Sitting next to him was the first love of his life, Marilyn Fountain. She looked into his eyes, initially displaying no emotion at all. She took in a deep breath and then slowly let it out. Phil began to say something, but she lifted her finger to his lips.[1]

Shush,” she said, removing her hand and looking down for a moment. When she looked up, her eyes were brimming with tears.

“I came in from Des Moines,” she began, “because I want to see you face-to-face. I need to apologize to you. I need to ask your forgiveness. I don’t expect to be forgiven based on the way I treated you. But let me tell you what happened.”

She reached into her small handbag and pulled out a handkerchief.

His mind was reeling. Sitting before him was his first real love. A young lady he had admired and adored. They had so much in common, and he had thought they were fated to be together.

Then came her Dear John letter while he was in the Vosges Mountains in eastern France. He had never expected one. Not from Marilyn, not from his girl.

She dabbed her tears and gently sniffled. “Phil, you had been gone from me for so long, and you were so far away. I heard from you so seldom. Part of that was because your letters were terribly slow to arrive. Many other times, I knew you were too busy fighting the damn war to write. Your mother told me it was the same for her. But Phil, I needed to hear from you. I needed to know you still cared for me and loved me. Your letters didn’t tell me that.

“At times, when I read them, the real you seemed so distant. You talked about your buddies and the sights you were seeing. I know you wanted to protect me from the awful brutality you were suffering, but I needed to hear my Phil’s heart. I needed his words to caress me, not inform me. I needed to hear from my love, not a war correspondent.”

She paused, and he felt like she had taken a red-hot dagger and shoved it into his heart. He could hardly breathe.

“I’m not saying what you did was wrong. I’m just saying I needed something else. And then, when I was least expecting it, and when I hadn’t heard from you for several weeks, I met this sweet guy. I guess I was vulnerable. He said he understood I was yours and was willing for us just to be friends, but the more time he and I spent together….” Her voice trailed off.

“Well, he was there. He was with me. He visited my mother, and she liked him. A lot. Then he offered me himself and a ring.”

“That was a long time ago,” was all he could whisper. “Over a year ago.”

“Yes, it was. During that time, I learned a lot about that boy I was engaged to. I learned he wasn’t what he made himself out to be. He became more and more controlling. From time to time, he’d get outraged over something I said or did, and he’d slap or punch me. I tried to rationalize it—he was drinking a lot.

“I blamed myself. But I came to realize it wasn’t me that was the problem. It was him. When I gave him back his ring, he went crazy—threatened to kill me. Said he’d make me regret it forever. Fortunately, Daddy was still serving with General Patton. I’m guessing Old Blood and Guts[2] made some calls, and the next thing I knew, the police chief came by the dorm one night. He told made some calls, and me that my former fiancé had been visited by a couple of MPs and a couple of G-men.”[3]

She smiled. That smile. A smile he had loved.

“The chief told me the meeting scared the silly out of that boy.” She softly laughed.

“That’s what he said. ‘Scared the silly outta him.’ Anyway, he hightailed it out of town and hasn’t been seen since.”

“Can I get you a drink?”

“Sure,” she smiled.

Phil snapped his fingers, prompting the bartender to come their way. As we wiped off the bar with a damp towel, he glanced at Marilyn.

“I’ll have what he’s having,” she said. “Scotch on the rocks, with a twist.”

“Another one for me, please,” Phil said, tapping his empty glass. “No twist.”

There was a pause in the conversation as Phil digested this revelation, not having a clue where this was all heading.

The bartender delivered their drinks, and they clinked them in a toast. When Marilyn set her tumbler down, Phil noticed that she also stirred the ice cubes with her right index finger. Some things never changed.[4]

[To be continued tomorrow]

~~~~~

[1] Larimore, At First Light, 294.

[2] General George S. Patton insisted the officers who served under him knew what they could expect in battle. He would tell them, “You’re going to be up to your neck in blood and guts,” which made quite an impression, leading to the nickname “Old Blood and Guts.”

[3] The MPs were military police. G-man was short for “government man” and became a slang term for agents of the US government, especially agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

[4] Larimore, At First Light, 294-296.

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