Spoils of Invasion

Michael G. Crawford

Chapter Four

"HUUUUHHH!" she shouted as she lunged for the little blue ball as it sang by an inch off the floor. "SHIT!" she screamed as she realized she had missed it.Carlson had beat her on the first set. Now she had to win the next two sets or give up her racquetball position on the challenge ladder. Damn, Double Damn.

"Great Game!" said Angie, really excited at her win. It had been a hard won victory, Darla serving nothing but shit on the serves, and continually finding the little black holes in the corners. Angie had won only by forcing to Darla's backhand, which for some reasons was as big a killer today as usual. Never one to back off from an advantage, Angie had pressed her victory serve by serve until this last one had totally aced Darla to the floor. Maybe her serve was improving. Good combination, her serve improving, and Darla having an off day on her backhand. What a break.

"Ahhh Damn" said Darla as she just sat on the floor staring at the front wall.

"Come on Darla. You can't win 'em all" said Angie, instantly regretting it. In the last two years, she had noticed that the young cadet was so fiercely competitive that the thought of losing drove her almost into a rage. She also knew that the young woman had learned to keep that rage under control. But having an upperclassmen remind her of that need for control, was akin to an insult. Especially when it came from Angie. The two of them had never really hit it off, the demands of discipline between upper and lower classmen had never ceased to grind at the commonality of the two women, as like poles in magnets, they tended to solidly repel and repel.

"Fuck you, Sir!" said Darla with a sour look on her face, then after a moment of looking like she was going to cry, she smiled and said, "It only figures that if I was going to lose my spot on the ladder, you'd be the one to take it. Justice in some screwy sort of way I'd say."

"Nah, just bad luck. I know you don't want to hear it from me, God knows I lean on you alot, but I think you're a fantastic hitter..." Angie replied.Then not believing she would break discipline so easily, she heard herself say, "...Not bad officer material either."

Darla's head spun around and her eyes locked onto Angie's with an intensity that frightened her somewhat."Whoa, I think that was the wrong thing to say" she thought to herself as the flames in Darla's eyes seemed to heat the room in a very uncomfortable way, the tension suddenly tripling.

"Let us hope that both of us find ourselves with a stick between our legs that is not attached to some male fighter jockey" Darla replied quietly. Then realizing that it didn't come out quite as she meant it,

"No, I'm not gay, take it literally." Both women knew that a lot of their male counterparts thought that the way female Academy graduates left the Air Force was via the maternity ward. And both knew it was a matter of choice, and that even with modern contraceptives, they both had chosen to abstain for quite a while to make the decision clear to their male classmates.

Angie smiled at that then turned and begin to lightly tap the ball up and down on her horizontal racket.

"Come on, cadet. You've rested long enough."

******************************************************

A little later in the game, Angie missed a good shot and in frustration slammed the racket against the right side wall just as she was turning away from the front wall. Unseen by her, Darla had turned with the ball and following its action, was right behind Angie.The racket bounced off of the wall and popped Darla right in the temple just behind the eye, before the lanyard yanked it back to Angie's side.

"Yeeowww" sang out Darla, and Angie turned quickly hearing the pain in the cadet's voice.

"You okay?"

"Oh shit. Yeah. Damn it hurts."

"Let me see"

"Take a hike."

"No really, let me look. Ouch. Looks like its going to swell."

"Oh good. Tuttleson will be all over me. Probably accuse me of having a boyfriend that beats me."

"Nah. He'll say I'm too rough on my people" said Angie in a strange sounding voice, and it was Darla's turn to wonder. Angie was biting her lip, a very strange expression on her face.

"What gives?"

"It's nothing. Let's go get some ice on your 'wound'", she said with a grin.

"Right, maybe a six inch gauze pad will make it fell better...look better too, huh."

"Yeah, and it Tuttleson says anything about it, tell him its an old Kotex."

"Cruel, really cruel Carlson. You'd make a fine fighter jock. But I want to get back in here and play out the final game. I have a reputation to withhold."

"Yeah, okay. But don't get your hopes up. Not many of my opponents play well after I smack em with my racket" replied Angie, demonstrating by waving her racket around.

"Only way you'd win" grumbled Darla, as Angie laughed.

Chapter Five
Comments

writers@mcint.com
Last Updated: November 8, 1996