Stalking the Enemy (eBook)

CHAPTER 2
MY EARLY LIFE

As I grew older, I continued to keep my Granddad’s secret locked away, though occasionally looking up at the night sky and thinking what it all really meant. Like Dad, I have a mind for numbers. My best friend in both Elementary School and High school was Johnny Perry. He was the same age as I was. He had a little sister, Susan, who followed us around all the time. The three of us always played together. Our two families lived only two short blocks away from each other and both houses were your basic small military family houses. We had a driveway big only enough for a car. Folks in the South called these “shotgun” houses as you could shoot a shotgun through the front door, and it would carry all the way to the back. All the houses were painted white. We made many friends in the area. People were moving in and out based on the military assignments of the military parent. The families new to the area sometimes brought in other elements, like fun kids, strait-laced kids, or bullies who often have their own cliques. Some of the kids were bigger and older than we were. On one occasion Bart and Art, two of the bullies, joined us in our game of dodge ball and Art made the mistake of hitting Susan in the head with the ball so hard, she fell to the ground. He stood over her and laughed. Even though Art was four inches taller and outweighed Johnny by thirty pounds, he was no match for Johnny as he leapt to the rescue of his little sister. He planted a fist directly to Art’s nose knocking him down in a pool of blood. He unleashed a steady stream of punches to Art’s head as he was on the ground till we pulled him off concerned that Art might be permanently hurt. From that day on, everyone knew that Johnny never took shit from anybody. He was fiercely loyal to his friends and would always come to their rescue when needed. We admired that characteristic, though sometimes we had to intercede to keep him out of juvie.

In school, we had the normal studies of reading, writing, math, history, science, and physical education, which was Johnny’s favorite class. Math and history were my favorites. Everyone had favorite teachers as well as least favorite. My favorite teachers were disciplined, but easy going. Johnny liked laid back teachers except for physical education. I liked classes where the teacher was in charge and the kids didn’t make a mockery of the class by throwing spit balls or erasers. Some teachers were so focused on trying to be viewed as nice that the kids totally took advantage. Johnny, Susan, and I would always meet for lunch after going through the cafeteria line. Susan was only two years younger than Johnny and me, so her class ate at the same time as ours since the school was so small. This often led to the bullies trying to take charge and abusing some of the younger, smaller kids.

That didn’t last long as Johnny stepped up to two of the bullies and told them, “Don’t dare hurt or tease these kids that are afraid of you. I know you bully the ones that can’t defend themselves because you are nothing but weak and pitiful when face-to-face with someone your own size.”

The two bullies backed off but were defiant. They knew his reputation. Everyone did. “You won’t always be here to protect them, asshole.”

Johnny replied smiling, “Maybe so, but I’m here now and I know where you live.” That shut them up quick because they knew Johnny meant it.

As the years went by, we grew older and bigger, and our hormones kicked in. We were becoming teenagers after all. Boys chasing girls and girls giggling and vice versa. We started getting underarm hair and started dating. I grew five inches in one year and was a head taller than the other guys in my class. Because of this, several older girls took a fancy to me, but when it came to girls, I had no clue what I was doing. Susan would always give me pointers and suggestions about things to say and encouragement to ask cute girls out on a real date. One night I was invited to a boy/girl birthday party and was told one of the games would be “spin-the-bottle”. I asked what kind of game that was and was told, a kissing game.

“Yuk,” I replied. But I was interested, I was just really scared since I didn’t know how to kiss a girl other than what I saw on T.V. Again, Susan came to the rescue. She said that their neighbor, Alice taught Johnny. She had been hiding and watched them so she could teach me. She offered to help. I agreed since I didn’t want to go to the party not having a clue what to do.

“What happens is all the kids gather in a circle boy, girl, boy, girl, with an empty Coke bottle in the middle. Someone spins the bottle and whoever it points to goes into a closet with the spinner and kisses for one minute. They come back and then another person spins and so on.”

“Ok, I guess I get it,” I confessed, “But I’ve have never kissed a girl before.”

