Revelation of Hearts (Stacey and Shane Mcleod, #3) Page 2

  “No,” he said with a frown.

  “Then I don’t believe I have to report to you,” she said.

  “She’s gotcha’ there, Captain,” the airman in the next bed said.

  While Lora did her early med-rounds in the ward, Captain Patterson could not keep his eyes off her. Lora could feel his eyes following her. She told herself; don’t even think of getting involved with him. He’s far too handsome and I’m sure he has women falling all over themselves vying for his attention.

  As Lora came to check on her ward before going off duty, a sergeant across from Captain Patterson said, “Hey, Nurse Flemming, the Captain here said, “He’s gonna marry you.”

  Lora turned around and looked at the captain, who had three WAF’s visiting, and said, “No sergeant, it would never work. I have no desire to live in a harem!” That set the whole ward chortling.

  On Friday, Captain Patterson was discharged. Lora rather hated to see him go. It had been fun bantering back and forth with him. She knew better than to take him seriously. She had been warned about, ‘These fly boys,’ when she came to work at the hospital. As Lora left the hospital at three-thirty who was waiting leaning against the fender of her old Ford Fairlane but Captain Michael Patterson.

  “You love this place so much you can’t leave it?”

  “No, Nurse Flemming, it’s you I love so much, I can’t leave you.”

  Lora looked all around and said, “You can, can that, Captain. There’s no audience here to hear.”

  “The only audience I want is standing right in front of me,” Captain Patterson said. “Come, have an early dinner with me.”

  Lora opened her car door, started to get in and then turned, “Captain, my momma didn’t raise no fool. I know you come from a big city back east and I’m just a little ole’ Texas girl from Dallas. I’ve had four years of nurses training. I know about the birds and the bees, and I have no intentions of being another notch on your belt.”

  Michael caught the door as she started to close it. “I know the birds and the bees thing, however, I’m not familiar with the notch on the belt, thing. I’ll be here waiting every afternoon until you agree to go out with me. I’m not a bad guy, honey. Hell woman, I’m one of the good guys.” Michael closed her car door and stepped back. Lora backed out and drove away.

  Lora went to the laundry-mat to do her washing and then home to starch and iron her uniforms. Her mind was on Captain Patterson the entire time. Lora told herself; stop this now. She knew she was attracted to him therefore she must nip-it-in-the-bud, so to speak.

  Every afternoon, for the next three days, Michael was waiting at her car. Each afternoon they talked a little bit longer. Tuesday was Lora’s day off. She wondered if he would show up anyway. She had just returned home from the laundry-mat when Michael pulled in behind her. Lora just stood and looked at him.

  “I have you surrounded, so invite me in,” he said with a grin. “As you can see I’m not wearing a belt.” He opened his bomber jacket to show her and then took the laundry basket from her hands.

  “Well, come on in,” Lora invited him, laughing. Michael helped her by putting her towels and sheets away. When he got to her dainties, he smiled as she took the basket.

  “I’ll put those away,” she said.

  They talked while she ironed two of her uniforms, then they went to eat at the drive-in, just outside the east gate. When he took her home, he asked, “Am I going to scare you off if I kiss you?”

  “No,” she said. “I really don’t scare that easily.”

  Lora had been wondering what his kiss would feel like. She had dated a normal amount and had been kissed before many times, but none of her previous experiences had prepared her for the breath taking, light headed, feeling Michael’s kiss had made her feel. She was speechless and tingling all over. When she could focus again, Michael was smiling at her. She stepped back away from him and said, “I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

  Michael looked at her confused, then in his flamboyant way said, “Good god woman, don’t tell me my kiss was that bad.”

  “No Captain, I’m sure you know exactly what your kisses are like. I’m sure you’re very experienced,” Lora said.

  “Why are you calling me Captain again?” Michael asked, “And yes, I’ve kissed women before, but I’ve never felt what I felt with you just now. You said my kiss wouldn’t scare you off.” When Lora didn’t say anything, he asked, “Has some man hurt you before?”

  “No Michael, that’s what I’m trying to avoid now.”

  “Baby, all I want to do is love you and marry you.”

