Disco Nights Ch. 01

This story was inspired by a real event that occurred in the late 70's. A time before HIV, Cell Phones, DNA testing or the Internet. Vietnam, the Cold War and the Draft were the topics of the day. Disco ruled. It is a story about love, infidelity, consequences and sacrifice. The names and details have been changed to protect the guilty. There is very little sex in this story.

*

It was a Monday afternoon in early December that I got the call that changed my life. When I answered the phone a man said, "Is this Alan Baxter?"

"It is. Can I help you?"

He said, "The husband of Lisa Baxter?"

Becoming a little concerned, I replied, "Yes, is something wrong?"

He said, "Unfortunately I am calling to tell you about the inappropriate relationship your wife is having with a man down at the 'The Extra Point'."

At first I was stunned, then annoyed about receiving an obvious prank call. "Who the hell are you and why are you telling me this crap!"

He said, "This is no bullshit, your wife is meeting another guy on Friday nights at the disco."

I knew this wasn't true, not my wife! But an uneasy feeling came over me. Something was going on, something I did not understand, I had to think. But I needed time, "I 'm not alone. Can you call me back in twenty minutes?"

He said, "Okay," and hung up.

I stood there with the phone in my hand, my arms and legs starting to shake. I felt a cold sweat breaking out. My heart was racing but my thoughts felt like molasses. I sat down and put my head in my hands. There couldn't be anything to this, could there?

I had been married to Lisa for six and a half years. We have a beautiful six-year old daughter named Maddy who is the center of our world. And yes, Maddy came a little early. Lisa was pregnant when we got married.

*******

We met during fall term at the local community college. I was twenty and she was eighteen. Lisa was a first year nursing student.

I had completed two years of Business and Accounting but lost my student draft deferment for being five credits behind where the selective service guidelines said I should be. Even though I lived at home I had worked full-time every other term to help pay my tuition. Vietnam was in full swing and needless to say the draft board was not sympathetic.

I was just hanging around the college taking a couple of classes, but mostly playing cards with my buddies in the commons, expecting my draft notice to show up any day. Truth is I was an indifferent student and more than a little bored with school. I had some money in the bank and was young, naïve, and thought that getting away from home and out in the world wouldn't be all bad.

One of guys I was playing cards with, nudged me and said, "look at that" and pointed at the cafeteria line. There was a girl standing there, long brown hair, in a short skirt with great legs. He said "that's Lisa Hartwell; she was two years behind us in high school."

As I studied her I thought to myself "damn, she's cute." As soon as she sat down we walked over and he introduced me. The three of us sat for a while and talked. The two of them had grown up in the same neighborhood and mostly talked about their old gang while I listened and admired the view.

Eventually she said she had to get to class, smiled at both of us and left. I was instantly attracted to her. She was about 5'7", 115 pounds with a dancer's body. Long and lean. Turned out, dancing was her hobby and she had performed in a couple of high school musicals.

She wasn't pretty in a classic sense, but attractive and sexy. She had a big smile, an easy personality and obvious sex appeal. She would talk to anybody and could instantly make you feel she was interested in you.

In high school you could say I was part of the nerd crowd. Not very outgoing and didn't make new friends easily. I read a lot but only got mediocre grades. I was not lazy so I always had a job and took pride in having my own money and my own transportation.

Other than one girlfriend for a few months in my junior year, I only dated a few times. I was tall, 6' 3", 195 pounds, wore glasses and was kind of ordinary looking. I enjoyed sports but was not very good at them. I had never learned to dance, didn't have an expensive car and was never really comfortable talking to girls. So I never attracted much attention.

During my freshman year at college I dated a girl I had met in my summer job. She was good looking, smart and was a sophomore at a nearby University on a scholarship. She was also very religious. Dancing, drinking or sex was not part of her belief system. Strangely enough she loved to make out. About once a week after going to dinner, a concert or the movies we would go parking somewhere and make out like monkeys in the backseat.

