Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel by Phyllis Zimbler Miller Page A

here – to being an army officer’s wife.
    Out of the corner of her eye Sharon spots
Wendy and a man enter the room. He is of medium-build, on the
stocky side, with a round face. They are the only two blacks in the
room. Sharon stops dancing and leads Robert forward to meet
them.
    "Hi, Wendy," she says.
    Wendy smiles. "Nelson, this is Sharon Gold.
She's the head of the entertainment committee I'm on." Sharon and
Nelson smile at each other.
    "And Robert, this is Wendy Johnson," Sharon
says.
    Robert sticks out his hand to Wendy. He's
making a point Sharon realizes. Then Nelson shakes Sharon's
hand.
    Sharon motions in the direction of the
tables. "Come sit down. We'll get some more chairs."
    The man in the Phoenix program has left the
table, leaving his chair free. Robert gets one more chair and
squeezes Wendy and Nelson next to Sharon.
    Wendy turns to Nelson. "Would you get me a
Whiskey Sour, please?"
    “That’s my drink too,” Sharon says, then
stands. "While Nelson's gone, let's go say hello to Kim and
Donna."
    "I'll just wait here for Nelson."
    "No, no," Sharon says, pulling Wendy up.
"Let's go say hello."
    As Sharon and Wendy come up to the other two
women, Jim stands and turns to Kim. "It's time to go home," he
says.
    "It is?" Kim asks. "We haven't been here that
long."
    "I said it's time to go, Kim." Jim pulls her
chair back from the table and motions for her to get up.
    "Good-bye," Kim says.
    "See you tomorrow," Sharon says.
    Donna motions for Sharon and Kim to take the
vacated seats.
    At this moment a man standing at the far end
of the table from the women holds up his beer glass. "A toast," he
says. "May we all get our chance to kill those little yellow
bastards!"
    **
    Sharon watches herself in the mirror as she
brushes her teeth before going to bed. In the reflection she
visualizes swarms of yellow jackets about to attack her.
    At first she wonders why she should think
this. Then she knows.
    Yellow bastards – yellow jackets. The toast
referred to the Vietcong, those "yellow" enemies.
    Robert squeezes into the tiny bathroom, sees
her expression in the mirror. "What's wrong?" he asks.
    Sharon turns around to face him. "How could
you stand there and drink to that awful toast?"
    Robert puts his arms around her waist.
"That's Geist. He's an idiot. Nobody pays any attention to
him."
    "You did."
    "Honey, listen to me. The guy is the class
moron. He's a high school graduate, Officers Candidate School, a
120-day wonder. The whole class thinks he's a jerk – even our
Marine.”
    She tries to wriggle out of Robert’s grip,
but he keeps his arms around her.
    "Most of the guys in class are all right,” he
says. “They're just like me. They want to do their two years nice
and quietly, no heroics. There are some regular army types along
with a bunch of warrant officers back from Vietnam – helicopter
pilots."
    Like Mark Williamson?
    “What rank are warrant officers?”
    “They’re not really officers – they’re a
hybrid. Enlisted men who the army wants to promote but not make
officers. They can go to the Officers Mess and the Officers Club.
The army decided to commission these particular pilots as officers,
so they have to take a branch officers course – this time the
branch is armor. They're fuck-offs. All they do is strut around
telling each other how tough they are, then figure out how to get
out of every detail. Then there's Geist. Really, forget him."
    "So why did you drink to the toast?"
    "Didn't you see that look we all gave each
other? You have to play the game."
    She
shakes her head. He slaps her rear. "Know what I mean, play the
game?"

KIM – IV – May 19
Senate Foreign Relations Committee approves
Cooper-Church amendment to cut off funds for Cambodian military
operations ... May 11, 1970
    “ When a woman attends a social function at night
without her husband she should arrive and leave with another
couple, seldom alone.” Mrs. Lieutenant booklet
    Kim lies on her back in the traditional
missionary