My Redacted Life: Chapter 26 (Cont._2)

It was Saturday morning and the one I had been thinking of as my girlfriend wasn’t helping my sprained ankle very much. Her advice was to get up and walk on it. Easy for her to say. It wasn’t her ankle. I looked at her ankles, between the end of her jeans and her sockless shoes. They were nicely turned, slim but strong. Sexy as could be, but I’ll bet they weren't throbbing in pain.

I chose a different approach. The “pitiful invalid” act wasn’t working. “Maybe we could go for a ride and give my ankle time to heal,” I said. “You can drive.”

“Tomorrow,” she said. “We’re having dinner with my folks tomorrow after church.”

By “dinner,” she meant the noon meal. We hailed from rural Arkansas, after all.

“After church?”

“After they get back from church. I told them we’d be there a little after twelve.”

She hadn’t said a word to me about it. “What if I had other plans?”

“I guess you’d have to break them, now wouldn’t you?”

I set my hard-earned college education to work trying to make sense of that. My ego kicked in. Who did she think she was, ordering me around? I was a man. Speaking of church, didn’t the Bible say I was in charge of everything? The master? The unquestioned leader? Women followed, obeyed, and kept their mouths shut. I’d heard many a preacher say that. What was she, a Methodist or something? I’d never asked, but that was probably it. Well, let us settle this theological dilemma right now.

She needed to know that men were the master sex, the stronger sex. Where was she when I was sitting on the edge of the jungle wondering when the mortars might rain down on me? Where was she when I returned stateside with my new service ribbons and we had to run past the protesters yelling insults at the airport? Where was she when green water washed the decks of the old USS Hunley while it rolled to starboard with a terrifying shudder in the midst an Atlantic storm? Was I a yearling waiting to be led around by a nose ring? No, absolutely not. I stiffened in my chair.

“That’s tomorrow,” I said. What do you want to do today?”

“Baby, today we’re going to get you walking.” She smiled at me. A rosy tint filled the room. I’ll swear there was a hint of lilacs in the air. My ankle ceased its throbbing. Then I went completely blind. I closed my eyes in fear, but insight shot through me.

She had called me “Baby.” I opened my eyes and found I could see again.

Oh ... you can be the master.
Just don't let it make you bossy.