She also made sure I kept my hands away from her good parts. Every night I would go home with a case of blue balls. Toward the end of the school year she was offered a summer job in Maine. We both knew this wasn't going to go any further so we decided not to get back together when she came back to school.

After that, other than school and work, my social activities revolved around hanging out with the guys, beach party weekends at the lake weather permitting, occasional poker nights and college keggers. I kind of took to partying more than was probably good for me. I know I gave my parents fits some weekends when I stumbled home in the wee hours of the morning.

I finally lost my virginity to a girl I met at the lake during one of those beach parties. Thanks to more than a few beers on both our parts. She lived about eighty miles away so we only got together about a half dozen times. I had been her first also so we never really got into exploring the wilder aspects of sex. It was fun but when she went downstate to college at the end of the summer our relationship just sort of faded away.

A few days after meeting Lisa, I saw her sitting alone in the commons so I walked over to her table and sat down. We talked for awhile and I really felt the attraction. She told me about deciding to go into nursing since she had been working in hospitals since she was old enough to be a candy striper.

She lived at home to save money as her Dad was on disability. We talked about our families and just really hit it off. Finally I asked her if she would like to go out with me for a movie and pizza this coming week end. She said she was free on Saturday. I said great and would pick her up at seven.

So that started it. After our second date we ended up parking off of one of the county back roads and making out. She was so hot! After being in a clinch for awhile my hands were starting to wander. She finally pushed me away and sat back against the door and said, "Let's talk."

"About what?" I mumbled. "First thing that comes up," and she laughed. Well, I had to laugh too. That cooled things down for the evening.

A couple of weeks later I was visiting at her house and we started to get into it. Her parents had gone to bed but it was a small house and you knew whatever happened in one part of the house could be heard in every part of the house. I suggested we go for a ride. So we drove over to a secluded wood a few miles away.

We climbed into the backseat and we were all over each other. Pretty soon I had her shirt unbuttoned and her bra off and was licking and sucking for all I was worth. She had small breasts but nipples that got as hard as rocks. She was gasping, moaning and making appreciative noises that turned me on even more. We were both rubbing each other's crotches and I was harder than hell. I got her pants unzipped and dipped my hand down her panties and found a swamp. I got one finger in her then a second and started to go to town. About that time she got me unzipped and had a hold of my cock like she would never let go. I thought to myself, yes! This is going to happen! I started pulling her jeans and panties off and she lifted her butt to help. I shucked out of my pants, shorts and shoes in nothing flat and we went back to playing with each other.

After a bit I pulled back and looked around for my wallet. Lisa was almost panting, "What are you doing"?

"I'm looking for a condom," I said.

"Don't worry, I 'm two days away from my period, I'm safe." I thought to myself, she's a nursing student so she should know. I sat back down against the seat and she swung her leg over me, grabbed my cock and lined it up with her pussy and slowly lowered herself onto me.

I could just feel myself tickling her cervix as she bottomed out. She grabbed my face and stuck her tongue half way down my throat. Man, I never felt anything so good! It was my first time without a condom and there was just no comparison!

It only took a half a dozen strokes and I couldn't hold it. I thought it would have been running out her ears as hard as I came. At the same time she ground herself onto my cock one last time, shuddered and slowly went limp against my chest. We just lay there, holding each other. Both of us feeling something special had occurred.

After that I was whipped. I admit it. We were talking on the phone almost every day, going out once or twice every week, and almost always ended the night making love. And it wasn't just sex. I didn't know if it was love but it was close.

A friend of mine with his own apartment would let me use it on weekends when he went up north to visit his parents. We would make love three, four times a night before I had to get her home. Lisa was totally uninhibited, energetic, vocal and multi-orgasmic. We found we both enjoyed oral sex, taking showers together and making love in just about every position we had heard about. I was not her first but she said there had been only one other guy she had dated in Florida during spring break.

