Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel (7 page)

"I came home on vacation from college and
went to church with my parents,” Jim says. “We had a visit from
another church, and Kim was singing in the visiting choir. At the
church social afterwards I asked her out right away."

"You didn't waste any time, did you?" Robert
says.

Kim glances at her hands, then smiles. "We
dated steadily from then on. As soon as I finished high school, we
got married."

Jim puts his arm around Kim. "I wanted her at
college with me. I didn't want to wait until I finished."

Sharon smiles back. "Robert and I met at a
..." – Robert's eyes signal her – "... college event. We disagreed
with each other."

"And that's what attracted me to her," Robert
says.

Sharon turns to Kim. "Robert and I went to a
grocery store on Dixie Highway. I couldn't believe how few kinds of
meat there were. I was trying to find lamb or even beef. I couldn't
even find any brisket."

"What's brisket?"

"You've never heard of brisket?"

Kim shakes her head.

"It's a beef cut, sort of like shoulder
roast, that you cook for a long time with potatoes."

"It's a popular Jewish dish," Robert
adds.

"You're Jewish?" Jim asks.

As Robert nods his head, Sharon watches Kim
look around the small living room, then her eyes return to her
hands. "We've never been to the home of any Jews before," Kim says.
"We didn't really know any back home."

Sharon’s hands prickle. Are they staring at
her and Robert to check for horns, the erroneous and pervasive myth
dating back to Michelangelo? When Michelangelo carved his famous
statue of Moses, he relied on the Vulgate Latin Bible
mistranslation of the Hebrew word that could mean "ray of light" or
"horn." Michelangelo erred by portraying Moses with horns
protruding from his forehead rather than his face aglow with rays
of light – the actual Hebrew Bible description. Michelangelo’s
mistaken portrayal of Moses with horns started the myth about Jews,
causing ignorant people even today to sometimes ask Jews "Do you
have horns?"

"There aren't any Jews in your town?" Robert
asks.

"There may be, we just don't know any," Jim
says. "I'm sure if we did, we'd like them."

Sharon sits immobilized, experiencing deja vu
from her freshman lit course. A similar sentiment was said to her
by a student of Lebanese descent from Detroit: "Now that I know
you're Jewish I like Jews."

Robert cuts into the silence. "Listen, Sharon
and Kim, I had an idea today when I realized how close we live to
each other. I already discussed it with Jim. Suppose we carpooled?
That way, Jim and I would drive together each day and you two would
have a car. What do you think?"

Oh no! Sharon would be sharing a car for the
nine weeks of AOB class with a stranger – a Christian Southerner!
Kim seems nice, but will they have anything in common?

The alternatives – being without a car all
day or driving back and forth twice a day to drop off and pick up
Robert from the post – are also unappealing. Maybe she can try out
the carpooling arrangement. If it doesn't work, she'll think of
something to get out of it. "Sounds okay to me," she says.

Kim turns to her husband. "I already told
Robert I thought it was a good idea," Jim tells her. "There's
safety in numbers." Kim nods her head. "Just don't go to the ice
cream parlor. It's in the troop area."

What ice cream parlor? And why can't they go
there?

Before Sharon can ask, Robert says, "Let's
start tomorrow. Jim can drive the two of us in the morning. After
lunch Sharon can pick Kim up and the two of you can go to the PX
together."

Sharon nods her agreement; she isn't going to
disagree with him publicly. Has being on active duty for one day
gone to Robert's head? He's already giving orders, dictating where
she should go.

Jim says, "Remember Kim and Sharon will have
to make plans the day before since we don't have a phone."

No phone? Robert gives Sharon a look that
clearly says: Don't ask.

Robert claps his hands together. "And now
that we've got that settled, do you guys play bridge?"

Kim and Jim shake their heads.

"We'll teach you."

**

The next day Sharon drives the couple of
blocks to Kim and Jim's apartment, which is actually just behind
her own complex and could be reached on foot across an open field.
Large trees circle the small parking lot facing a single two-story
apartment building.

Kim opens the door of her first-floor
apartment. "Come on in," she says.