“Ok, here goes. Bend down and close your eyes.” She pulled me close and kissed me and stuck her tongue in my mouth.

I jerked back, “What the heck was that?”

She laughed, “That was your first French kiss, silly. Did you like it? Both people are supposed to have their tongues together and moving.”

“OK. Can we try it again?”

“Sure, but just one more time. This was just an experiment, remember.” I eagerly kissed her again. We played with our tongues together and I started getting a weird feeling in my stomach.

“What was that about?” I was thinking, “Geez, this is Johnny’s little sister and my friend!” I thanked her for the lesson and became more confident about going to the party.

Soon I started driving. I dated several girls in high school. One of them was Judy Moyer. She relocated to a few blocks away from our house when her dad, Lt. Colonel Moyer was assigned to the base. We went out to the movies a couple of times and began kissing and light petting. Unfortunately, one of the times, we were parked down the street from her house. Suddenly, I heard a tapping on the driver window only to look up from unfastening Judy’s bra only to find her dad staring at us! He was so mad. He sent me home without saying goodnight to Judy and promptly met with my folks the next day. They read me the riot act, of course, but my biggest embarrassment came when I went to see Granddad the next day at the local tavern. Apparently, he heard on base about my exploits and kept teasing me in front of his Army buddies. I didn’t go out with another girl on a date for several months. After that, I was so uncomfortable that when the Junior Prom came up, I didn’t ask anyone. Johnny and Susan asked me about it, and I told them I was staying home.

“Bullshit,” Johnny said.

“Why not, Gordy?” Susan asked.

I shuffled my feet and mumbled, not wanting to say I was embarrassed to meet the girl’s parents when it seemed like everyone in town knew about my altercation with Judy’s dad.

“It’s too late to ask anyone I would like to go with. Everyone I’d want to go with is taken. So, what do I do?” Susan glanced at Johnny, and I saw him nod at her.

She said shyly, “I’ll be your date.”

I stammered, “You can’t go. Only sophomores that have a date with a junior or senior can go. You’re still a freshman.”

“If we could figure out a way, would you be interested in going with Susan?” Johnny inquired.

“Would it be ok with you, Johnny and your folks for Susan to go?” They both nodded. “Well, it’s ok with me if you can find a way.”

“Gordy, my folks love you and they know you are basically harmless so it should be ok with them and me. My sister, though, is a different story”. She punched him in the ribs. “She’s been wanting to go out with you for years.”

Susan turned beet red.

She said shyly, “Well, are you game or not?”

I thought about saying “I guess I have no choice” but thought better of it. Instead, “Of course I will take you if we could work it out. It’ll be fun.”

Johnny said, “A few of the seniors and juniors are bringing dates from some of the other towns since our school is so small. There are even a couple of the girls bringing military cadets from out of town. We’ll disguise Susan with a black wig and dress her up like a Goth Queen and call her Raven.”

I roared laughing, “That would be hilarious, me dating a Goth? What will everyone think?”

Susan jumped in with her objections, but Johnny said, “Sis, this is probably the only way you can go is in disguise and look natural since no one is supposed to be in disguise. No one will recognize you and Gordy can tell them he met you at the airport when picking up his dad from a trip. So, it’s Goth unless you have a better idea, Raven.” No one did.

Other than telling our parents about the ruse, we didn’t let any of our friends know that Susan was my date. Johnny was taking Alice, his neighbor who taught him to French kiss and we double dated. Alice was the exception, she knew, but we were confident she would keep her mouth shut. When I arrived to pick up Johnny and Susan, it became apparent that Susan’s mom had really gotten into her subterfuge as she looked like a heavy metal star with black fingernails, black willowy dress, black stockings, black Army boots, and tattoos on her shoulders and arms. Her earrings were skeletons that dangled about three inches below her lobes, and she had black lipstick on. Her face was highlighted with black camo cream her dad got for her at the PX. No one will recognize her. I complimented Susan and her mom on such a great costume and her mom beamed. I couldn’t see any reaction by Susan because of all...