HOT, HOT, HOT... in many ways (Part 135d)

HOT, HOT, HOT... in many ways (Part 135d)

What Sabrina saw was two grown adults in clothes almost totally soaked plus three children in the same condition. I wouldn’t say the look on her face was one of shock but it was close to it. She was dressed as if she’d just come from a lawn party. A flowered chiffon dress that came to just above her knees was what she was wearing. I hate to admit it but she did look good. She wanted to know what was going on and as the kids gathered around her they told her she should try it too. She laughed her little girl laugh and then politely declined. Elle told the kids to go on without us. The three of us then went over to the patio and took a seat around the picnic table. Knowing that Sabrina had been spending time with Bebe I tried to get some more information without being ‘pushy’. As soon as I mentioned Bebe her expression changed. The fire chief had told me about Bebe’s brother but I didn’t know who knew and who didn’t so took a different ‘tack’ (sailing term). I asked where Bebe and her family were going to be staying. At first she gave a ‘hands up’ signaling to me that she didn’t know. Then, as if a light came on she jumped up and said that maybe they could stay at her house. I knew she didn’t have much furniture and the only bed in the house was hers so kind of dismissed the idea right away. My ‘take’ was it was a hair brained idea from an ‘air head'.

But she seemed fully committed to the idea and started bouncing up and down. She already knew that there were literally no rentals available as Tom had told both she and Martin that some relatives of his had tried to get a place right before the 4th of July. Most rentals were signed up almost a year in advance because our geographic area was a Summer destination. It was obvious that she was sincere about the concept so I tried to reel her enthusiasm in a bit by reminding her about her lack of furniture, especially beds. She wasn’t going to be deterred and headed back through the hedge.

By then both Elle and I were getting a bit cold. Wet clothes, even in almost 80 degrees but with a stiff breeze blowing, can chill a person very quickly. As Elle stood up I could see her backside wasn’t all that wet and I grabbed her and pulled her into my lap. With my right hand buried into her crotch I asked if she would ‘go’. I got a ‘look’ but within seconds I could feel my groin and upper thighs get unusually warm. We didn’t stay that way long as Elle was concerned that the kids would be getting cold as well.

Listening to the news on the way in to work in the morning I heard the official ‘word’ about the death in the Always Inn fire. But, there was something very unexpected in that news... fire officials believed that the cause was an explosion and not in the kitchen area. Preliminary speculation had been that the fire started in or around the kitchen even though it didn’t start until after 1am. That was all the information that was given. I didn’t dwell on it but it did get me to thinking about Sabrina’s idea of letting Bebe and her family stay at her house. I wondered where she went after leaving our place the previous evening and if she was able to generate any interest.

Arriving around 8:45am I was shocked to see J J’s VW 'bug' in the parking lot. He never got in early usually arriving about 9:10am or so. Also in the parking lot were the cars for Bert and Hobie. I pretty much knew why they were all there. What I didn’t expect was to be called to Bert’s office right after the doors were opened to the public. J J wasn’t in his office as I walked by so I assumed he was in Bert’s office... but he wasn’t. It was just Bert and Hobie. Told to sit down after closing the door I listened to Bert say that what I was about to hear was not to go any further. It sounded ominous and I wondered why I was there.

Basically I was asked what I’d seen as the acting Secretary for the mortgage committee meeting.  I went over everything including Joe’s ‘attack’ on the new account/gift campaign where he’d totally ignored the chairman of the gift selection committee and got the other members to agree with his position. Then I told them how Joe challenged J J’s underwriting skills on a number of mortgage submissions and that J J wasn’t allowed to explain or to defend his position. That led to J J telling Joe ‘off’ and Joe shouting back at him. At that point I was told that ‘Polak’ Joe had seriously overstepped his position. I was told that the Chairman of the Board had called for a special meeting that afternoon and the situation was to be fully addressed at that time. They told me that even though J J had been wrong to challenge Joe and to have gotten into a shouting match with him he was still employed. Then I was told, emphatically, not to talk about the situation with anybody, inside or outside the bank, as it was strictly a private matter. I was then excused. As I walked out I checked J J’s office and it was still empty.

Lobby traffic had fallen off dramatically and as I came down the stairs I could see that there were no customers opening new accounts. The three girls were just chatting with each other so I decided to find something for them to do. The tool kits that we were giving away as gifts were still not moving. I’d confirmed that we could return one gross of them so decided to have the girls pack them up. When they’d arrived we had no place to store them in the cartons they were shipped in. The only place we had was under the stairs right at the very bottom and to get them placed there we had to take them out of the cartons. Lillian had climbed under the stairs and Fran and Karen passed the individual boxes in to her. It had been enjoyable watching Lillian as she showed little modesty as she moved about in the cramped space. For that reason I was tempted to have her be the one to retrieve them but the reality of the situation called for it to be more prudent to have her spend the time working with Katy, the drive-up teller, who she’d soon replace. That left just Fran and Karen. Fran had been adamant that she wouldn’t compromise herself by climbing under the stairs and she was again. Even though she wore very short dresses and skirts she knew how to do it with grace. I looked over at Karen who just stood there not saying a word. Finally she shrugged her shoulders and made a bit of a disapproving face.

We’d thrown the original packaging used to ship the tool kits into the trash so knew we had to find replacement cartons. Hank, the messenger/custodian, had located some heavy cardboard boxes used to ship typewriters. I showed them how to place the individual kits inside the boxes and then left them to get to work taking Lillian over to the drive-up window. One of the caveats to getting Lillian to stay was in offering Fran, her best friend, a job. The only thing I could come up with was organizing the old records located in the basement. She wasn’t overly thrilled but it was a job and she would still be working (sort of) with her friend, Lillian. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure it was all going to work and I fully expected Fran to be a potential problem.

To be continued...