a post!

[canpin.livejournal.com]

heh. this comes out of a late night Good News Week quotes session. Beta-ed over msn by ryttu3k

and it all takes place at a reunion...

“So which one’s your husband then?”
In the crowded hall she’d thought no one would notice the quiet woman daydreaming in the corner. Still on her first glass of alcohol.

“Husband?”
“Well you don’t look like a nurse.”
“Oh well-“

She pointed silently at the tall man in the distance with moustache, whose continued laughter could be heard from all over the hall.

The woman laughed coarsely. “Well he seems to know mine well.”
“Oh…you’re…Mrs McIntyre?-“
“Louise, please.”

Quietly. “Louise…I don’t think they’ve ever met though.”
“What? But he’s at the reunion-“
“They never served together-“
“Oh! Yours is Hunnicutt. Sorry, I thought…Pierce. Though you’d think they’d all grown up together, the way they’re carrying on.”

Indeed, the three men seemed to be quite happy with each other’s company, their laughter and shouts audible to all present.
“Do you mind?”
“What? Oh no, sit, please.”

Louise was a bigger woman than her, and her treatment of alcohol was enough to scare any able bodied man. Who was Peg to prevent the sharing of her wallflower status?

She nervously handled her glass. Not ever good with small talk- that was her husband’s domain- this situation was not one she’d have hoped to encounter. Though there was some nagging little question she was meant to ask-

“Um…”
“So you’re having a good time?”
“Yes”
“That’s good then.”

Another silence.

“Um-“
“Yes?”

“Well…um-“
“Say it for Christ’s sake. I’m not fully sober, it’s all good.”

“I was wondering…well, did your husband…change after Korea?”
Louise paused and sipped her champagne. Contemplatively “I suppose you could say that. I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention to his mind, you know?”

Peg nodded, cradling her glass in her lap. There was an awkward silence, as both women looked outwards, where their husbands stood laughing without a care in the world.

“He stopped looking at the women though.”
“What- what do you mean?”

“The women. The nurses, the babysitters, the waitresses. He stopped looking at them, peering at their legs, their arses.”
“Oh. Well, that’s…good then. At least you know-“
“Though he didn’t stop watching, if you know what I mean.”

She shook her head almost violently, eyes wide with interest. “No I don’t quite under-“
“Those doctor ‘pals’ that he befriended almost overnight, don’t think I didn’t catch him looking at them-“
Louise paused again, letting her words sink in. The girl’s wide-eyed demeanour only encouraged her, it wasn’t often she had fun like this.

“And all those late nights, well, you have to wonder. If it wasn’t the nurses, something was making him tired.”
“But surely you-“
“Oh, I didn’t mind, so long as the girls didn’t notice. And in any case, I’m not going to pretend that I’m the faithful wife that…you seem to be.”

Peg shifted away, looking to her husband again. His laugh reassured her.

A voice broke her reverie. “You really are an innocent little thing aren’t you?”

No answer.
“Surely your husband was no different?”

Peg flinched. She’d hit a sore spot. Though Louise continued on unperturbed.
“War does strange things to men. They haven’t got the coping mechanisms that we do. That’s why they die first. And you know- actually, you don’t want that do you?”

Pointing at her glass. “Oh, no. You take-“

Peg looked closely at her husband and his long lost friends. That famous Pierce, he seemed very…happy, all of a sudden.

“Louise?”
She stopped mid skull to answer. “MmmmHmmm?”
“Did he talk about Pierce no end?”
“Well it’s not like I listened much but…yes, I suppose so.”

Suddenly the man’s grasp on her husband’s shoulder didn’t seem quite so friendly.

Louise’s arm on hers jolted her back to her reality. “Did yours start fancying the boys too then? Oh well, he’s a bit cute to be truly straight isn’t he? Did you want something more to drink?”