SUMMER... My day of infamy (Part 84f)

With the “damage” done she stood up and peered into the bag. When she pulled the shorts out her reaction was the same as mine when I’d felt the ones in Cat’s trunk. It was something like “They’re different.” I used the moment to suggest that she go in and get washed up and to put them on. At just about any other time I would’ve gone inside with her. Even though I saw she was pleased with the gift and that she seemed happy with my having a job again I wasn’t convinced that she was over the fact that I had yelled at her. As she went inside I went over to my older daughter to see what she was doing to wait for Elle to return..

When she came back outside I could see that she absolutely loved the clothes, especially the top. She always did like pastels and bright colors. As I watched her approach I could see that the shorts did not fit as snugly as the one’s I’d seen on Cat. I wanted her to turn around so I could see her from the backside but before I could she asked if the store had shorts in the yellow that would match the top. I shrugged my shoulders because I didn’t know. I’d been so focused on getting the white shorts I never looked at the other clothes in that section. I’d left the price tags on and she’d noted that they were on sale. Then, doing something that she almost never did, she asked if we could go back downtown to see if they did. Silently, I exhaled deeply. I’d just spent almost half of the money I’d gotten from selling my old sails and she was asking me to spend more. I did some quick thinking and my head said “no“ but my heart said “yes”. The clothes had bought me some goodwill and right about then I sure needed it. I figured I needed to build up some more “brownie” points and since she wanted them it would be smart to at least go take a look.

I changed my clothes and we all headed downtown. I’d been lucky to find a parking place on the street the first time but no such luck this time. I pulled into my grandfather's yard and the first thing I noticed was some clothes hanging on the wash line from the small back porch over to the apple tree. Even though Elle was with me I was a bit excited, hoping to see some other items that belonged to Jan, the young nurse who was now watching over my grandfather at night. But all that was there was a white uniform and a full slip. We went in to say hello and to let my grandfather see the kids. I told Elle not to say anything about the girl or the moving of his bed to him as my father had said he was still upset. We didn't stay long as the kids were a little restless so it was an excuse to leave.

As we walked down the street to the store, Jean, my oldest started fussing about ice cream. They didn’t get to go downtown all that often but whenever they did we would usually buy the kids ice cream. I remember thinking that this little trip was going to be expensive. We stopped at the store first. In a way I was hoping that they didn’t have the yellow shorts but they did. I convinced Elle to try on a pair marked small. When she came out of the changing room my eyes bugged out of my head. They fit her just like the one’s I'd seen on Cat. WHEW! It was quite a sight... complete with a camel toe. But Elle felt that they were a bit too tight and that, with her pregnancy, she’d be able to wear them longer if she got the medium one's. I couldn’t argue (and didn’t) as the medium size still offered a pretty fair VPL. She really liked the color and felt she had a number of tops that would go with them. She liked them so much she even asked the saleslady if she could leave them on. As I paid for them I was already thinking of how good things might go that night.

The next stop was the ice cream parlor (that’s what they were called, back in the day). We were almost there when I heard Elle swear. Anne, the youngest hadn’t wanted to walk so Elle ended up carrying her. She had a habit of kicking her feet when being carried and my thought was that dirt from her shoes had gotten on Elle’s new clothes. It was worse, at least to Elle. As often happens, time gets away from us and it had for Elle. Just as we were about to go up the steps Elle felt a spurt and that’s when she cursed. When I realized what was happening I took Anne and Elle dashed inside. It was about noon and the place was filled with people there to eat lunch. Neither Elle nor I wanted the kids eating ice cream outside but there were no booths open. I knew the kids wouldn’t be happy without it so, reluctantly, ordered a couple of cones for them. We had the ice cream and yet there still was no Elle. I had my hands full trying to keep the ice cream from dripping onto their clothes so didn’t see Elle approaching. She was definitely not happy as we left the store.

As I mentioned, the store was crowded with lunchtime customers. There was a line for the restrooms and when Elle saw it she also saw the phone booth in the hallway. She ducked inside and... if you’ve been reading this blog for any time now... you know what happened. She waited until the line went down and finally got into the restroom. She took a whole bunch of paper towels and tried to soak as much of the wetness up as she could. What I thought was funny was that the deep yellow of the shorts pretty much masked the “damage” she’d done to them.

After the kids finished their cones Elle carried Anne which pretty much covered her from the front and I walked closely behind her. When we got back to my grandfather’s there was a car parked right behind ours. I hadn’t thought to move it down to the carriage house before we left. As we got to the station wagon I saw Jan, the girl who was staying at night, coming down the steps of the back porch. Elle was putting Anne into the back and bending over. She was wearing her usual band leg cotton panties and, for me, the VPL was a good one. It had been at least a half hour since Elle’s “accident” but I could hardly see the evidence. When Jan walked up to her I could see Elle blushing. After the introductions we were off. And so was Elle. It seemed like all the good I’d done with buying her the clothes was gone. She would not be convinced that she’d totally embarrassed herself, not once but twice.

To be continued...