Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel (38 page)

At home that evening after dinner Wendy's
mama cleans up the kitchen. Wendy finds her father in his study.
"Papa, do you have any pictures of Arthur Henry?"

Her papa unlocks the desk drawer that she has
never before seen open. He lifts up a black cardboard-cover album
and places it on his desk. Then he opens the cover.

A baby lies in the arms of her younger mama,
smiling out at the camera. Her younger papa has his arms around
both mother and baby. Wendy searches the baby's face for any
similarities to hers.

He was my brother

Tears can't bring him back to me

He was my brother

“
In the afternoon, or before retreat, a suit or
dress with hat and gloves will be considered appropriate.”
Mrs. Lieutenant
booklet

Back from the funeral, Sharon remains without
wheels again if she doesn't drive Robert to the post.

“Mrs. Lieutenant” might be a silly book with
silly rules. Yet these are rules she'll have to live by if she
doesn't want to embarrass herself or her husband at their first
permanent duty station.

Following the advice of the booklet, she
keeps the car today and drives to a print shop to order calling
cards. Robert's cards read "Lieutenant Robert Gold." Her cards read
"Mrs. Robert Gold."

Robert's are 3 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches in shaded
Roman engraving and hers are in the larger 3 1/4 x 2 1/4 in the
recommended matching black engraving on white parchment. Why are
the women's cards larger? Sharon has no idea. Perhaps because men
leave more cards than women when making an official call.

Sharon visualizes handing her card and her
husband's to the head of MSU's SDS chapter. "These go with your
monogrammed shirt," she tells him.

She isn't selling out. She now realizes that
appearing correct – "strac" as Robert calls it in army jargon – can
help them get through this time. "It's the image they care about.
Look the part and they'll leave us alone," Robert says.

Later the same day she goes to the post
transportation office and arranges for their belongings –
"household goods" – to be sent to Ft. Holabird. They'll take the
most important possessions with them on the drive north; the things
Howard brought will be sent.

On the way back from the transportation
office she turns off the main road and drives through the troop
area to the ice cream parlor. She sings a song popular when she was
in 9th grade, when Vietnam was a Southeast Asian country she'd
never heard of:

Soldier Boy, oh my little Soldier Boy,

I'll be true to you.

Here in the troop area she sees no soldier
boys – no enlisted men. They are all on duty, training for war.

She pulls into the parking lot of the ice
cream parlor, the place that Jim wouldn't allow her and Kim to go.
Inside it's empty except for two women with their kids. Sharon
orders a banana split with one scoop each of chocolate, vanilla and
strawberry ice cream topped with hot fudge sauce and whipped cream.
The works.

She raises the spoon before taking the first
bite. "Kim, this is for what we didn't get to do together."

Then to complete the day she drives to the
Officers Country Club to swim. She eats a hamburger and fries at
the snack bar, then walks towards the door leading to the pool. The
man in suntans placing his order at the counter turns around.

It's Mark Williamson!

He’s wearing his warrant officer insignia on
his uniform. What does this mean in connection with his decision?
Her eyes ask the question.

"I accepted the commission,” he says. “I'm
going back to Nam."

He's volunteering to risk his life again!
Does being an officer mean that much to him?

"Where's your sidekick?" he asks when she
doesn't reply. "I've never seen you apart."

"Kim. She's ..."

She can’t tell Mark without breaking into
tears.

Mark says, “I ... I want to ask you a
question.” He hesitates. “Would you have married me if I’d asked
you?”

This shocks Sharon. “We had just graduated
from high school when we broke up,” she says.

“When you broke up with me,” he says.

“I was going away to college; you were
staying home and going to community college.”

He stares into her eyes. “If I’d asked you
then to marry me after college, would you have said yes?”

A fly lands on Sharon’s arm. She swats it
away.

What should she say that won’t make him feel
badly? She can’t say she didn’t love him enough to marry him. She
could say she wouldn’t marry a non-Jew. Or that from her
perspective he wasn’t going places – Vietnam excluded, of
course.