  “Let me think about it,” Lora said.

  “Fine honey, think about it but don’t take too long,” Michael said. “There’s a war on out there.” He pulled Lora to him and kissed her again, then walked to his car, backed out and drove away.

  Lora could hardly sleep for thinking about Michael. She remembered the old adage, ‘Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.’

  The next day at three-thirty, Michael was waiting for her at her car. “Will you go out to dinner with me?” he asked. He was dressed in his uniform and was so handsome it made her weak in the knees.

  “I’ll pick you up at seven,” he said.

  He was there at seven on the dot. Lora knew he had been sitting out front for almost twenty minutes. When she opened the door, the look on Michael’s face told her volumes.

  “My god woman, you’re beautiful. You look like a young Susan Hayward!”

  Lora was dressed in a tan wool skirt with a green sweater and double-breasted jacket to match. Her red hair was just past her shoulders in a flip.

  “I hope you don’t mind,” Michael said, “we’re going to the Officers club. I want to show you off.”

  “I don’t think I wanna be shown off. I’m not a prize or am I?” Lora asked, suspiciously

  “No, sweetheart,” he said, “I was joking. I’m on stand-by alert, and I can’t leave the base for long, actually,

  I’m not supposed to leave it at all for the next forty-eight hours.”

  “I really know very little about the military.” Lora said. “For what are you standing-by?”

  Michael grinned and explained, “I fly B-52 bombers. This is a SAC base, (Strategic Air Command) we might be called up at any time therefore we have to be packed and ready to go on short notice.”

  “To where?” Lora asked, “Viet Nam?”

  “Possibly,” Michael said, “Or someplace else in Southeast Asia.”

  Michael and Lora had dinner at the officer’s club, and then danced to a swing band. Michael told Lora all about himself and how he came straight out of college into the Air Force. He already knew how to fly as his dad was a pilot in the Korean War and had taught him how to fly when he was sixteen. His dad now lived in Alaska where he was a bush pilot. His mom and dad were divorced and his mom had remarried to a college professor in New Hampshire. He had three younger siblings. A brother Charles age eighteen and twin sisters Jan and Joy age fifteen. Michael had just turned twenty-six on the fourteenth of October.

  Lora told Michael about her life, but it sounded dull compared to his. He had spent many of his summers in Alaska with his dad. “Do you ski?” Michael asked.

  “No,” Lora said. “Where would I do that, on the banks of the Trinity?”

  Michael chortled at Lora and said, “After we’re married I’ll take you to New Hampshire and teach you how to ski, ice skate and toboggan.”

  “It all sounds grand,” Lora said, “but you’re taking a lot for granted, aren’t you?”

  “No, I’m going to marry you. Don’t you feel it too, this magic between us?” Michael said as he kissed her hand.

  Lora wasn’t about to tell him, but yes, she felt it too. She was happy and content in his arms as they danced late into the night. When Michael took her home, he asked, “If I kiss you are you going to go ballistic on me again?”

  “Well, you never know until you t
ry Captain,” Lora teased him with a smile. This time Lora allowed her emotions to guide her. She put her arms around him and let her body melt into his. He kissed her long and slow. As he pulled away, he said, “Baby we gotta get married soon. You’re killing me, but what a way to die.”

  Two days later the alert was canceled. Michael called to tell Lora, he might not see her for a couple of days. They were doing fly-a-rounds, but he would be out as soon as he could get off base again. Two days later Michael was at her door on Tuesday morning. Lora called her parents and told them, she had a lot to do and would see them next week. Michael came with ring in hand. “Will you marry me?” he asked. “When I have to leave again baby, I need to know you’ll be here waiting for me.”

  This time Lora said, “Yes.” Lora knew she loved Michael and she wasn’t going to hold back. She took his hand and led him to the bedroom. “Are you sure?” Michael asked.

  “Yes, but you’ll have to guide me through; I’m not sure what to do.”

  Michael knew exactly what to do. He was gentle tender and loving. He took her to sensual heights she had read about but never experienced. Later, as Lora lay in his arms, he asked, “When do we get married?”

