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The Bet
- • A quick flash about something to do with a formal party setting and a contest. This is a memory from being Manfred. I am an adult.
- • I keep seeing a high vaulted ceiling with fancy crystal chandelier with white crown modeling and ceiling buttons. The walls are a deep golden yellow color. There are long window where some light is coming through. It must be afternoon or early evening. I am seeing two time frames. One during the afternoon and the other during the evening. I suspect this memory or situation I am recalling takes place over many hours.
- • It is during the time the room is lit with sunlight that I recall seeing men in grey uniforms standing around chatting. Some of them are pilots and other officers. There are people rushing about and we are ignoring them. I think they are the wait staff. They are cleaning up after what I believe was a luncheon. There are tables set up in this enormous room. I have the impression that we all had finished having lunch about an hour or so ago and everyone is still around talking. Or perhaps boasting and posturing would be a better description.
- • This is a part of the set of memories that show Oswald Boelcke is still alive while I was commander of Jasta 11. The two Jastas developed a rivalry because of Boelcke and myself being at odds with each other. Not hating each other, but not really amused with the other one.
- • Someone is boasting about someone being a real ladies man. He gets all the girls. The speaker is someone who is a high command desk jockey. This person is supposing that the person he is talking about has no troubles with the ladies. My guys are kinda smirking and I say nothing. Somehow the topic turns in a direction that this man thinks that this individual could get any girl he wanted. He also made the comment that he didn't think there was another man around he could best him at this. This perks the ears of my gambling pilots. Suddenly a contest or a wager idea is ensuing. I am just listening to this and occasionally watching the people scurring back and forth preparing the hall. I know the person the man is talking about is no great ladies' man but I am not going to be rude and say that.
- • Someone says that he thinks he knows someone who could out do this so called ladies' man. I am getting the impression that this situation has come up before... I am keeping quiet and just watching the masterful maneuvering done by one of my men. Remember this is before I became really well known. It is in the first months of Jasta 11, and of course the recorded history of those months seem a bit off. This clever man talks with the desk jockey and they decide on how to measure the success of contest. They decide upon a particular woman that this desk jockey knows is well, frigid. And a dance and kiss is required for success. I pop in and ask if this frigid woman is pretty.
- • The other pilot looks at me with a concerned eye, and I follow up my question with the statement that these "contestants" may not wish to pursue an unattractive woman. The desk jockey assures me that the woman is attractive and even more so. I am also strongly getting the impression that the desk jockey had not been introduced to me.
- • The two betting men decide to ask the supposed ladies's man if he was up for the game and then find a contender. The desk jockey agrees and they shake hands on the deal. The bet was for a case of alcohol. I kinda roll my eyes at my friend. I know he is going to ask me to be the competition. I don't clearly recall who the desk jockey had been referring to as being the ladies man, I think it may have been Oswald Boelcke, which meant this was going to be an interesting evening.
- • Another flash - It was Oswald Boelcke. It is evening and we are all in our dress uniforms. The big hall has been cleared of tables and an orchestra has been set up on one end of the room. The chandeliers have been lit. Old Ozi has come up to me with a rather sour expression on his face and says to me near my ear, "You can have the fucking bitch." And then walks off. I look across the crowded room where I think I have only been in for about 30 minutes and start looking for the "fucking bitch" as Boelcke put it. I know I later found out that while he was trying to be friendly with her, she made a remark that she thought he had horrible teeth.
- • She was blonde, tall, slender and wearing a white dress. Her hair was stylishly put up and her white dress had lots of beads sewn on it. It looked expensive. She looked expensive. I still can't see her face clearly, but I do recall my impression was that she was very attractive in an elegant and sophisticated. She was sexy yet intimidating. I managed to asked her for a dance. She dances well. Very graceful.
- • We dance a waltz without much of a word between us. She is very formal, and extremely graceful. I am impressed with her graceful ease. I finally tell her how impressed I am with her graceful dancing and ask if she would honor me with another dance. She looks at me, kinda the way the character 7 of 9 in Star Trek Voyager would when appraising a subject and says to me in a manner of fact tone, "Perhaps later. Thank you." She left me there and was instantly swallowed up by a sea of admirers and suitors.
- • A very perplexing woman indeed. Who the hell was she? She had to be nobility was my first thought although I didn't see any jewelry that would denote her as being such. One of the pilots or other officers that was in on the bet came up to me and asked what happened. I think I had a perplexed look on my face. I told him that she would think about another dance. He patted me on the back and said I got further than anyone else. I walked off the dance floor with him and got something to eat or drink. I can't remember which.
- • I decided to dance with a few other ladies while I thought about this perplexing woman. I danced with a lady in a light blue gown that had layers of soft ruffles. She was very thin and had dark hair. She was fun to talk with and finally it occurred to me that I should ask her who the woman in white was. She giggled a bit and told me that she didn't know the lady in white, but there was plenty of gossip about her being some wealthy heiress that had been highly educated and was difficult to please. She had a reputation for being cold and formal.
- • I keep getting flashes of seeing her again up close, but I can't tell whether that was wishful thinking or it really happened.
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