Katie Goes to School Ch. 03

"Why haven't you been writing to Pat? Are you running around on him? I got a letter from him this past Monday and it said he hadn't heard from you in over five weeks when it was written." Pat's mom said to Katie in a very accusatory tone.

"I've... I've been really busy the last few weeks." is all Katie could manage.

"Why do you want to know? It's really between me and Pat isn't it?" she continued.

"Is there something else wrong?" Katie asked after a silence of several minutes.

"Haven't you been watching the news?" Pat's mom asked Katie.

"Well, I see that North Vietnam has invaded the South. What's that got to do with anything? We don't' have any troops there anymore, so what difference does it make?" Katie replied.

"Where have you been the last few days? Partying like the college slut you are?" Betty asked Katie.

Betty's words cut like a knife as Katie felt the crotch of her panties getting wet from Brad's cum and her own juices.

"The Marines in Okinawa have been sent in to evacuate Saigon. It's been going on all week. I was visited by two very sad Marines this morning." Pat's mom continued, sounding as though she was fighting for control of her emotions.

"Betty!" Katie snapped, panic rising in her like the vomit she was fighting to keep down.

"Betty, what's happened?" Katie demanded.

"Katie?" the voice on the phone was now male. It was John, Pat's dad.

"Katie, "Katie's Krush", the CH-46 helicopter that Pat was the crew chief on, crashed on its way from our Saigon Embassy back to their ship with a load of refugees. No survivors were found, just wreckage and a couple of helmets. One of the helmets had Pat's name on it. We thought you should know, even if you don't care about him anymore. I'll let you know if we hear anything else. I think he would have wanted you to keep the car, so we will pay it off and send you the title. Please don't try and contact us anymore, Katie. If we get any information that concerns you, we will contact your RA, Eve. Goodbye, Katie."

With that, John hung up and the line went as dead as Katie's heart felt.

No one had seen Katie outside her room since three of the girls carried her there and put her into her bed after hearing her hysterical screams the morning she called Pat's parents. The phone receiver was hanging off the hook and all she could say was,

"He's gone. Oh my God, what have I done? He's gone!"

The campus medical people had come to visit her and the doctor had sedated her. Her parents took her home on the fourth day and her mother and sister took care of her for another week and she seemed to lapse into an even deeper depression when her menstrual period did not start when it should have. Her father called the family priest to try and talk with her, but she just looked at him and cried while he held her. She started her period almost ten days late and seemed to turn a corner. She got out of bed and began to talk, telling her younger sister everything that had happened and she, in turn, told their mother.

Her father's initial response was to have two of the guys who worked in his factory kill the offending Brad. Her mother nixed that idea, saying it wasn't Christian, but that they needed to report the incident to the Chancellor, who was a personal friend of the family. Her dad then decided that it was best if Katie withdrew from school for the remainder of the year and try to get a job to keep herself busy.

She found employment working at a Bullocks' department store at a large mall near her home where she worked in the Women's Department. She was assigned to the Perfume and Makeup Department and was trying to move on with her life as best she could. But, the pain of losing Pat and of letting him down constantly crept into her thoughts, especially at night when she slept. She cried a lot in her sleep now.

It had been two months since the call from Pat's parents telling her he was MIA and presumed dead and she was at work helping a woman determine whether she was a Summer or a Fall complexion and what makeup base was best for her when she heard one of the other sales girls say,

"Well, hello there. How can I be of service to you?"

Katie glanced up in time to see a Marine in Dress Blues, with a patch over his left eye, staring at her as he said,

"I would really like to talk to my Katie, I still need her." Pat said from where he stood leaning on crutches.

Katie dropped the makeup she was holding, shattering it all over the floor as she ran the ten feet to where Pat stood, throwing her arms around his neck as she burst into tears and began kissing his face and lips.

"Easy baby, easy. We have a lot to talk about and decide. Obviously, I have been to your house and seen your mom. That's how I knew where to find you. She told me everything, I guess figuring I'd leave and never return, but I still love you and need you" he said softly as he kissed her and pulled her as close as his broken bones and stitched wounds would allow.

"I still love you, too." she said. "I am SO SORRY!" she continued as the tears began to fall faster.

"Shiga gata nai," Pat said reaching up to touch her face.

"I don't know what that means." Katie said to him.

"It doesn't matter." Pat said as he took her left hand and slipped the engagement ring her mother had given him, back on Katie's left ring finger. "It means that it doesn't matter."

"We'll work it all out." He said as he kissed her and slid his hand down her back, where he stopped at her waist.

"I will make it all up to you, Pat." she said.

"I will never cheat on you again, I swear on the Bible." she continued as she sighed deeply and laid her head on his chest.

As she did that, she could feel the bandages that padded his shattered shoulder, collarbone and broken ribs, under his Blue's blouse and she pulled back from him and saying,

"You should be in the hospital, shouldn't you?" she asked Pat.

Pat smiled at her as he tried to shift his weight on the crutches, which caused him to grimace in pain and said,

"Right now, I should be exactly where I am."