“I don’t really know what that person I was
at age 18 would have said then. Why do you ask?”

Mark shifts from foot to foot. “I wanted to
ask you that day at the quarry. My mother had pressured me not
to.”

“Because I’m Jewish.”

He nods.

“Your mother gave you good advice,” Sharon
says.

“If you had said yes, you’d be here with me
now instead of with your husband.”

She smiles. “Does this mean I was destined to
come to Ft. Knox?”

Mark smiles too, the tense moment past.

She holds out her hand to him. “I wish you
the best of luck as an officer.”

They shake hands.

**

The next day Sharon dons a two-piece linen
suit for the graduation luncheon. It’s show time.

Thirty minutes later Sharon enters the
Officers Club carrying a bag with the props for the skit. She
stashes her bag behind the divider the entertainment committee
requested for scene changes before she mingles with the other wives
sipping vile sherry.

"Why is sherry the protocol pre-luncheon
drink?" Sharon says to Donna.

"I hear the refreshment committee wanted
something else,” Donna says. “They were told, 'The general's wife
likes sherry.' End discussion."

The women take their assigned seats for
chicken slathered with sauce. On the luncheon tables miniature
American flags stick up from oatmeal cylinders decorated with
colored paper to represent regimental drums. One senior woman
across from Sharon says, "The decorations committee has outdone
itself this time."

Now, during the dessert course of ice cream
also decorated with miniature American flags, Sharon, Donna, and
Wendy exchange their dresses for their husbands' starched and
pressed fatigues. They roll the shirts' long sleeves up and push
the blouson pant legs into their husbands' second pair of combat
boots, their faces reflecting in the boots' black shine.

A senior officer's wife in a pale blue dress
and matching blue hat walks up to the microphone. "And now I would
like to introduce Mrs. Robert Gold to start the entertainment."

Sharon smiles at the other two and leads them
out in front of the divider. She begins: "The Fourth of July was a
few days ago and at this time of year our thoughts turn to 1776 and
the War of Independence, led by General Washington with his valiant
group of men. We take you now to 1776 and the army as it was
then."

Wendy as an aide comes up to Sharon: "General
Washington, the new AOB class has arrived."

Sharon playing Washington asks: "What's an
AOB class?"

Wendy the aide replies: "AMATEUR Officers
Basic – very basic."

The three meet back behind the divider. Then
they all go out in front again, signaling a new scene.

Donna faces Sharon and Wendy: "Now, men, here
are forms 2031 and 1023. All married men whose wives accompanied
them fill out form 2031 in quadruplicate and form 1023 in
triplicate. All single officers fill out forms 2031 in triplicate
and form 1023 in quadruplicate. All married men whose wives did not
accompany them but who will join them here fill out both forms 2031
and 203 in duplicate. Married men whose wives won't be joining them
fill out only form 2031 in triplicate and disregard 1023.
Correction: Married men whose wives are here and were married under
the harvest moon …"

Sharon and Wendy hum the opening words to the
song "Harvest Moon."

Donna frowns: "Order, please. As I was
saying, fill out form 2031 in triplicate. Class dismissed."

Sharon and Wendy run back behind the divider.
Wendy comes out wearing the doctor's white coat. She examines
Donna. "Type blood – red. Heart – beating. Lungs – breathing.
You're in good shape." Donna collapses onto the floor.

Sharon as Benjamin Franklin comes out from
behind the divider. "Men, here are your manuals, hot from my
printing press." She reads from her copy: "Oiling a Flintlock;
Trading with the Indians; How to Spot a Redcoat; Assembly and
Disassembly of the Fire – M1; Care and Feeding of the Horse;
Crossing Rivers, Delaware, Potomac, Etc.; Hiding Behind Trees;
Horse Recovery."

Sharon disappears behind the divider while
Donna and Wendy stand at attention for inspection. Sharon reappears
and says to Wendy: "You there, get a wig. We don't want any
short-haired soldiers in this outfit."