Sharon smiles at her, then shrieks. The white
furry creature in Kim's hand jumps down and runs towards the back
of the apartment.

Kim laughs, her short blond curls swirling
around her face. "I didn't mean to scare you. That's just my pet
white rat – Squeaky."

"A rat?" Sharon's eyes dart to the floor,
checking for stray vermin.

"He's harmless. He was bred for laboratory
tests and I rescued him. He keeps me company."

Kim motions for Sharon to sit down while she
searches for Squeaky. When Kim brings him back, cradled in her hand
again, Sharon asks, "Do you think you could put him in his cage –
he does have a cage, doesn't he? – for now? I'm sort of afraid of
animals."

Kim laughs again. "That means you don't want
to pet him?"

"No, thanks."

While Kim puts Squeaky in the bedroom, Sharon
looks around the front part of the apartment. This furnished
apartment is basically no different than hers, and there aren't any
personal signs of the individuals living here, just as there aren't
in her apartment, except for some miniature figures set up on the
floor near the coffee table. Metal soldiers in blue uniforms and
other metal soldiers in grey uniforms face each other, cannons and
horses lined up on both sides. Is it a reenactment of a Civil War
battle?

Kim returns without Squeaky. "Would you like
some Coca-Cola? It could be 7-up or Coke."

"I'd like a Coke. It certainly is hot
out."

Kim brings out two Cokes and hands Sharon
one.

Now what? Sharon thinks. What can they talk
about?

Family. People always like to talk about
their family.

"Did your parents object to your coming here
with Jim?" Sharon asks.

A blush rises up Kim's neck."I don't have any
parents. I'm an orphan."

Yikes! Sharon has put her foot in her mouth
already. When will she learn not to ask personal questions? "I'm
sorry," she says.

"It was a long time ago. My sister and I were
raised in foster homes, and the church was kind of our family.
That's why I sang in the choir."

Oh, yes, Kim met Jim when she was singing in
the choir. "You must have a beautiful voice."

Kim smiles. "It's passable. I was never a
soloist."

Unsure of what else to talk about, Sharon
asks, "Are you ready to go to the PX now? Do you have your ID?"

Kim nods, then says, "Something happened a
couple of days ago. I'm not very comfortable going places
here."

"What happened?"

Kim looks out the window, then back at
Sharon. "I ... I went to that little store up the road to get some
things. And ... and a soldier shot the clerk dead right in front of
me."

A shiver runs up Sharon’s spine. "How did it
happen?"

Kim averts her face. "It just did."

Sharon hesitates to take Kim's hands to show
sympathy – it may be too forward. Instead she says, "That's
terrible! Yet it's obviously a freak thing – it's not going to
happen again. We'll be okay at the PX."

Then she lightly touches Kim's hands.

Kim looks up, her eyes bright, and lets out
her breath. "I'll go with you."

Now Kim walks towards the bedroom and comes
back with her purse. "Are we dressed okay?"

Sharon nods. They both wear skirts and
blouses, although Sharon's skirt ends considerably higher above her
knees than Kim's. Certainly this is a long way from the required
"to-the-knee or below" skirts of junior high, where the principal
made Sharon kneel down in the library to prove her skirt touched
the floor. Sharon wonders whether Kim's skirt length is
modesty-inspired or just out-of-fashion.

They get into the Fiat. "Do you mind the top
down?” Sharon says. “It's somewhat cooler."

Kim shakes her head, and Sharon backs the car
out of the space.

"Your apartment is nice," Sharon says. "Did
you have a hard time finding it?"

"It was the first one we saw."

"You don't know how lucky you are," Sharon
says, then proceeds to describe the experiences she and Robert
had.

"We really are lucky," Kim says when Sharon
finishes.

They approach the entrance to Ft. Knox. Now
that Robert has put the student status tag on the Fiat’s bumper
they are waved right through.

"What kind of game was that in your living
room?" Sharon asks.

“It's a military strategy game,” Kim says.
“Jim likes to play these games, taking the part of both
armies."

Does Jim approve of war, including the one in
Vietnam? Is he anxious to fight over there to test out his military
strategies? And is this part of the Southern military culture?

