Two Blind Men and a Fool
by Sherman Smith
Earl Crier wakes screaming from nightmares in which his ship sinks in the Arctic in World War II. He has survived but is now blind. He takes refuge in music and in the kindness of Stella. Meanwhile, other veterans return, and their most serious wounds are not always visible.
Chapter 39: Don’t Be a Fool, Stella
Stella smiled at the man who sat across from her at a quaint little bistro she had discovered near the hospital where she worked. Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Jennings Drake, M.D., formally Chief Surgeon U.S. Army Medical Corps, Okinawa. He’d been there, and seen it all, including first-hand medical observations at Nagasaki. He was forty-five years of age, handsome as the day was long, single and interested in her.
Don’t that beat all.
He wasn’t interested in raising a family, and neither was she; that time had come and gone, at least as far as she was concerned. He was career Army with a short ticket to general. Rumors were that he was top of the list for command at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, the new site for the U.S. Army Medical Field Service Training School.
Why this man was interested in her was beyond her understanding. Nevertheless, it made a girl feel good; well, a little better than good under his watchful sky-blue eyes. God, his eyebrows are sexy. She had all but forgotten about Earl — almost.
The music playing in the background reminded her of how close she had come to him; that same feeling was beginning to curl her toes now as Marcus slid his hand across the table towards hers. They touched.
She smiled.
He responded.
She slowly pulled her hand back, hesitated.
He withdrew his. “Another?” he asked, meaning her Scotch.
“Please.” She lit a cigarette. Too fast? she thought. Don’t be a fool, Stella. Don’t let this one get away.
Copyright © 2013 by Sherman Smith
