MORE... surprises and changes (Part 138a)

MORE... surprises and changes (Part 138a)

The lawn was waiting. As I headed for the garage to get the mower I could hear Kaye and Anne arguing over by the playhouse. Kaye, at 3 years old, wasn’t old enough to understand ‘rules’ especially when they were being administered by her almost seven year old sister. She’d follow along for a while but when she found she wasn’t getting her way... at all... she protested. I’d seen it before and pretty much knew how to defuse the situation. It took a few minutes and when I turned back towards the garage I saw a strange car pulled up to it. I also saw Elle leaning in through the passenger side window and an obvious wet spot between her legs. I walked up and peered in only to see one of my least favorite people... Pat, the PTA lady. Since the school board election she’d pretty much been unseen, at least by Elle and I. When Elle saw me she told me that we were invited to an informal welcoming get together for the new principal and his wife at Pat’s place. She was inviting all the members of the ‘group’ and was hoping to get at least ten people to show up. As you know, I’d had my fill of Pat but... I quickly realized that this was an opportunity to meet the man (and his wife) in an informal setting. There had been a rumor that there was to be a “meet and greet” at the school a week after he started for the general public. I surprised Elle when I told her that I’d go. The last thing I heard her say to Pat was that if she could get her mother to take the kids on short notice we’d be there.

As Pat drove down the hill I was smiling when I commented to Elle that she’d been “pretty brave” going out to meet Pat in wet pants. She laughed and said she’d gone out to the garage to get clippers to cut some flowers and when she heard the car it was too late to get to the house. But, she said she figured that if she talked with Pat through the passenger side that she’d not see that she was wet. In a way I was proud of her.

It was a pretty safe bet that Elle’s parents would take the kids on a Saturday night. They never went out and Elle’s father would often complain that he didn’t get to see the kids all that much. Pat had said the principal had reluctantly agreed but that they weren’t sure what time they’d arrive since they were going out to eat. Pat had suggested that we arrive around 7:30pm and when we did I was glad to see Bob and his wife, Phyl along with Fritz and his wife, Nanci. To see Nanci there was a bit of a surprise because she was the former principal’s secretary and I’d wondered if she’d be retained. It just seemed awkward. Jon (the milkman) and his wife, Ginger weren’t there and neither was Johnnie and Sandy. Aurelia and her husband said they’d be a little late. So, the final tally would be ten people.

There had been ‘sightings’ of the man and resultant descriptions. When he stepped out of his car I felt as if I’d seen him before. One description was that he looked like a fireplug. Short, maybe 5’5“, and stocky, his look was formidable. His chin was a prominent part of his facial features but when he spoke, the strength of it really got your attention. Then, his wife got out and, as funny as it may sound, except for the amount of hair on her head and the fact she was wearing a skirt, she looked like the principal’s twin. When she spoke though, you knew who was the ‘boss’ in this family.

Pat was her usual controlling self. I’m sure that both of the guests felt like they were being ‘grilled’ based upon the questions she asked them. The fact that interested me the most was that the reason for their visit (He didn’t officially start until August 1st) was to line up living quarters. With five children, he’d found few options. Because our geographic area was a Summer destination most of the homes were unheated bungalows and those that had heat were small. The all year round houses that they’d been shown were in poor shape and unacceptable to the woman. After listening to their woes I spoke up and asked if they’d been shown Sabrina’s house. Of course they didn’t know who Sabrina was so I described the house. It did have a distinctive exterior and when I told them what it looked like they said they hadn’t seen it.

One unique thing about that area, when it came to real estate, was that there was no multiple listing service. You would go to a realty company and look at their inventory and if you didn’t see anything you liked you moved on to another. The thing I remembered about the night I’d almost been run into by the guy who’d listed Sabrina’s house was that he’d told me he’d just opened up his office. That, more or less, explained why they hadn’t seen it. Since I’d been in the house a few times I was able to give them some detail and they seemed somewhat interested. At least the woman was.

They were tired and left around 9pm. I gave then the directions so they could drive by the place and at least get the name of the realtor and his telephone number. We stayed for a while and aired our opinions of both of them. We all agreed that he would be a definite improvement over the old principal. To a person, we all had questions about his wife, a very unique personality. On the whole we agreed that it had been an interesting evening.

If I were to guess I’d say we stayed about 20 minutes after the principal and his wife had left. For us to get home we had to drive past Sabrina’s house and when we did we saw headlights coming down the driveway. I couldn’t tell the make of the car but had to smile because, in my mind, who would be looking at the house around 9:30pm if it wasn’t them. Elle agreed. Now she wanted to know more about their kids.

To be continued...