Somebody Up There Likes Me

Corpus Christy
Nov.13, `70

I woke up, and ventured out into the cold again. I wanted to split,
but I thought I would wait to see if Iva showed up with more food.
The tide was down, way down, so I walked along the beach, and
collected shells. I met Iva in the process. She asked Sonny and
Robby (two guys who hung out at the beach) if they had seen me. The
three of them came looking for me, and when they found me, Sonny
broke out the beer and we smoked dope. After the impromptu party,
Iva and I went back to my campsite where I ate the beans, crackers
and sausage that she brought with her. She told me she would not be
around for the next couple of days, since she was working on a term
paper for school. I told her I would be leaving in a day or two and
I might not see her again. We were both okay with that. I don't know
if it was intentional, but she made it easy for us to say good-bye.

As soon as Iva left the beach, I went to the fishing pier and
called Darlene. She said that I could stay at her place on my
way home. That's what I had hoped she would say. I broke camp and
took off for her apartment. When I arrived, she was all gung ho to see me.
We got down to more sexual pursuits after getting stoned and having a
few drinks. I had every reason to believe this was going to be an all night
thing, but, afterwords, while watching bit of Paul Newman's portrayal
of Rocky Graziano that was in the background playing on the TV, Darlene
surprised me by saying, "My sailor boyfriend is coming over to spend
the night. He's getting off duty at 11 pm." I looked at my watch and it
was 10:50 pm. I was laying stark naked next to her with a cigarette in my
hand. Needless to say I was up and into my clothes in seconds flat. As
soon as I had moved into the other room and rolled out my sleeping bag, I
heard a knock at the door (the Navy base was just around the corner).
Darlene came out of her bedroom dressed in her see-through nightie and a robe
loosely thrown over her shoulders. When she answered the door, she
was very nonchalant about explaining to her boyfriend that I was a
friend of Jolynn's who needed a place to stay. He didn't seem too
disturbed because after the introductions were over, the two of them
went straight into the bedroom. I spent the rest of the evening
listening to Neil Young on the stereo and eating stale Halloween
candy, trying not to pay attention to all the noise coming from the
bedroom.