INTO THE "HEAT" OF SUMMER... (Part 25d)

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Note: The next few days became very much disjointed as far as creating a time line goes. I can remember pretty much everything that transpired but not the specific order. I’m going to list the events and try to put them into a sequence. I apologize in advance if it all tends to get a little confusing.
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I’m pretty sure I had the opening shift at the gas station because I remember being surprised that Elle wasn’t at work when I took my lunch break, downtown. I made a quick trip home and when i got to her house her mother was just leaving to take the rest of her shift. She told me that it was “that time of the month” for Elle and she didn’t feel all that well. She was, in fact, telling me to leave. I managed to find the time to call later that afternoon and was told that she hoped to feel better the next day. That pretty much told me that she wasn’t interested in seeing me that night. That worked well for me because it allowed me to go help my friend Cliffy get his reacecar ready for Saturday night and his very first race.

I remember that we worked well into the early morning. I knew that two of my mother’s cousins were coming to spend the weekend but, because I hadn’t seen much of my mother over the past few days, didn’t know when they were arriving. When I got to the top of the stairs I saw that the “guest” room door was closed. But, when I walked into my room there was someone in my brother’s bed. (I realize that I haven’t mentioned him in quite a while. He managed to “flunk out” of the boarding school that I had graduated from . My parents found another that was willing to take him under the condition that he, again, attend Summer school.) I didn’t want to turn on the light to find out just who it was but assumed it was Fil, my mother’s male cousin. I was too tired to really care. When the alarm went off I was surprised to see that it wasn’t. It was the son of a friend of the family that I knew on an offhand basis.

(One of my father’s best childhood friends had joined the Navy during the 2nd World War and had stayed in after it was over. Raised on a farm, he had no desire to come home and become a farmer which is what his father had wanted. By staying in the service he had an excuse not to. But, when his father died he left the farm to the son. By the time he returned home he and his wife had three children, two girls and a boy. He sold his father’s farm as soon as he could and purchased a rundown old bar/restaurant with the idea of fixing it up. He. himself, had been a cook while in the Navy and his wife had some restaurant experience. When they returned my parents renewed thier friendship and when the restaurant opened opened, big supporters. I, because I was away at school, didn’t really get to know the kids even though one of the girls had graduated with Elle and Cliffy. In any case, sometime during the previous afternoon, their house caught fire and the mother, working in the kitchen, had been seriously burned. The father and kids went to the hospital to be with her and at some time my parents were called and told of the situation. My mother, always the benevolent one, offered to take the kids home for the night. It was the boy who I found in my room and it was the girls who were in the “guest” room.)

I, as usual, was running late and, in spite of my curiosity, chose not to wake him to find out why he was there. I got a good idea soon after arriving at work. Almost everybody was talking about “the fire”. One thing about a small town is that news travels fast. I waited to call my mother to make sure she was up and when I did I got the “scoop”.

I honestly don’t think I thought much about my second cousins who would be arriving on the evening train and where they would sleep. However, my mother did. Knowing that I was helping Cliffy work on his racecar at his house, my mother called his mother to ask if I could spend the next few nights with them. Of course she said “yes”. I didn’t find out about it until I went home for supper. I pulled in the driveway and was headed for Elle’s house to find out how she was feeling. I heard my mother calling and went back to be told of the arrangement. I was surprised because I could’ve slept on a sofa. I didn’t argue (I knew better!) but after eating I collected some clean clothes and then headed for Elle’s.

She didn’t look well ay all and she told me that if she didn’t feel better by the next day that her mother would call the doctor. Knowing her mother’s feelings about doctors I kind of got the feeling that it might be something serious. I went back to work and finished up and headed for Cliffy’s.

To be continued...