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

MORE... surprises ad changes (Part 138k)

Since Joanie was under J J’s control there wasn’t anything I could do for her immediately. I told her I’d try and work on him to see if I couldn’t make something happen. Then I asked if she’d like to fill in downstairs for Trish for two weeks. I can’t swear to it but it seemed like she jumped in the air a bit. I loved her even more!

I didn’t get a chance to speak to J J until that afternoon. It didn’t go well. In fact, he was mad at me for even asking. I didn’t want to make a scene so left without arguing. But, I knew I had an ”ace in the hole“ in Hobie. As we were leaving for the night I brought the subject up to him he smiled and said it was a great idea. Then I told him about J J. and his reaction when I approached him on the subject. He shook his head and said ”It’ll be taken care of.“ and then headed for his car. I can tell you that I was really looking forward to that!

I wasn’t really happy about attending the Vestry meeting at church that Wednesday evening. Elle had had a problem with the two older girls so supper had been contentious. My thoughts weren’t really on the church as I pulled ino the parking lot. Exiting my car I saw a short, round woman getting out of the car in front of me. As I stared at her I recognized her as the new neighbor, Phyllis (or was it Alyssa?) but didn’t say anything. I stayed by the car waiting to see which direction she was headed in. It was with some disbelief that I saw her headed up the path to the church office. I waited about a minute before following her.

Once inside I saw her in the hallway talking animatedly with the minister. I, without acknowledging her, walked on past to the meeting room and joined the other vestrymen (and woman) at the table. I asked if they knew why the woman was there and they were all uniform in their answer that they had no idea. A few minutes later the minister led the woman into the room and introduced her as the new school principal’s wife. He went on that she had a proposal to make to the vestry. This was a complete shock to me.

Short version: She had run a children’s day care out of her home where she previously lived. Because the move to this area had been so quick that there hadn’t been adequate time to find large enough living quarters to house both her family and with space for the day care facility. She said that she had ”scoped out“ the facilities in the village and that we had just what she needed. Without so much as taking a breath she continued by saying she’d pay the church $2.50 per student per week and, again, without so much as a breath, asked when could she move in.

I sat there with my mouth open. My mind was spinning thinking back to the other instances where I’d witnessed her brazenness but this topped them. I’d never seen anyone quite like her. However, the others were busy calculating the money that could be made by allowing her to do it. Finances had always been a problem but they were exacerbated by the change of ministers earlier in the year. Plate collections were down by over 20% and, although we had enough to cover expenses during the Summer, Winter would soon be upon us and we’d have to cover the cost of heating fuel. Before any discussion could be started one member shouted out ”Make a motion!“ which was followed by “I second it!”  and the rest of the members mumbled some sort of acknowledgement. I tried to make the point that no questions had been raised as to hours of use, maintenance, insurance, cost of lights (and heat) but was ignored. The Senior Warden said that he’d get it all worked out and that the motion had passed. The look on the woman’s face was one of victory.

She shook the Senior Warden’s hand and then left. I, again, tried to be the voice of reason and noted that the meeting had not even been called to order so, in my mind, the action was invalid. Talk about an attack! All the members were shouting at me with the bulk of it having to do with the fact that unless I was willing to cover the dollars that would be lost if they didn’t give her the space that I should shut up. I won’t bore you with the rest of the crap that went on.

By the time I got home my blood pressure was out of sight. Of course Elle wanted to know what it was that had me upset. Basically I told her that we should have as little to do with the new neighbors as possible. That set her off, her point being that the man was the new school principal and that if she was going to be able to teach there he would be the one hiring her. Let’s just say that, at that point, it was a standoff.

I’d calmed down by morning. What was pressing was that it was now Thursday and Hobie hadn’t said anything about speaking to J J about ‘borrowing’ Joanie. If she was going to learn anything about just what Trish did there was only that day and the next. Arriving at work I was somewhat surprised to see Hobie’s car in the parking lot. He normally didn’t arrive until right at 9am and here it was 8:45am. But he wasn’t at his desk. Right at 9am one of the bank’s best customers walked in. He’d taken a liking to me so always headed for my desk for all his transactions. He was a ‘talker’ so, after taking care of his business, he’d want to chat and that’s what we were doing when Hobie appeared. I made eye contact with him and he flashed a ‘thumbs up“ to me. At that point I could relax a bit.

I was escorting the customer through the platform gate when I saw Joanie approaching. She had the broadest, brightest smile that one could imagine as she passed by us. As she did I turned to take a close look at what she was wearing. It was a fitted khaki skirt that came to about an inch above her knees. It certainly wasn’t something that would allow for getting a ‘peek’ but I thought, under the right circumstances, it certainly might produce a nice VPL. Only time would tell.

Joanie, even though she had worked upstairs in the mortgage department, had made a good impression with a lot of the employees, especially Trish. When I returned from saying good bye to the customer the two of them were getting right to the core of Trish’s  job. I felt really comfortable that the next two weeks would go well. But what didn’t go well was when J J met up with me when he came back from his lunch. I listened to him spout off for a minute or so and then just shrugged my shoulders and headed out the door. As I walked away I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him having to put up with his shrewish wife. Here at work he was trying to create an area that only he controlled and it had just been compromised.

To be continued...