A few weeks later, the end of the college term and my draft notice arrived at about the same time. I had to report to the processing center in thirty days. Lisa got all weepy when I told her and she said she loved me. Up to that point I had avoided saying the 'L' word but I had to admit I thought I loved her too.

About a week before I was to leave we were out and Lisa had this nervous look on her face. "Alan, I need to tell you something. I'm late for my period." I thought, 'Oh shit'! Somehow I never thought about birth control or condoms after that first night. Neither one of us brought it up so I assumed she was safe and on the pill or something.

I just sat there, trying to think of something to say. Lisa just looked at the ground and tears started running down her face. I felt so bad I reached out and wrapped her in my arms and hugged and kissed her. After a while she settled down and we started talking about our different options.

For some reason neither one of us mentioned marriage. We decided if she were pregnant she would either have an abortion or have the baby and put it up for adoption. In either event, one of Lisa's brothers and his wife lived down in Alabama so she thought she could go live with them for awhile. Maybe she could keep the pregnancy from her friends and the rest of the family.

I said I thought that might be best. I had some money put away and as soon as my Army pay kicked in I could send her some more. Neither of us was happy that night and I took her home without our usual passionate ending.

Lisa went to the doctor a couple of days later and confirmed it. We made tentative plans for her to go down south after I went in the Army. I gave her most of everything I had in the bank, which with what money she had should take care of her needs.

We went out the night before I left and made love, over and over in a quiet kind of desperation. When I dropped her off at home, Lisa clung to me and whispered, "I am so scared, Alan, I love you more than anything". As I drove away I felt about as low as I ever had in my life.

About six hours later, myself and a couple of hundred other nervous, sleep deprived and in many cases, hung over, guys reported in to the Induction Center. After processing we were sworn into the Army, handed a box lunch, put on busses and made the ten hour drive to Ft. Knox, Kentucky. We stumbled off the bus around midnight, being screamed at by a half dozen no-nonsense Drill Instructors. We were hustled through a line to pick up bedding and then shoved into an old WWII barracks to sleep on bunks nearly as old.

Now during Vietnam, Army Basic Combat Training consisted of about one week in-processing and orientation, then six weeks of military training. Advanced Individual Training (AIT) would follow after that for what ever specialty you chose, or the Army had chosen for you. Basic included all the usual things everyone has heard of, physical fitness training, rifle instruction and qualification, obstacle course, drill & ceremony, land navigation, map reading, hygiene and dozens of other necessary military topics.

I found the trick to surviving basic training was to keep your mouth shut, do what you are told, and sleep when you got the chance. We were always exhausted from the high speed, high stress environment. I was a couple of years older than the average recruit with two years of college. So I was made a squad leader after the first one crashed and burned in week two. He had a sudden epiphany that he was a Conscientious Objector and was against the war. I think he was just a little late with that call.

Meanwhile Lisa was writing me daily. The highlight of our day was mail call. One thing about the Army, they never stood between a soldier and his mail. She told me over and over how much she loved me and kept me up to date on her progress to move to Alabama. Or I should say lack of progress. She said her sister-in-law wore the pants in that family and was not being cooperative. She was reluctant to get involved in our problems and was trying to convince Lisa to tell her parents.

Now Lisa's folks always treated me okay, but they were chain smoking, beer drinking factory rat hillbillies from way back. Her father, brother and brother-in-law were bona fide alcoholics who cheated on their spouses, fought anyone at the drop of a hat, and if not actually abused their kids, at least neglected them.

Her mother and sister spent most of their time trying to keep up with their men folk. Lisa was the baby in the family and seemed to have escaped the worst of the family influence. She never developed a taste for beer and quit smoking as soon as she found out I didn't like girls who did. Somehow I just did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling about them finding out I knocked up their baby daughter.

As the weeks rolled by I was totally involved in getting through training. But every night I was bombarded with letters from Lisa getting more and more desperate over the pregnancy. Between basic training and her letters my gut was always in a knot. I frequently wrote back and called her whenever we were given phone privileges. She kept trying to work things out with her sister-in-law but was getting nowhere.

