A CHANGE IN THE OFFING?... Hope, at least (Part 57b)

My life suddenly had some normalcy to it, or about as much that someone in the business could have. Elle and I were getting along better (in all ways) than we had since she’d moved to the farm. Dan was treating me with some respect, although his demanding personality was always right there. Jean Paul and Marie were the perfect neighbors and I was enjoying my life for a change.

I knew my friends, Eugene and Faith, lived nearby and I was actually able to make contact with them. They seemed to be genuinely pleased to hear from me and we set up a date to meet on the upcoming Sunday. They arrived for lunch and then Elle and Faith decided to go out to the beach with the kids. Faith, like Elle, loved the water and the beach so she was really excited about that. Eugene and I used the time to get caught up. The harsh Winter had put him behind like Dan and I were and he’d decided to skip the opening of the season and to focus on the opening of the track at Wilmington. I was disappointed as I’d been hoping that we’d be able to spend time together at the first meet. As most people do when they haven’t seen each other in a while we let time get away from us. It seemed like Elle and Faith had just left when they and the kids walked back in. Elle handed me the baby and disappeared into the bathroom. When I looked at my watch I knew the reason why. It was well over two hours since they had left the apartment. When Elle reappeared she had on a different skirt. We didn’t have enough food to invite them for dinner and, thankfully, they had to leave anyway. We promised to get together before shipping out.

After they were gone I asked Elle what had happened. Knowing that I got a “thrill” out of her wetting she was willing to describe it to me. Simply put, the kids were happily playing in the sand and she and Faith were talking. She never gave a thought to time and, while sitting there on the sand, all of a sudden felt a warm feeling on her butt. There was no way to make it back to the apartment so, knowing that Faith was aware of her “problem”, just relaxed and peed right there in the sand. When they decided it was time to go back to the apartment Elle admitted what had happened. I was hard a a rock as she told me about it. I remember lying in bed picturing the scene and wishing that I had been there.

Other than a coastal storm that postponed training for a day, the following week went well. Dan had set up a schedule for which horses he wanted to train when he was to be at the track and as a result of it I was given a group of horses that were pretty much mine to train. I was really getting used to being an “associate” rather than an employee.

That Sunday was Easter. As I’ve mentioned before, Ocean City was a Summer destination and the activity didn’t really begin until the approach of Memorial day. However, having said that, the local churches had gotten together a few years earlier and offered an ecumenical sunrise Easter service on the beach. Some seasonal merchants, seeing the increase in people, decided to make Easter weekend the unofficial opening of the season. The year before they had come up with the idea of hosting an Easter Parade out on the boardwalk. To induce families to participate they offered each child, 10 years old and younger, a silver dollar when accompanied by an adult. Elle and Marie had heard about it and wanted to do it. Jean Paul and I didn’t really want any part of it. You already know who lost in that deal.

None of us took part in the sunrise service but at 12 noon were were out on the boardwalk with Jean Paul and I wearing a very unfamiliar article of clothing... a tie. Of course Elle wanted our oldest to look good and that meant a new dress and that, of course, meant a new dress for herself. I was in no position to complain as she hadn’t gotten much in the way of new clothes and certainly not a nice dress since we’d been married. She looked great, enhanced by a hair cut, another thing that hadn’t been done since before she left for her senior year in college.

It was a perfect day weather wise. As I remember it, clear blue skies with no wind at all and the temperature around 70 degrees. There were probably about 250 couples there for the parade. Just before we made it to the place where they were handing out the dollars, Jean Paul’s oldest decided to act up. He had to pick him up and carry him off. Marie was embarrassed and upset and Elle tried to comfort her. As soon as their youngest got his dollar she headed back to the apartment. After my girls got their dollars we started back as well. When we got back to where the path back to the apartment was located Elle surprised me and suggested that we walk down to the water’s edge. We had to leave the carriage and stroller on the boardwalk. After taking off our shoes we headed towards the water. I had to carry the baby. Normally, the prevailing wind created waves that washed up on the shore. But on this day there were only gentle swells. We went right to the edge, daring the water to reach us. The older girl thought this was a great game... that is until one caught her and Elle. Ocean water, in April, is rather cold, somewhere in the high 40 degree range. When it happened it scared her and, more or less, shocked Elle. As the water retreated Elle spread her legs and I watched as she proceeded to pee into the sand. Even though I was holding the baby I could feel a bulge starting. She, naturally, wasn’t happy but a quick look around showed no one in sight. At that point she smiled one of those “forced smiles” and said something along the lines of ”happy now?“. I was and the bulge proved it.

To be continued...