’t tell what all they’re doing, but they got a red tractor out there.”

“Damn. They sure don’t quit. We need to keep on giving them a hard time. Anything, that causes delays, slows their work. If we can stall construction long enough, the Air Force might call it quits.”

“I’ll keep that in mind…and do what I can.”

“Just don’t get caught. When you gonna’ see Tawny again?”

“Soon as you pay me.”

Fritz fished a bill from his wallet. “Here’s fifteen on account. Sweet talk that whore. See what she knows about what they’re doing.”

“Sure boss. She’ll sing sweeter if I loosen her up with a couple of drinks.”

Fritz tapped his fingers on his desk. “Okay. Here’s another ten, just make damn sure most of it goes down her throat and not yours.”

Tree pocked the money and gleefully headed for a shower.
Being Thursday, I should be at the head of the line.

As soon as Basil entered the Boar Pen he headed to the bar. He ordered a draft from Marie-Elena. “Tawny around here tonight?”

Out of sight under the bar, Marie-Elena pressed a switch that triggered a buzzer in Tawny’s room. “Oh yes, she’s around here somewhere.”

Before Tree could ask if Tawny was free, she sidled up to him. “Hello, big boy. You’re  early this week.”

“Yeah, nice surprise, huh? How about a surprise drink?”

“Since you’re buying, how can I refuse? Gin and tonic,” she said to Marie-Elena.

“Yeah, since I’m flusher than usual, make that real gin.”

“Of course.” Marie-Elena said  as she loaded Tawny’s drink.

Not usually a talker, Tree relished the idea of being a spy. He and the two girls exchanged small talk. Tawny was on her third gin and tonic before Basil, trying to sound casual said, “I ain’t seen any of those Air Force jerks around here. Probably too cheap to spend any money.”

“Oh no.” Marie-Elena  said, “Some have come, come, get it, only once, but one of them is a real Casanova. All the girls are happy when he shows up.”

“Big spender…on Air Force pay?”

A happy face, Tawny said, “It’s Corporal Jewel. He looks like a little boy, but he’s not. He’s more man than most guys.”

“It’s his fascinating technique.” Marie-Elena said. She blushed. “I mean, that’s what they tell me anyway.”

“Hunh? What do you mean by that?”

Covering up, Marie-Elena shrugged. “Well they tell me he’s just fantastic in the sack. You’ll just have to ask one of the girls.” She turned away and fiddled around under the other end of the bar.  In Tawny’s room, Basil felt he hadn’t given her much of a performance.
Shouldn’t drink so much beforehand.
Lying there smoking a cigarette, he said, “Hey, now I’m curious as hell. What’s so good about that Air Force guy?”

“Oh well, it’s just his foreplay.”

“Foreplay? Hell I play with you. Before… You don’t rave over me, do you?”

“You’re not as expert as he is.”

“Bull shit. I can do anything he can do…and do it better!”

“If that’s so. You haven’t done it.”

“Okay, what is it that’s so wonderful? Don’t tell me he’s got a twelve inch dong…or four inches thick.”

“No, it’s not his dong.”

Puzzled, Basil turned toward Tawny and glared, “then just what the hell does he do?”

“Okay. If you promise to do it too, I’ll tell you how.”

“All right. Anything he can do, I can do too…and better.”

Tawny hooked her arm around Basil and whispered in his ear. “That’s what you have to do…now.” Basil paled under his sunburn. “That’s what he does before he fucks us. Dirty little bastard maybe knocked me up. I was so excited I didn’t know he didn’t use a rubber, until too late. In spite of that, he comes around pretty often. We like it so much he gets a reduced rate.”

“And that’s what you girls think is so great. I’ll be damned. I won’t do it. Any guy that would do that probably sucks cocks too.” He got dressed. “He do that to the other gals…without a rubber?”

“After he tricked me, they make him put one on first.”

“Hey, he do that to Marie-Elena too?”

Tawny gasped. Her face flushed. “Welll…I..I don’t think so… I don’t know!…
Can’t tell him
…Why don’t you ask her?”

I don’t want to ask her, but she sure sounded like she knew about it…first hand…If he did…did he fuck her too?
He left, slamming each door he went through.

Back at the ranch, Fritz wasn’t there. Next morning when Mrs. Deutsch finally appeared, she said Fritz had caught a train to Grand Eclipse. Wouldn’t be back for a few days.

Later, after she collapsed in her usual gin stupor, Basil invited Herman to the bunkhouse for more cowboy training.

“C mon. You need more practice to be a cowboy. You do want to be a cowboy, don’t you Herman?”

Herman’s face displayed his confusion. “Herman be cowboy. Bassl hurt Herman more?”

“So…it hurt a little. Cowboys don’t worry about a little hurt. I get hurt all the time, but I don’t even care. 

“Cowboy tool hurt Bassl?”

“No, no. I  never feel little hurt. Working on range sometimes I hurt hand or leg. Cowboys don’t notice little hurt. You be cowboy you can’t feel little hurt.” Seeing Herman’s troubled  face, he said, “You squirt cowboy juice good. Feel good to you?…Herman…squirt cowboy juice feel real good to you?”

The boy’s face screwed up again. “Yah…feel good. Cowboy tool hurt Herman.”

