On a hot Friday afternoon in the summer of 1970, a young nursing student left work at the VA hospital, and hurried out to the nearby bus stop on First Avenue. The usual stop-and-go Friday traffic appeared to be stuck on stop. From the open windows of a gy...
"What’s dat stuff on your face, mistuh? What is it?" Mark Cahill tried to pretend he was asleep. But the high-pitched young voice was penetrating, and persistent. His day had been filled with an early departure and a long, rough connecting flight that inc...
In the summer of 1970, an engaged, Jewish, student nurse and a wounded Vietnam vet from the south met in a New York VA hospital. This chapter marks the end of the beginning of their story. Mark Cahill’s body tensed at the familiar, rhythmic click of Gwen...
They might be spending more money on dates and making love instead of making out, but some things, such as Johnny, never seemed to change. The imperative, female voice boomed down the hallway. “Gwen, pick up the phone, already! It’s your friend Robin.” G...
"Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news. Which do you want first?" Gwen had just walked into Mark's hospital room and was taking off her damp raincoat. "Since I'm still standing," she said, "give me the good news first." "I've wrangled a three day...
Minutes after her fiance’ stormed away, pouting over not getting his way during their time alone, she decided to test how a certain other man would act in a similar situation. Gwen Kaplan stood in the doorway of the familiar hospital room, studying the ma...
She had two lovers: the fiance’ she’d loved for years and wanted to marry, and this new man, the one she couldn’t stop seeing... Gwen Kaplan sat in one of the small, doorless cubicles that lined the back wall of the lobby of her all-female dorm. It might...
Blurb: She felt excited, nervous, maybe even a little scared. Most of all, her mind kept spinning trying to figure out just how she’d ever gotten herself into this room, at this moment and, most of all, with this man. ### In Mark Cahill’s considered opini...
“Ann, are you telling us our straight-arrow, nice-Jewish-girl-from-Queens, Gwen, took some guy she was fooling around with on her ward to the park where they did, God only knows what?” "Is this stuff animal, vegetable, or mineral?" Ann was cautiously exam...
Mark stood and offered his hand. She smiled and accepted the help. In one gentle, fluid motion, he lifted her from the chair and then into his arms. The kiss that followed was long, natural, and perfect. After her confessional the night before, Ann would...
"And while you're making out with this ‘Nam vet, I'm stuck on the urology ward with a bunch of old farts who can't pee, and jive doctors who keep hustling me." Still stunned by the patient’s unexpected kiss, Gwen Kaplan leaned against the wall outside his...
“In other national news, a Defense Department spokesman said 18,000 of the 31,000 US troops ordered into Cambodia by President Nixon have been withdrawn.”Gwen Kaplan gave her bangs one last touch. Before this summer, news about the war in Vietnam had been...