  “Will your family come, if we send invitations?”

  “Yes, I think so, I’ll call and ask. I’ve told them about you already.”

  “You have!” Lora said with surprise. “I guess I better take you to meet my folks then.”

  True to her word, Lora’s next day off she took Michael to meet her parents. The meeting went amazingly well. Michael wore his uniform. His demeanor and sincerity was very impressive. Lora couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

  Michael talked with his mom in New Hampshire and his dad in Alaska. Lora talked with both of her brothers. It seemed June would be the best time for everyone, so Michael and Lora made wedding plans for June. They spent every minute that they could together. They had six weeks of talking, loving, laughing and just being happy in each other’s arms.

  The first week in March, Michael broke the news that he would be going TDY in a week. “What’s TDY?” Lora asked.

  “It means temporary duty,” Michael explained. “Some of my squadron is going to Guam for three months. We’ll be back in June, and then we’ll get married.”

  Lora had met a few air force wives. She knew they lived in dread of their husbands being sent to Viet Nam, so she guessed she was lucky that Michael was just going to Guam for three months. For the next few weeks, Lora and Michael loved passionately and slept in each other’s arms. Lora wasn’t aware of the danger of this mission, however, Michael was. He didn’t tell Lora, because he didn’t want her to worry.

  On the morning of March tenth, Michael kissed her goodbye and said, “I’ll see you in June.”

  Michael was so good about writing. The first week, Lora received four letters. The second week she received nothing and that worried her, but the third week she received five letters in one day. Her air force friends told her, “That’s how it is when your guy is over seas. Sometimes you won’t get a letter for days at a time, then one day you’ll get a whole backlog in one day.”

  The weeks went by slowly. Lora kept herself busy with work and visiting her parents. She loved visiting them. They always wanted to hear how Michael was doing. Talking about him always seemed to bring him closer.

  Chapter-4

  Lost loves

  On May sixteenth, at eleven p.m. Lora received a phone call from the Dallas police. Her father was dead; he was shot and robbed as he closed the drug store at ten p.m. Her mother was in a bad way, could she come right away. Lora made a couple of phone calls and was on her way to Dallas to her mother. Bradley, her oldest brother, assured her that he and his wife Jackie would be in Dallas within a matter of hours.

  When Lora arrived at her parent’s house, her mother was asleep. She’d been given a sedative and a nurse was with her. A police officer was there too. He asked many questions but that Lora couldn’t answer, she felt numb. How could this be, she kept asking herself? What kind of maniac would do a thing like this? Lora spent what was left of the night by her mother’s bedside in a rocking chair.

  Bradley and Jackie arrived early that evening. They had left the children with her parents and had driven straight through. Douglas would be up from Lake Charles sometime in the afternoon. The loss of this good man was a catastrophe to all of them. The funeral was on Saturday. Their mother told them the house was heavily mortgaged. They all felt guilty because they knew it had been mortgaged to help pay for their education. Bradley and Jackie asked his mother to come home with them. She seemed so hurt and lost they didn’t want to leave her alone.

  “No my darlings,” she said, “but thank you for asking. I must stay here and make arrangements to sell the house and the drug store.”

  Lora stayed a week with her mother and helped all she could, then went back to work. She had three letters from Michael, and then she heard from him no more. About a week later, Lora was just getting off duty when Michael’s squadron commander, Colonel Devon, came to see her. “I wanted to talk to you before you hear it from someone else,” the colonel said.

  “What?” Lora asked. “It’s Michael, isn’t it? Tell me, please!”

  “Captain Patterson’s plane didn’t return to base,” Colonel Devon said. “He and his crew are missing-in-action.”

  “How can that be? He’s in Guam,” Lora asked with tears in her eyes.

  The colonel explained to her, “That’s where they fly missions out of to Viet Nam.”

  Lora latched on to the only hope she had left. “Then you don’t know for sure he’s...you said, missing-in-action that means he could still be alive.”

  The colonel felt sorry for this young woman. He knew how much Captain Patterson was in love with her. He didn’t want to dash her hopes. Sometimes that’s all you have. “Yes,” he said, “There’s always that possibility.”

