CONTINUING... surprises & changes (Part 139s)
Sleep
that night didn’t come easily. My worry was that if word got out as to
what I was doing (or had done) on behalf of Gina my days with the bank
were over. That, and the fact that I had to do the minutes for the
special meeting concerning the exterior branch design and I needed
Joanie to do them. When I arrived at work in the morning one of my prime
worries was solved as I saw Joanie standing by her desk. When she
caught me up to date on the status of her mother I asked if there was
anything that I or the bank could do to help her. As soon as I asked I
was sorry I did as her smile turned to a frown. She said there really
wasn’t but the frown concerned me so I pursued it. Reluctantly, she
admitted that there was a problem but neither I nor the bank could help
her with. I wished that Hobie had been there since he knew the family.
Not wanting to pry I still I made one last thrust. The problem was her
father.
Hobie had told me that he had a drinking
problem so the answer wasn’t a real surprise. My first thought was it
had to do with money so asked if money would help and she shook her
head. She’d been avoiding looking me face to face but suddenly turned.
In a sincere voice she asked if I could do her one big favor. It took
me a few seconds to adapt to her sudden change of mind but, of course, I
said “Yes.”.
It took a minute or so to get it out.
Because of her father’s drinking he’d lost his driver’s license and she
had no way to get to the hospital to see her mother after work. She
asked if it would be possible for me to take her. That was a no brainer
for me. It would take no more than 10 minutes to get there and ten to
get back. I found it hard to believe that I had to extract that simple
request out of her. With that settled it was time to get caught up with
the work of the bank.
After lunch Gina stopped by my
desk and slipped a piece of paper in my desk calendar and walked away. A
quick perusal of it showed a time and date... 9am Thursday. I smiled
and made a note to call the other bank as soon as I could. With the
first step taken I was starting to feel good about my plan. I figured
that if Gina stayed until Thanksgiving that I’d have enough time to get a
new teller trained to replace her. In fact, I’d gone so far as to start
thinking about moving Lillian, she of the mini skirt with panty peeks
included, to the front line. Operationally, she’d not been a problem. If
she was out of proof it was for a minimal amount and easily found. Even
though she handled fewer customers at the drive up window she’d been
readily accepted by the ‘regulars’ who used the window exclusively. I
rationalized that it certainly was a possibility.
I was
expecting Bret to quiz me about the situation so when he did I was
prepared. We talked about his friend (Herman) at the other bank a bit
and it was really funny, Bret told me that Herman was an aficionado of
panty peeks like we were and told me that there was a ‘Lillian’ type at
his bank. Bret told me that on some days when they spoke the first word
out of his mouth would be a color... the color of her panties on that
day. To satisfy Bret’s curiosity I told him that Gina’s reason for
applying with Herman’s bank was to be nearer her home and daughter and
it seemed that it was good enough for him. Right after Bret left for
lunch I called the man and went over, in detail, her performance. I also
told him that this whole process had be be kept secret. He responded
that he’d co-operate and that he was anxious to talk with Gina in a this
different light.
At 5pm Joanie was ready to leave. I
wasn’t but did anyway with the idea of returning after leaving her off
at the hospital. The hospital was due North of the bank, about a mile
North on one of the keys streets in the town. It was an easy run...
three traffic lights and a round-about. But, we’d gone through two of
the lights when Joanie spoke up and asked if I could stop at her house
as she wanted to get something for her mother. She lived but two streets
to the West of the one we were on so it wasn’t a big detour. On the day
when I’d taken Joanie home after buying her the new clothes I’d only
gone to the corner and hadn’t really seen the house. It was a bit of a
shock. The houses were all small and on narrow plots with just enough
room for a driveway to get to a one car garage. Most of the houses
looked neat and tidy but when I turned into Joanie’s it was obvious that
the house hadn’t been painted in years. There were three trash cans in
front of the garage door and various types of debris lying along side of
it. The driveway was on the right side of the house as we drove in.
Like so many houses back in those days, the wash line was on a pulley
that ran from a small back porch out to the corner of the garage. There
were a couple of towels blowing in the wind as Joanie ran under the line
to the back door. She was back in quick time and we were off again. To
make conversation I asked what her father did for a living. I remember
looking over at her and seeing her look down in her lap. In an almost
inaudible voice I thought I heard her say was the night
custodian/watchman at their church. I didn’t comment because I could
sense she was ashamed of that fact. I didn’t want to have the
conversation end on that note so I went on to ask if he was her mother’s
caregiver during the day and she didn’t really answer. Now I was really
uncomfortable and the rest of the way to the hospital was quiet.
On
Thursday, Gina arrived around 11am. Bret had been told she’d be late so
that wasn’t a problem. Personally, I made a special effort not to go
near her window but every so often I’d glance down to her work area
hoping to see her looking my way. I’ll admit I was nervous, hoping that
the interview had gone well. It was when she went to lunch that I
finally made eye contact with her and got a big smile. It was so big I
worried that someone (Bret?) might have seen it. Later, when I got back
from lunch, I found an envelope stuck in my calendar.
To be continued...
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