A Date

A Date: Ensign's wife dates a captain.

I'm Emily Thompson and I am living in paradise. My husband, John, is a naval pilot assigned to Honolulu. I am told that you should watch out for serpents in paradise, but so far it is great. Officers' quarters are like a country club, and the tennis courts are almost always available. My husband's duties have been light, and we have been able to play a lot of mixed doubles. I have met a navy nurse, Julie, who also likes tennis. She can easily find an available guy to give John and me a match. We generally have won about sixty percent of the time, so the matches are both competitive and enjoyable. When we did not play tennis, we were only a short drive from Waikiki. Swimming in the Pacific is rougher than the Alabama gulf, but the tan is just as good. I like fish, and the seafood in Hawaii is beyond compare. Fish is low calorie and healthy, so it allows me to keep a figure that the multitude of men on the base notice. It is summer in December, I am in paradise.

That version of heaven ended as the international situation worsened. My husband's duties were no longer easy, and he was seldom at home even when he was in Honolulu. But he was not often in Hawaii. He was most often training at sea, and I was alone. Julie was my lifeline. Look, she said, "we can still play mixed doubles. I can find a partner for you. The men outnumber the women on the base by 50 to 1." So I still had tennis. The only problem was that I had to frequently change partners. Usually by the third game, my partner would start hitting on me. I would insist that Julie find me a new partner. At least that's what happened until I got Robert. Robert, never Bob, was Captain of a destroyer. Shockingly, he didn't change on the third match, or the fourth or fifth. He treated me as any other player, guy or girl. After we won our seventh match, he said I don't want to eat alone tonight. Will you let me treat you? He said that he respected my marriage and it was not a date. I was a virgin at marriage, but I am not naive about men. I would not take his words at face value. But I was tired of being alone, so I would test them.

Robert picked me up in a Cadillac. It was a shock to ride in something other than a Jeep. I was going to object when he took me to a hotel, but it had one of the best restaurants in Oahu, so what could I say. The restaurant had a band that was playing quietly during supper hour. We were seated near a small dance floor. He asked me what was my drink. White wine for me, red wine is bitter and served too warm at room temperature. When people started drinking wine,

room temperature was 40 degrees in the winter. Robert ordered a bottle of Sancerre, a French Loire Valley wine. I made my calculation. Cadillac, hotel, dance floor, French wine, this was a date. I could demand that he take me home, and return me to my boring life, or just enjoy.

Just because I was enjoying the evening, I wasn't cheating on my husband, exactly.

I had a glass of Sancerre with the appetizers, and another with the trout. The band played some ragtime, and Robert asked if I danced. I was a competitive dancer before I met John. My best finish was second in a tango contest, and two thirds in ballroom. I just took Robert's hand and went to the floor. John wasn't a bad dancer, but only mediocre. Robert was a good dancer, but not as good as my partner for competitions. After the ragtime, a new bottle of Sancerre appeared on the table and I had a third glass. The band started a foxtrot and we were again out on the floor. Two foxtrots and another glass. They say all wines have the same alcohol content, but the Sancerre seemed stronger. When the first tango started, it was a quick glass and back on the floor. I started fine but when the tango ended I was holding onto Robert for balance. I was feeling really warm. Somehow there were two glasses of Champagne on the table and I grabbed one. That was the breaking point, I was woozily out of it. Robert said that we would rest and then he would take me home.

He half walked and half carried me to the elevator and then to a room for which he had a key.

He fully carried me over threshold and gently placed me on a bed. Robert told me that I was too warm and started opening buttons on my dress. I couldn't even challenge him. Before I was nearly stable, I was nude and Robert was on top of me. He entered me and I had an orgasm, before I was capable of saying no. After that there seemed no point to saying no. I willingly participated in the second coupling. Only then did I realize that I had no protection. After all this wasn't supposed to be a date. I worried for about thirty seconds and then I was asleep. Robert woke me on the morning by having sex. I thought about protection for five seconds and then responded. I never worried about protection again.

Ensign John Thompson had just landed his torpedo plane from a training flight on the deck of the USS Enterprise when everyone got the news. His news was worse, because in addition to what the others got; his wife had a date. His wife went to a hotel with her date. His wife cheated on him on her date. There was an explosion in the hotel during her date. His wife was killed in the explosion, because of her date, on the date that will live in infamy.

Epilogue: If this story is not dark enough, only one torpedo bomber flyer from the USS Enterprise survived the battle of Midway. His name was not John Thompson.