SUMMER HEAT... so much to do (Part 161t)

SUMMER HEAT… so much going on (Part 161t)

We all played Yard Darts until Kaye got bored and then we sat on the front stoop watching the sun go down, or at least I did. Poor Barbara was besieged by the kids to play cheerleader. Elle, to take the pressure of her, volunteered to stand on her head and to teach the kids how to do it.

But for me it had been a long, long day. I’d watched Barbara as closely as I could the whole time we were playing darts but couldn’t see any obvious staining on her shorts. Just sitting there it was the first chance I had to try to analyze what my observations on and about Barbara really meant. I’d be lying if I said I had it figured out by the time we picked everything up and went inside. It wasn’t until I was in bed that I was able to put together a bit of a hypothesis. Even when I did there were questions that I knew would never be answered. The one thing I did know was that I wasn’t going to say anything to Elle about any of it.

Another item occupying my thoughts that night was what had actually taken place that afternoon when the boat got towed to the gas dock. When helping the twins exit the boat I had a chance look at the panties of one of them and thought I saw evidence of wetness in the crotch. On the other, when boosting her out of the boat I had to push on her backside and felt dampness. I’d wanted to quiz Elle on that but she had shut me down when I tried. It would have to wait until Barbara wasn’t around.

Concerning Barbara, the one thing I felt confident about was that she’d been playing with herself sometime before I walked in on her. After that I was guessing. Not taking the time to closely observe her panties at that time created a bit of a ‘hole’ in my hypothesis. The sheet being merely damp rather than obviously wet was a big part of the puzzle. Then, finding her panties in the bathroom and them not showing signs of being ‘flooded’ as would be expected if she did wet while asleep only added to it. While going over those things in my mind, adding the finding of another pair of her panties and a pair of shorts in the washing machine that were more indicative of an accidental wetting, added more to the puzzle. Elle had been asleep for a while when something she’d mentioned to me in passing some weeks earlier sprung to the fore of my consciousness… Phyllis (Barbara’s mother) had commented that she thought Barbara might be wetting on purpose.

At that time I just let it pass and I don’t know why. From Elle it was but a one sentence thing with no further observation on her part. But now it seemed to make sense… at least a little bit. I wrestled with that idea right up until Elle’s alarm went off at 1am warning her to get up and use the toilet (and to wake Barbara as well). I was lying there, wide awake, conjuring up all kinds of possibilities. However, my main thought was that Barbara had figured out that by wetting the bed at night she had an excuse to masturbate… with lubrication, and not get in trouble. She could do it and not have her mother know what she was doing. There were also some other minor possibilities that were part of my thought process but I settled on that one. Then I moved on to what was going on with Barbara when I found her in bed and the bed wasn’t really wet.

I know I fell asleep without a conclusion and the reality of what lay ahead for me during the upcoming day took precedence of my thoughts when I awoke. I definitely remember trying to come up with a sequence of the things I needed to accomplish for the day at work and hoping there weren’t too many surprises. One of the things I hadn’t accomplished on Wednesday was to talk with Betsy before she left for the day. Of course I wanted to know the numbers of new accounts but it was her observation on how Jerry handled the termination of the temporary help that was my primary thought. After asking there was a definite pause before Betsy answered. I quickly figured out that she was trying, desperately, not to throw Jerry ‘under the bus’. I challenged her on it and she admitted that it could’ve gone better. Because all three of the temporaries were related to Mae she’d been told beforehand. Surprisingly, it didn’t upset her. But, she’d taken it upon herself to warn the three of them. When Jerry called them into his office it wasn’t a shock. But, Jerry didn’t want to come across as the ‘bad guy’ and offered each of them the choice of a gift premium to ease his conscience. I asked Betsy if Mae’s sister said anything to her about the meeting before leaving and I could hear her try to stifle a laugh… and then said “No”. I knew there was more to it than that but with waiting customers I had to start opening accounts. I closed by asking if Jerry had been involved in opening new accounts and her answer was another stifled laugh. I was about to hang up when she told me he never came out of his office and that the door was always shut. I’d hoped to avoid a trip to the branch until the following week but that bit of information told me I couldn’t wait.

One of my concerns for the day had been the chance that one (or more) of the tellers or temporaries might decide to make it a four day weekend. I won’t say I held my breath but I will tell you I was taking attendance as the employees filed in. Everybody showed up and it was a good thing. Even with the three temporaries, Bret, Hobie and I opening accounts people were still waiting. It slowed down around mid morning and, after clearing it with Hobie, called Jerry to tell him I wanted meet with him over lunch. I can’t remember if he said much, if anything, but I told him I’d be at the office by 1pm.

The women had set up a couple of the card tables that had been used when opening the new accounts to fashion a temporary desk for Barb so the lobby had a different look to it as I walked in. There was still one table  left over by the gift display and there was one customer being handled at the time. Jerry’s door was closed but with the window in the wall I could see there was no one in there. I knocked but didn’t wait for an invitation. I asked if he was ready to go and he, rather blithely, told me that he’d eaten. After hearing that I can remember looking at him in disbelief (and wanting to say “What the f__k!”… but didn’t). Before I could say a word he told me his wife didn’t want him to eat “common food”. That was a new one on me. I really didn’t know what to say… or do… so I sat down next to his desk. He promptly got up and closed the door. I had to ask why he did that and, almost as surprising as his reason for not going out to eat was this one… “I keep my door closed all the time”. With that statement I was speechless.

As you can imagine this ‘episode’ was fodder for the little book Bret and I were keeping on Jerry. Long story short I told him the door should, and would, remain open from that point on. I even went so far as to tell him that if I got a report that he did close it I’d have someone come in and remove it. I expected all kinds of resistance but he just sat there with this blank (dumb) look on his face. Finally getting down to the reason for coming I told him that from here on in he was to be the primary one to open accounts. If needed, any of the tellers could and would help out but he was to get up and to meet the customers. To drive the point home I had Betsy come in and told her of my decision. As I was leaving I went out in the lobby and took the last card table down.

To be continued…