Free Kiss of the She-Devil by M. William Phelps Page B

“George’s dad had worked at a newspaper.” George had the makings of a potentially perfect husband. During an era when girls were looking for boys to run off and get married to before the war took the men away, George was a catch. Marriage was much more of an expected aspect of life for a young girl then, especially in devout Catholic homes. For a young Catholic woman, there were two vocation choices: marriage or religious life. Being single was not an option that parents or the Church pushed. Gail, who prayed the rosary every night (right up until her death), had grown up with strong family values. She wanted to have a family of her own and pass on that legacy to her own kids.
    George’s father had died when he was young, and his mother had raised nine kids on one income, so it was hard for them, a friend later explained. They did not have it easy. And then George’s mother died. This, some later suggested, hardened George.
    The one thing George wanted out of life as he entered into his senior year of high school was to be a career officer in the military. He knew the military could pay for his education and allow him the opportunity to excel in whatever career choice he made. If he was going to be drafted, why not jump in headfirst and take control of a presumed destiny himself?
    As Gail and George spent time together, talking, hanging out, it was a period in their lives when Gail and Jeanette loved nothing more than going to the local revival movie house and watching old films. They had those actors they bit their palms over and became rubbery at the sight of: Randolph Scott, Tyrone Power, James Dean. They adored the likes of Maureen O’Hara and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie West Point was a favorite of the girls. So when George was appointed to go to West Point, a romantic dream—a manifestation of Hollywood—came into focus for this conservative Catholic schoolgirl. As George left and went off to West Point, Gail graduated high school and enrolled at Baylor University, which was a family legacy. Baylor was a Christian university located in Waco. The school was in the same state as her home, but it was a 320-mile, near six-hour drive from her house. It seemed George and Gail’s paths had crossed and separated. The white-picket-fence dream quashed before it had a chance to blossom. Gail was one of those who believed that if God wanted it to be, the relationship with George would find its way. The next several years were about studying, anyway. She could wait.
    They lost touch and did not write much as George pursued his dream of becoming an officer. Gail sank herself into her major, speech therapy. But when George returned from West Point and Gail came home from Waco as a college graduate, they ran into each other again and started dating. The dream of a house filled with kids was back on.
    “George was the first guy Gail was really attracted to,” said a friend. But he wasn’t the first guy she’d ever dated. “Definitely the first serious relationship, though.”
    Gail had heard that Jeanette had dated George once. “But it was more like we went to a movie together,” Jeanette corrected. George and Jeanette had been like brother and sister because George had spent so much time at Jeanette’s house. Yet before Gail could ever consider a serious relationship with George—and this showed the type of person Gail was—she approached Jeanette and asked her if she was still interested. It bothered Gail that perhaps she was stealing her friend’s man.
    “Oh, my,” Jeanette responded, “if you want him, Gail, you can have him!”
    And they laughed about it.
     
     
    Jeanette had been at the funeral home the night before the funeral mass, “arranging flowers, setting chairs straight . . . just hanging around, paying my last respects to Gail.” It was her way of spending a final few moments alone with her onetime best friend.
    As she was doing this, George happened to “burst into the viewing room.”