USS James T. Wilson amphibious landing ship
0200h Somewhere in the South Caribbean Sea
The soft tropical breezes offered an unparalleled sensation against her oleander skin while she thought about her lover from whom she'd been separated for almost two months and would still have to wait yet another before seeing her again. Annalisa was the only lesbian aboard the Wilson amphibious vessel. She was one of, if not the most beautiful women on the ship and the attention from her male contemporaries was appreciated in the beginning -- the joy in knowing she was desired across the sexes -- but the luster of which had faded quickly and left her longing after the lover she was to be without.
The heavy footsteps of thick soled boots approached as a young man came onto the deck for a cigarette. He was surprised that anyone else was out there at such an hour, let alone the Sapphic beauty about whom he had heard so much, typically in pejorative senses through the wishes of the other Marines in his unit about how they could "change her" in a single night.
She'd seen this man before and respected his solemnity. He was younger (or at least seemed it) and worked with a Marine Captain and Staff Sergeant as a designated marksman for the small craft company attached to the Wilson.
"Good evening, Petty Officer."
"Good evening, Marine." She replied.
"Cigarette?" He offered. She declined and the two, keeping a space between them of about six feet, stared off into the docile sea, glistening in the autumn moonlight. He took a drag from his cigarette, but a cough had snuck up on him. The cigarette fell out and instinctively he attempted to catch it, burning the fleshy part of his palm, under his thumb.
"Oh shit, are you okay?" She asked.
"I think I burned myself," he said, laughing a little to extinguish any sense of emergency.
"Let me see it." And he extended his open hand to show the small circle of blistered skin.
"Come with me, we'll get it patched up." And he followed her, pleasantly stuck in the aura of her perfume that had been concealed by the sweet, tropical air outside. She knew exactly where to go and the corpsman on duty, a woman, gave her an almost suggestive smile, and before the young man could make a proper introduction, the angelic beauty of the Wilson had vanished.
A week later at dinner, after several members of his unit had gotten up to leave, the unoccupied seat opposite the young man had been filled by the same woman he'd been trying to find since that night. She asked about his hand and he showed her. He thanked her for her help and, in concealing his nervousness, introduced himself with his first name, Fabian. She smiled as she said, "I'm Annalisa". The conversation took a more upbeat turn and suddenly the young Marine had forgotten that he was speaking with this woman of simplistic, yet raw beauty -- shoulder length black hair and rich white skin that bore the tint of the slightest sun kissed color, big brown eyes, round, mesmerizing, piercing all in one -- and the two became lost in talk of movies and music, which evolved into his confession of a passion for acting and her inquiring further about the life of a man of whom she'd only thought in passing.