Sharon doesn't know Kim well enough to ask
these questions – and she certainly doesn't want to put her foot in
her mouth again. She also refrains from asking Kim why she and Jim
have no phone and what Jim meant about the ice cream parlor. Right
now her relationship with Kim is too fragile.

Sharon locates the PX, another one of the
wooden frame buildings. At the top of the entrance steps a young
black enlisted man in starched fatigues and shiny combat boots
walks out of the door, sees them, and holds the door open. Sharon
smiles at him as they pass.

They enter the PX and Kim turns to Sharon.
"Did you see that? He was looking at us!"

"He was what?"

"Looking at us!" Kim hisses.

"He was just holding the door for us, being
polite."

Kim's eyes flash her anger.

"Was the man black who shot the clerk?"
Sharon asks.

"He was white. This has nothing to do with
that." Kim strides off.

Sharon catches up with Kim in the towel
department. Yves Saint Laurent towels in black and brown stripes
and in blue and black stripes occupy a table. "These are terrific
prices," Sharon says to Kim by way of making up. "The person who
ordered these probably doesn't even know that Yves Saint Laurent is
a famous designer."

Kim turns to her. "Have you ever been to the
South?"

"No. Have you ever been to the North?"

"No." Kim fingers a towel. "We think of this
as the North, Kentucky that is."

The North! That can't be! This is the South!
Sharon opens her mouth to say something when she looks at Kim's
serious face. Some things are better left unsaid.

Sharon picks up several towels with matching
hand towels and washcloths in both color patterns. It still bothers
Sharon that her mother didn’t buy her towels and bed linen for a
wedding trousseau. “You’ll be moving around so much in the army.
Wait until you’re settled.” Sharon still wonders whether this is
disguised punishment for marrying a man just before he enters the
army.

"I hope Robert likes these," she says to Kim.
"We don't have many towels."

As Sharon walks to the checkout counter she
tries to remember whether Kentucky was part of the Confederacy or
did it stay with the Union? If only she remembered her high school
American history course better. Because she would love to know
whether at this moment she stands in the South or the North.

**

Robert arrives home that evening holding an
envelope. "Believe it or not," he says, handing her the envelope,
"there's an orientation coffee to welcome the wives of the AOB
class. Typical army. After not even telling us you could come,
there's actually an official function for the wives."

Sharon reads the paper inside. The typed
invitation requests the pleasure of the company of the wives of the
members of the AOB class at an orientation coffee in their honor
the next day at Quarters One, Fifth Avenue – the home of the
commanding general.

"Will you go?" Robert asks, putting his arms
around her.

Regardless of her feelings about the army,
Robert wants her to be a part of his new life. "It's Kim's turn to
have the car tomorrow, so I'll go if she does."

"Then you'd better see if she'll go." He
kisses her and releases her.

Since the Bentons don't have a phone, she has
to drive over there now or walk over first thing in the morning.
She isn't sure what her welcome will be. Kim was pleasant after the
incident at the PX. Yet when Sharon dropped her off at her
apartment afterwards, Kim didn't invite her in or make plans for
tomorrow.

Sharon glances around the living room of the
small apartment. She can't stage a sit-in, refusing to budge. And
Sharon reminds herself of her liberal principles – not judging
someone on one small incident.

“I'm not sure she wants to spend time with
me,” Sharon says.

Robert throws her a questioning look. Sharon
hesitates before continuing, “In fact, I don't know if the carpool
thing will work."

"Why not?" Robert sits down on the couch.

Sharon tells him what happened in the PX,
then asks, "Why is she so upset about black men?"

"You're the one who's assuming it's about
black men. Maybe it's all men. Maybe she thinks all men are always
looking at all women." He smiles. "Which is probably true."

She picks up one of the sofa cushions and
beans him with it. "You better not be!"

He holds up his arms to fend her off. "Not me
of course. Other men, looking for – conquests."

Sharon sits down next to Robert. "I think it
was only because he was black. Besides, it's obvious we're not
single or we wouldn't be here."