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 gypsy cab came the sound of an all-news station. “In other national news, a Defense Department spokesman said 18,000 of the 31,000 US troops ordered into Cambodia by Presid...

"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 included two even rougher landings. Now this. And LaGuardia was over an hour away. Still, he could recognize defeat. With a sigh, Mark opened his eyes and looked towards the...

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 Kaplan’s footsteps approached his room. Not for the first time, he flashed back to their fight the day before he left town to spend Christmas with his family. He still co...

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.” Gwen put down her nail polish and reached for the phone her father had installed in the bedroom she shared with her kid sister. “Hey, Robin. Where are you? Is everything a...

"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 pass for this weekend," he announced with a triumphal grin. "That means I won't have to report back here until Monday morning. Do you think you can handle that situation...

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 man who had so disrupted her once well-ordered life. Mark Cahill lay stretched out in bed with his eyes closed, using earphones to listen to a recording of, “A Farewell to...

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 be 1970, but these so-called ‘beau parlors were the only sanctioned spot for what the school conduct manual still referred to as, “entertaining gentleman callers.” As she...

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 opinion, things could have been one hell of a lot worse. He was out of his room at the nearby Manhattan veterans’ hospital, sitting in a coffee shop on Lexington Avenue and st...

“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 examining several unidentified objects under the wilted lettuce leaves on her salad. "Yes," said Gwen while methodically stirring her yoghurt. "Yes, what?" Ann’s voice held a...

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 never again mentioned her high school experience. The next morning, on their short walk to work, she didn’t even bring up Gwen kissing Mark or the Diet-Rite bet on wheth...

"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 room as her addled mind raced with unanswered questions. How had it happened? She wasn't sure.Had she, somehow, encouraged him? She didn't think so.Should she tell her h...

“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 background noise to her life. She cared, but had been hearing about the war since junior high. Now things were different. Now she knew someone who had fought over there,...