“Don’t worry, Herman. Only hurt first time. Next time only feel good when you squirt cowboy juice. Okay? You be real cowboy then.”

At McCunes, Lilith, nurse that she was, insisted on examining Clint’s wound every day. He thought she fussed more than necessary. Seemingly to him, she took advantage of the examination to touch him as much as possible. He didn’t voice his opinion. If she wanted to brush her breasts past his bare back or arm, he wouldn’t complain. He just acted like he didn’t notice. He heard her exasperated sigh after a particularly slow caress without any reaction from him.

After Lilith looked at Clint’s arm, she said, “It’s looking pretty good. I think we can dispense with the sling, but you still have to be careful with your arm. Bound to be stiff at first.”
He won’t be able to keep that between us anymore. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a sleeping man. Until now, there hasn’t been one around here that I wanted. I’ll have you, Clinton Greybull… tonight…for sure.

Damn sure don’t want to encourage her. Gees, doesn’t she know how flagrant she is? Good  thing Dorris doesn’t see any of Lilith’s ‘Tender Loving Care.’

“Clint, you know I have to fix breakfast every morning for Ollie.” She slid her hand on his shoulder. “It wouldn’t be any more trouble to feed you too.” Smiling into his eyes, “Why don’t you have breakfast with us too?”

“Gosh, that’s really generous of you Lilith, but breakfast is kind of an early assembly for the troops. I need to be there, particularly since I moved away from them.” He hurried out the door, hoping it didn’t look like he was fleeing.

Weary, Clint slept deeply that night. He dreamt of sex with Miriam…except…Miriam was never on top before.  But when he awoke it wasn’t Miriam’s body who was using him….but he really was awake…he wasn’t dreaming…and he really was being fucked by a woman…and he was helping her! He blurted, “Lore…” and caught himself. “Who?”

“Lilith, silly…don’t stop.”

No point in stopping now. Too late.
I’ll be sorry tomorrow, but not right now.
When he finished, she hadn’t, and stayed in place. He said, “How did you manage…”

“You were dreaming of me already. (
like hell I was!)
Nature just took it’s course.”

“Holy Cow! Are you crazy? You’ll get us in all kinds of trouble. Where’s Ollie?”

“Asleep. He won’t know I’m here. After a couple shots of bourbon, he all but passes out.”

Clint tried to slide out from under her. She held him fast into her. “In a moment, “ she said

“Whoa. You’ve put me in a bind. I don’t know what to think. But this has to be a one night stand. No repeats.”

‘That’s what you think, Sergeant Greybull.
(Clint had never heard of a succubus.)

Clint grasped her hips and lifted her off of him. “Hey! I don’t have a rubber on! You might get…”

“Pregnant? I hope so. Ollie will be so surprised. Nighty-night.” She kissed him and left.

Oh jeez, Sergeant Greybull, what kind of a mess are you in now?

The other airmen didn’t learn of Jewel’s technique until the following Saturday. Depressed, in a fit of pique, angry at Jewel for possibly impregnating her, Tawny told Kline. He didn’t really believe it. No one did that. He couldn’t talk about it at Gilman’s.

After lunch on Sunday, when he heard the NCOs were going out to Q-1 to work on some details, Kline volunteered to go along. Tony Elsas said, “When did you start offering to volunteer anything…except your big mouth?” Tony smiled, so Kline just shrugged.

After everyone settled down in the office, Kline said, “It’s a good thing all of the NCOs are here. I’ve heard something I can’t believe, but I gotta tell you.”

“If you don’t believe it, why you gotta tell us?” Tony Elsas said.

Since he had all of their attention, Kline told them Tawny’s story. He wished he had a camera on all of their faces.

“Not the first time I heard it.” Elsas said. Still puzzled, the others just looked at him. “Last year I was stationed at Nellis, Las Vegas that is. I hardly knew this guy. He bunked in the lower bay. Anyway, he claimed to be a writer of some sort, sported a white suit, had a head full of red hair. Young guy too, corporal. Anyway, damn near every Friday night he caught a bus to L.A. But get this. Every Sunday came back riding in a convertible driven by a stunning girl. Different one each time.

“Jealous as shit. Guys in the lower bay figured the only way he could be scoring like that, was if he was a pussy eater. They’d heard rumors of some guy in L.A. He lived with four starlets, who shared an apartment. He didn’t get to fuck them. They didn’t want to take a chance on getting pregnant. So for his room and board, and spending money, he had to go down on all four.”

Kline looked disbelieving, “At the same time?”

“No, dummy. How could he do that? Anyway, the guy in the white suit must be doing the same thing. One Sunday after the girl left, guys from lower bay ganged up on him, took his clothes off and gave him a GI shower with scrub brushes. When the First Shirt heard about it, they claimed they did it because he never took a shower, just doused himself in cologne…which I believe was true.”

“I don’t know what to think,” Patton said. “In any case, Jewel ain’t the first one that ever did it then.”

Clint sighed. “I don’t know. But I got things to do that are more important right now.”
Darned If I’m going to tell them what kept Miriam from straying too far. Good thing I didn’t do that to Lilith…she’d never let go. Wow! What a fiasco!…Ho boy…hope Doris never finds out. Would Lilith tell her? Wonder if I’ll ever get to do it to Dorris.