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

watches Kim's
face.
    Wendy doesn’t wait for a response before
adding, "He built his practice all by himself. First only black
people were his patients; now whites go to him too."
    Sharon glances quickly at Kim, then says,
"Let me tell you my idea for the entertainment.
    It's not what the other women have in mind so
I hope you'll like it."
    "Out with it!" Donna says.
    "I’ll write a little play for us to perform.
The play will be about the army – some of the funny things about
AOB." She looks around at the others as she adds, "In keeping with
the July 4th theme of the luncheon, the play will take place in
1776 when, I think, George Washington was at Valley Forge."
    Donna nods. "Sounds like it might be cute. At
least it will be different."
    "It could be fun," Kim says. "I've never been
in a play."
    Sharon turns to Wendy. She smiles yes.
    "Then let me show you what I've got so far,"
Sharon says.
    "You already started?" Kim asks. "What if we
hadn't agreed?"
    "Then I would have wasted my time."
    **
    Sharon makes salmon patties for dinner. First
she picks the little white bones out of the canned salmon and
removes the grayish white outer skin clinging to the larger pieces.
Next she mixes the salmon with an egg and bread crumbs before hand
rolling the patties. Finally she fries the flattened patties in
oil. She also heats canned peas and cuts up a salad of lettuce,
carrots, celery and tomatoes.
    She uses the “Betty Crocker's New Picture
Cook Book” only for baking recipes. Otherwise she sticks to the few
things she already knows how to cook. Robert and his two younger
brothers grew up on meat meals three times a day. Since marrying
Sharon, Robert has been willing to cut down on what he'll accept as
a meal. And out here in the boondocks he hasn't had much
choice.
    Robert opens the door to the apartment. She
walks the two steps from the kitchenette to meet him.
    "Hi, honey," he says, grabbing her around the
waist. "How about a little something before dinner?"
    "Let's have dinner first. I want to tell you
about ..."
    "Later," he says, his mouth clamping on hers
while he pulls down her undies. It's a good thing she uses birth
control pills, because there certainly isn't time for her to put in
a diaphragm.
    She smiles as Robert pushes her towards the
bedroom. At least she turned the flame off under the salmon patties
when she heard his key in the lock. She won't burn the dinner this
time.
    When they’re done Robert’s enthusiasm for
lovemaking shows as a red flush all over his chest. She eyes the
flush, then says, "The women were here today for the first
entertainment committee meeting."
    "How'd it go?"
    Sharon ducks her head under the bed to look
for her undies and bra. "I was worried about Kim and Wendy getting
along, but it seemed to go fine."
    "What were you worried about?"
    "Wendy's black and Kim's a white Southerner.
I was afraid Kim would say something, something derogatory about
blacks."
    "This is 1970. All that Southern white
supremacy crap is over now. It's against the law."
    Sharon shakes her head while hooking her bra.
She doubts that this enlightened view of equality has taken hold
among the Southern white population. Kim's reaction to the black
soldier holding open the PX door is probably just the tip of the
iceberg of Kim's Southern-inspired prejudices.
    "Something kind of weird happened today,"
Robert says as he puts one foot through the leg hole of his jockey
shorts. "We all got our pay vouchers for our uniform
allowance."
    "What's a uniform allowance?"
    "Enlisted men are given their uniforms.
Officers have to buy their own. When we first come on active duty
we're given an amount of money to be used for buying the uniforms.
I can’t only have that one Class A uniform and fatigues from ROTC.
I have to get more fatigues, another Class A uniform, suntans, and
a dress blue uniform for formal affairs.”
    Robert pulls on casual pants and a shirt.
    "Only thing is, my pay voucher wasn't there.
Len Tottenham was the