At the time, if your training went well each company was promised a 48 hour weekend pass after week four. Lo and behold on that Thursday we were told we would be released Friday night and would not be due back until Sunday night. However the terms of the pass stated you were not to go further than fifty miles from post or you would be considered AWOL.

There were six of us in my platoon who all lived in the same county who wanted to get home and see our wives or girlfriends. So we all chipped in and rented a car and hit the road. It was more like five hundred miles to home than fifty. After eight hours of driving I was dropped off at my parent's house about two in the morning. I got about six hours sleep and then headed over to see Lisa.

Her parents had gone up to the lake where they kept a trailer so we were able to be alone. She started crying when she saw me at the door and held on to me like she thought she would never see me again. We went back to her bed and threw our clothes off. We made love and talked and made love again and talked some more.

It had come down to her sister-in-law wouldn't let her come to Alabama and she thought she was almost ten weeks along. Almost too far along for an abortion. As we made love that last time that morning she started crying and said, "I don't want to kill our baby!" That stopped me in mid-stroke. I realized that I had only one option left. I knew I couldn't abandon her.

Finally I said, "Lisa, do you want to get married?" Not the most romantic of proposals for sure.

She wiped her eyes and whispered, "I don't want you to feel you have to marry me." I assured her I didn't and I thought this would be the best solution.

As much as I dreaded it I would tell my parents before I left the next day to return to Ft. Knox. She would have to tell her parents and start making plans for the wedding. I told her whatever arrangements she wanted to make would be fine with me. But she couldn't set a date until I knew where I was going after basic training.

With the decision made we were able to relax a little and think about what this meant. Was it love? I thought so. I knew I wanted to be with her and that's all there was to it.

The next morning I caught Mom and Dad before they left for church and got the hard part over. What made it easier was that my older brother had gotten married two years before when he got his girlfriend pregnant. Things were tense for quite a while but they finally came around and things worked out. And when their baby came everything was forgiven.

I have to say a few things about my family. Dad was a mid-level supervisor for a manufacturing company and Mom was a full-time homemaker and part-time teacher's aide. They did pretty well financially, always had a nice home and were able to provide the necessities for us four boys. They were active in church and PTA.

While I was growing up, we were expected to attend church every Sunday. As soon as I was old enough to get a job I figured out if I had to work on Sunday I could get out of it. I always tried to work on Sunday. They didn't smoke, rarely swore or drank. They were very family oriented. And we never doubted they loved us.

So when I told them that Lisa and I were going to get married they had been over this ground before. Mom simply asked, "Do you have to?"

"Don't have to Mom, but Lisa is pregnant."

Dad just got this grim look on his face and Mom just shook her head. "Have Lisa call me this week and we can talk about your plans while you are off playing soldier." And then they left for church. I ran over to Lisa's to spend a couple of hours with her then met up with the guys for the drive back down south.

As graduation approached I received orders to Ft. Polk, Louisiana for my Advanced Individual Training. The Army in its infinite wisdom decided I was to receive eight weeks on-the-job training to be an administrative assistant in the post Adjutant Generals office. I always figured it was because I had a couple years of college and knew how to type. The best thing was I could have up to seven days leave before reporting. I called Lisa and asked her if that was enough time to have the wedding. Lisa, her mother and my mother had things well in hand and managed to pull it together.

We had a nice church wedding, not too large with a reception following. Lisa was a beautiful bride. And the dress she bought was loose enough to hide her beginning baby bump. Her dad supplied a keg and most of her family was drunk by the end of the night.

Lisa and I had a three-day quickie honeymoon and then I got on a plane for Ft. Polk. We decided that Lisa would continue to live at home until I finished training and received a permanent assignment. She also decided not to return to college and went back to working full-time as a ward clerk at the hospital.