Michelle and I have decided to rewrite my first, still favorite, and most popular story, 'The Night I Shared my Wife'. Why'd we decide to do it now? That's explained at the end of the story. I hope you'll enjoy reading or even re-reading as much as I enjoyed writing it and we both enjoyed this rewrite. Much of the story is true, although we have, admittedly, taken a few liberties.
I picked up my friend, Alec, at the Kodiak, Alaska International Airport. Well, it is an airport, and it's on Kodiak Island. Not so sure the term 'International' is exactly accurate, though. The ocean is on one end of the runway and a mountain on the other, not a good place to run off the end of the runway, either direction.
Alec had just completed his year-long tour of Coast Guard duty on Sitkinak Island, a tiny island in the Aleutian Chain, just off the southern tip of Kodiak Island.
Alec and I were shipped off to Sitkinak at the same time but for some quirk, they had an extra radioman so I was moved over to the CG Radio Station at Kodiak after four months. Now, eight months later, it was Alec's turn; he was finally off the desolate place. There were, I think, twenty-eight Coasties, no women; contact with the world was via a supply plane once a week when weather permitted.
I know there are worse places in the military, a lot worse. But, damn, a full year - not a single female to gaze at or drool over, never even a visitor on the supply plane. Like I said, I was off after four months, but Alec had spent the full, long year.
I was married, living off base with my pretty, young wife, Michelle, in an old WWII duplex located in a trailer park with four ancient trailers, besides the duplex. When I found out Alec's transfer schedule, I suggested to Michelle that he spend a night with us in-between his flight from Sitkinak and to Anchorage/Seattle the next day. She wholeheartedly agreed. We only had one bedroom but even our lumpy couch would be more inviting than a night in a lonely barracks bed.
I'd gotten off duty from the radio station at six that evening and had a full forty-eight hours until I was back on duty from 6 pm to 6 am two nights later, twelve-hour rotating shifts.
The little Kodiak Airways plane landed about seven that evening and I greeted my friend with a handshake and hug, the first time we'd seen each other in eight months, his first time off Sitkinak in a full year. He had one little overnight bag and everything else was being shipped to his home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
On the way back to our little duplex in my '68 Chevy, Alec filled me in on some of the fun happenings (NOT!) on Sitkinak and I told him that Michelle and I were taking him out to one of the nightclubs in Kodiak for a nice dinner. Kodiak's a small town, population about 6,000, with nine nightclubs and bars.
When we parked in the duplex, I told Alec that Michelle planned to be ready so I was just going to run in and get her, that he could wait in the car.
I got out, up the steps and in the door, stopping in my tracks and literally gawking. Michelle, my gorgeous wife, was waiting for us, ready to go.
ooOoo
Michelle and I grew up in the same town in Eastern Washington, both of us farm kids. That was where the similarity ended. She was the pretty cheerleader, homecoming princess, in the National Honor Society, the kind of girl a tall, skinny geek like me could only dream about going on a date with. Not that Michelle was a 'nose in the air' kind of girl, just that I was a shy nerd and she was pretty and popular.
I went off to college, then the Coast Guard and met up with her again when I was home on leave for my grandmother's funeral shortly after Christmas. I'd gone to a basketball game and this beautiful girl walked up beside me and said, "Hi." If I'd thought she was pretty in high school, by then she was beautiful; long, brunette hair, beautiful face, thin but beautiful feminine figure.
We sat together during the rest of the game, reminiscing about school, riding the same school bus but never speaking. I told her how shy I was and still was, as a matter of fact. She laughed and said she knew it but still had hoped I'd ask her out. I looked at her in surprise, "Me? But... you had boyfriends. I was the school nerd."
She laughed, "Boyfriends? I dated but they were just jocks. You were a nice guy, held doors for the girls, worked hard, I'd have dated you in a minute."
After that night I was lost - in love. We agreed to go to a movie the next night, Jack Frost. I picked her up at her dad's house and we laughed that it'd be fun to just head up to the mountains in the snow, instead of the movie. So we turned around, back to my parents' and borrowed their old Toyota Land Cruiser pickup and headed to the mountains.
I proposed to her the following May, after taking her an upside-down pizza at the drive-in - and she said yes! I was on cloud nine! Except... I was leaving for that tour of duty on Sitkinak, a full year. What I knew was going to be the longest year of my life.
That was where I met Alec, met him in Seattle and we flew to Anchorage, then Kodiak and Sitkinak together. I was a Radioman, just out of Radio School and he was an Electronics Technician. Over the next few months we became fast friends, even rooming together in the barracks.
Our female companionship consisted of letters from home and the Playboy centerfolds. We all had our fantasies, some we talked about, but my real one was private, anticipating my wedding night. I did enjoy making Alec drool, showing him the pictures of my girl back home that she periodically sent me.
Then, four months after arriving, I received orders for a transfer to the Kodiak Radio Station. Someone had screwed up and there were three radiomen on base, rather than the two it was allotted. I don't know why me - luck of the draw, I guess.
Anyway, I had two weeks leave before reporting so flew home. A few days later my brother and his wife took Michelle and me to Reno and on September 25th, 1998, Michelle Tucker became my wife.
That trip's a story in itself, but the night after the Park Wedding Chapel was, without a doubt, the best, hottest night of my life, forever... or so I thought.
I found the little duplex in Kodiak and Michelle joined me two weeks later. Our next months together were... how do I say it? Heaven on earth. Except for the snow, it was the worst winter in Kodiak in decades according to the locals, over a hundred-twenty total inches of snow, more than double their average. And the wind - the air station's weather tower even blew down.
But that didn't dampen our enjoyment. Michelle found a job as a legal assistant, which she'd trained for in college and it was infrequent that a night (or day, depending on my shift at the radio station) went when that we didn't make love at least once, except during her monthlies. Those four or five days every month were hard, for both of us. We were young, in love, and our sex together was a huge part of our lives.
Except, as it turns out, the almost three weeks leading up to Alec's visit, nineteen days to be exact, were the longest we'd gone without sex since our wedding night. I'd gotten sick with mono and just as I was recovering, Michelle's monthly started. Those last several days weren't just hard - they were hell!
ooOoo