  Lora knew from the look on the colonel’s face, he didn’t put much hope in that possibility. Well she would; there was no way God would take her father and Michael in the same month. How much did he think a woman could stand? On Lora’s next day off, she went to see her mother. Mary Beth knew something was drastically wrong when she saw her daughter’s face. Lora’s mother held her in her arms as she told her about Michael. The month of June came and went. There was no news of Captain Patterson or his crew. As the weeks, passed by Lora struggled to hold on to hope. She spent so much time on her knees praying, that sometimes it was painful to walk. Lora’s mother called to tell her she had sold the house and the drug store and was going to put the furniture in storage. She was very quiet for a bit, and then asked, “Sweetheart, may I stay with you for awhile, until I decide what I’m going to do?”

  “Yes, of course, Mom,” Lora said, “but as you know the apartment is small.”

  Lora talked with Dorothy. She told her that her mother would be with them for a week or so. That it would be best if her boyfriend, Matt did not stay over while her mother was with them. It was no hardship for Lora giving up her bedroom. She had not slept in her bed since the colonel had told her about Michael missing-in-action. There were just too many memories.

  She remembered how Michael would run his fingers through her hair and tell her she was his fiery beauty. That he was glad she didn’t spray that gunk in her hair. Lord, she missed him so. Her mind and body ached for him. Her mother seemed to understand when Lora told her, “I’m really more comfortable on the sofa.” One day it dawned on Lora, if I see my mother as Mary Beth Flemming, and not as my mother, I’m sure she is feeling much the same as I am. I know she loved my dad.

  Bradley, asked his mother again, to come stay with them. “Maybe later on, darling, I think Lora and I can help each other right now.”

  “Okay Mom, just let us know, when and how, we can help.” One afternoon when Lora came home from work, her mother seemed to be preoccupied, and asked, “Sweetheart, what do you think about us moving to Houston? I know every time
you see a man in uniform it reminds you of Michael. I feel sure Bradley and Jackie could use our help.”

  Lora thought it over, but what if Michael came back and she wasn’t here? She talked to Michael’s Colonel, and then gave two weeks notice at the hospital. She left her forwarding address with Colonel Devon, the base hospital and Dorothy. Lora wrote to Michael’s mom and dad to tell them she was moving and where she could be reached. She sold her old car, then she and her mother headed to Houston.

  They arrived in Houston on August tenth. Bradley and Jackie had a four-bedroom house and five kids. Lora and her mother would share a bedroom. Mary Beth had a few thousand dollars from Winston’s insurance. Very little was left after everything was paid.

  “I know it’s crowded here darling,” Mary Beth said. “We’ll stay here just long enough to find us a place of our own.”

  They had been there three weeks when the house caught on fire in the middle of the night. Thank god, they all got out safely, but with only the clothes on their backs. Bradley took them all to a hotel. The fire chief called ahead so the hotel would admit them. The Red Cross came and brought each person a change of clothes. That same afternoon a patient of Bradley’s, a Mr. Barrington came and took the entire family to his house. It was a big bluish, gray granite mansion with white columns.

  “Talk about going from rags to riches,” Lora told her mother.

  Mr. Barrington, and his chauffeur Mr. Mosses, actually seemed happy to have them there. The place was huge and it easily accommodates all of them. Bradley and Jackie have five kids. The older boys, Daniel and David, age eleven are twins. Jessica, nine, Suzanne, five and Tracy age two.

  Mary Beth took right over. She told Mr. Barrington, “Thank you for your most uncommon hospitality. What can we do for you, sir?”

  “Dear lady, just having you here brightens up my life.”

  Mary Beth went to Mr. Mosses and asked what he had in the freezer? She found a chicken and a small beef roast. She told him, “I can manage supper; however, we’ll need to go grocery shopping tomorrow.”

  Jackie had her hands full with the children, so Lora and her mom took over the cooking. Mr. Barrington and Mr. Mosses sat with grins on their faces as Mary Beth served roast beef and roasted chicken with creamed potatoes, corn, green beans and a peach cobbler for dessert.