Donna opens a manual and reads: "Maintenance
of the Horse – The horse's left foot is on his left side. The left
side of the horse is the side where the left foot is on. Which side
is the left foot on?" She looks up from the manual. "The
right?"

Sharon appears with Wendy wearing an apron
over her fatigues.

"$140 a month for that tent! Forget it!"
Sharon says.

"Let's try the Muldraugh Wagon Court," Wendy
says.

Wendy reappears from behind the divider with
a green bag on her face. Donna and Sharon walk past her.

"There goes an AOB class member," Donna
says.

"How do you know?" Sharon says.

"He's a green lieutenant."

Back behind the divider again. Then Sharon
appears out front wearing the MP helmet. She says "Halt!" to Donna
riding on a stick horse.

"I was only trotting," Donna says.

"May I see your horse license please?" Sharon
says.

"What license?"

"That will be five nights at horse driving
school for you."

Sharon dumps the MP helmet behind the
divider, then reappears talking to Donna: "AOB? OMO. TDY? PCS! RA?
USAR. MI? MP. EDCSA? 0-1-28."

Wendy walks over to listen. "I must be in the
wrong company. They don't speak English here."

Now Sharon addresses Donna and Wendy. "Vol
indef will give you 12 to 18 months in Boston. And, gentlemen, if
you don't go vol indef, we'll send you straight to Valley
Forge."

Donna holds up a sign saying "To Valley
Forge" and Wendy holds up an "AOB Graduation Diploma." All three of
them bow to signal the end.

From behind the divider they can hear barely
any applause. "Maybe they didn't get it," Sharon says.

"Or maybe they were disappointed not to have
a fashion show," Donna says.

"It was great," Wendy says. "I'm glad we did
this."

They change back into their dresses and
reemerge from behind the divider, taking their seats with the other
women. The woman in the blue dress smiles at all of them. "Thank
you for your presentation," she says.

"And now we have another special treat. We
have diplomas for all of you for graduating this course on how to
be an officer's wife."

She calls up the AOB class wives one-by-one
by name. Sharon reads her diploma as she walks back to her
seat.

The certificate reads "U.S. Army Armor
School" at the top. Under the words "United Students Wives" are the
words "check book, cook book, baby care." Then comes the formal "To
all who shall see these presents greetings." The next words crack
Sharon up:

Be it known that Sharon Gold having
successfully completed and survived the required course in the
feeding, care, and coddling of her husband in

The U.S. Army Armor School

In testimony Whereof, and by authority vested
in us, we do declare her a

GRADUMATE

Given at Fort Knox, Kentucky, this 10th day
of July 1970

And it's signed by a brigadier general, a
major general, and a lieutenant colonel!

Sharon would love to have shared a laugh with
Kim over this silly diploma.

“
After retreat and early evening, wear a cocktail
type dress, shoulders covered, and gloves – but no hat.”
Mrs. Lieutenant
booklet

Donna closes the suitcase. She's ready to
leave for Ft. Holabird. In the bathroom Jerry inspects himself in
his Class A uniform. In a few minutes they'll drive to the post for
the graduation ceremony and their farewells.

How often will she see Sharon while they are
both at Ft. Holabird? As she understands it, available rental
housing is spread out all over Baltimore. She and Sharon may live
far away from each other.

Donna's mother has promised to come to
Baltimore on the way back from a visit to Puerto Rico, bringing
green bananas for Donna's favorite treat. Donna and Jerry can have
a party when her mother visits. Invite people over for fried green
bananas. Sharon and Robert will come then.

Donna looks at the suitcase. If only those
packed clothes were becoming tight on her! If only she would soon
need the maternity clothes her mother started to make!

The doctor explained it was for the best.
"The fetus may have been unviable. Or you may have had the German
measles without knowing it. Sometimes adults don't even notice a
slight fever," he said. "Even such a slight case can badly affect a
fetus."

Jerry brought her home from the hospital the
next morning. He threw her diaphragm in the trash. "We'll make lots
of babies," he said.