ANOTHER YEAR… More adventures (Part 168e)
When I woke up I found
Elle was already up. The kids were at Elle’s parents so I knew she
wasn’t tending to them. I knew there was no use and putting it off so I
headed downstairs to ‘face the music’. Only there wasn’t any ‘music’ or
any talking at all. I’d been through this before, but not for the same
reason, and had learned to keep my mouth shut and let her break the
silence. I watched her make her own breakfast, without offering to make
mine, so I made my own. However, I wasn’t expecting her to leave right
after she finished. The only place she had to go was to her parents and
the kids. It only took a little while to figure out that it was a form
of punishment as on days like this we always arrived together when we
were eating with them. My problem was I had no idea what she was going
to say was the reason for us to not come together.
I was at a
loss as to what to do and I have no memory of where I got the idea to
call my parents to find out what time they were planning on arriving.
After chatting with my mother I decided to go visit with them. That way
we could all walk across the road together to the dinner and the attention wouldn’t be
just on me. It worked… and Elle acted normally without making any
‘digs’ or asides that would give any indication that she was upset with
me. The dinner went well and we were on our way home before dark. I knew
that if I focused on playing games with the kids it was only postponing
the inevitable but I did it anyway. After getting the kids to bed she
didn’t return down the stairs. I certainly wasn’t going to chase what I
had a feeling was not going to be a pleasant experience. I ended up
falling asleep in my recliner and when I woke up it was after 3am. I
debated on weather to go up to bed or to stay in the chair but, she
hadn’t told me to leave the night before so up I went. As was the case
the previous evening, she was way over on her side which gave me some
‘wiggle room’. Even though my anxiety was high I did fall asleep. What I
hadn’t done was to set my alarm and it was a work day. When I awoke it
was after 8am so, for me, it was a mad dash to get ready for work and to
be off. I managed to forget the ‘elephant in the room’ as I dashed out
the door.
As was expected, there was a crowd of people waiting
for the doors to open. I had to work my way to the door to have mike let
me in. In spite of pretty much knowing what was coming I was glad to be
back at work. We’d managed to get through the first days of the busy
period without any data center problems but that wasn’t the case on this
day. My job description for the majority of the day was “Fire Chief”,
putting out little ‘fires’ up and down the teller line. That kept me
away from my desk for the majority of the time the doors were open. I
finally got to sit after the last customer was escorted out the door.
I’d not looked at my mail and had no real desire to do it at that time
of the day. I flipped through the pile of it to see if anything stuck
out as being important but the only thing catching my eye was an
envelope without a stamp, hand addressed to me with “personal and
confidential” across the bottom and on the sealed flap. Being somewhat
paranoid about Woody’s sudden resignation my first thought was that
here was another. With trepidation, I slit the flap open. Inside were
three lined yellow legal pad pages, all hand written. My first thought
was that if it was a resignation then whoever wrote it had a guilty
conscience. Naturally, I went right to the last page… and there was
Lynda’s signature. It wasn’t as if I’d forgotten that I’d have to face
her but, being home and in the close proximity of Elle for a day, the
problem with Lynda had paled for a while but now, once again, it was back.
=====================
NOTE:
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a very anal person, keeping just
about everything. Everything, that is but that letter. For a day I’ve
been trying to remember everything she wrote in it and, even after
jotting down some notes, there’s a lot missing. So, please understand
that with 60 years of ‘water over the dam’ this is the best I can do.
=====================
I
remember that I read through the pages quickly. There was an apology
for having been so stupid followed by what I took as an excuse for her
actions. Then it became a plea… a plea for me to forgive her. It rambled
and this is where I’ve had trouble remembering just how it went. I
remember a comment about how she hoped that she hadn’t “screwed
everything up for everybody”. That was such a broad statement I couldn’t
totally grasp what her intent was in writing it. There was more that I
don’t fully remember and maybe that’s because I didn’t understand it and
or/ how it pertained to me. In any case, I knew I had to talk with her
as soon as possible… so I called her office. Ruthe answered and told me
Lynda had only been in for a short time in the morning. I asked if she
was sick and if she knew if she intended to be in the next day. Ruthe
told me she didn’t know. I thought about asking for Stan, my broker and
her boss, but quickly discarded that idea. That left but one choice… to
try and call her at home.
I didn’t dare call Lynda’s office back
to get her phone number and it took a few minutes to come up with the
idea of calling the car dealership. The girl who answered luckily
‘bought’ my reason for asking for it. However, it did take a few minutes
before I dialed it up. I was a bit upset when Lynda didn’t answer but
then decided it was better that she hadn’t been there. There were still
people like Bret, Trish and Joanie around and some of the things I was
going to get into were best not heard by any of them. I don’t remember what I
did until the three of them were gone but I do know I did call Elle to
tell her I’d be late. Her response surprised me in that she did ask when
I thought I’d get home. I figured she just take the call and hang up on
me. I took it as a good sign. Hanging up I immediately called Lynda
again.
To be continued…
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