SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER... Good & bad (Part 169e)

SLOGGING THROUGH WINTER… Good & bad (Part 169e)

My mind was on what it might be that was so important to Lynda the whole way home. It was almost 10 pm when I pulled up the driveway and I could see the light on in our bedroom. That was a good sign and I took advantage of it. I walked into the bedroom and saw a cradle sitting next to the bed on Elle’s side… with a baby in it. I was speechless. The baby was asleep and I couldn’t really see much of it. Elle was smiling as she said “Say hello to your new son…”. Long story short… the baby was the two month old son of Cliffy (the racecar driver and his wife Beth.) Beth had worked her way up to be the head scorekeeper at the track where we raced. Everybody liked her and when NASCAR had come to the track with their top division (Grand National) during the Summer, their head scorer had missed her flight and they chose Beth to fill in. She impressed the ‘brass’ and they had asked her to become a part of their scoring team during the season. With a newborn she turned them down. But they were persistent and offered her a package to at least come to Daytona Beach for the opening of the season. She’d just started back as secretary to the principal at the school where Elle had spent teaching most of the month of January. After thinking about it the plusses were more than the negatives and she accepted. The problem was the baby. Beth’s sister was going to take care of her older three kids who were all in school full time. But, she had a part time job that wouldn’t allow her to care for the baby. Beth asked the wives of the other owners in the racer and had been turned down. As I’ve previously said, she and Elle weren’t all that close so when Beth called it was in desperation. After hearing that I had to ask how long it would be. When I did I hadn’t even begun to grasp the concept of a baby in the house. In another month Kaye, our youngest, would be five years old. Elle, seeing the look on my face, ‘zinged’ me with something like “You’ve always wanted a son…“. The answer to my question was ten days. I was still pretty much speechless but it didn’t take me long to realize my life wouldn’t be the same for a while. There was a lot more to it but I’ll spare you the details other then to add that Cliffy had already been asked to be part of the pit crew on a car that was racing there so they would be traveling together.

I didn’t sleep all that well but it wasn’t because of the baby. Lynda was the reason. She’d been so serious about pinning me down to having a talk. In my mind I’d been over everything that had taken place on New Year’s Eve many times and there was nothing there. The only thing I could come up with was her having repeated the statement “I owe you, big time!” on a number of occasions. The ONLY thing I wanted from her I’d gotten and that was that if the subject ever came up in Elle’s presence was that it had been Stan that I’d driven home on New Year’s Eve. By daybreak I’d come up with part of a plan to met up with her. Jerry, the branch manager, had been with the bank for a year and hadn’t taken any vacation time. We didn’t have a ‘use it or lose it’ policy but Hobie believed that everybody should take some time off and this was the week he’d chosen. Bret had been sent to run the office in his absence. Liz, the auditor, was supposed to have done an audit of the office right after the ‘busy period’ was over but with her health problems it hadn’t happened. The bank was now in non compliance with the State banking department. Bret had no background in accounting so Hobie designated me to do a cursory audit just so there was something in the records to show an effort had been made. The idea was that Bret and I would switch places for a day. That would give me the opportunity to leave the branch at 3pm and give me a chance to meet Lynda on my way back.

I had to share the idea with Lynda to make sure she was in sync with it. What I proposed was for her to meet me out at the bowling alley around 4pm. On my part I’d leave the branch about 45 minutes before that and hope that we’d link up at about the same time. When I called her she seemed surprised but said she’d be there. At the branch I spent most of my time with Betsy checking over the reporting requirements. While doing it I made an attempt at picking her brain about how Jerry was doing. She knew what I was looking for and, in her own way, let me know it was better but still wasn’t right. I wanted to ask if she was still comfortable with the situation but resisted hoping she’d volunteer an answer… but she didn’t. While there I asked how Rita was doing as a replacement for Mae and got a glowing report. By 3pm I felt I had enough to satisfy the banking authorities and headed out to meet up with Lynda.

She got there before I did but there was no way to miss her white Corvette. Looking at her car I was really nervous. I kept my eyes on the drivers door and saw her start to get out. What I remember the most was that as she did she spread her legs and then stopped for a few seconds. Seeing her in that position was just what I needed to calm down. I knew that she’d done that on purpose and I smiled. When she got out and headed for my car I opened the door and saw that she was smiling too. In my mind I was thinking “Now what?”. She appeared to be nervous as well and it took a few seconds before she broke the silence. The exact words are long gone but it went something like this… “In some ways you remind me of my husband.” I surely wasn’t expecting anything like that but she went on about it not being about looks… and then said that wasn’t the reason she wanted to talk with me. I was relieved to hear it. I wish I had a tape of what she went on to say. In a very round about way this is what I remember from it. 

She said she’d spent a lot of time reflecting on the potential for what might have happened if I hadn’t driven her home that night… and that she’d be “forever thankful”. She went on that there had to be something she could do for me to reflect how sincere she was about it but didn’t know me well enough to come up with anything appropriate. Then, and I could see her blushing, she said she knew from a talk we’d had at lunch one day that I “enjoyed her teasing” and mentioned the panty peeks. Now it was my turn to be embarrassed. Now this is where she brought up her husband again saying that was where the similarity between her husband and me came in. I was puzzled and she knew it. That was when she relaxed a bit and slipped her coat off her shoulders and leaned back against the car door. Then she told of how she’d met her husband while in college… and it was because of her “teasing” him while they were studying in the library. She had a favorite table she’d use and he had a favorite chair that was somewhat opposite her. She caught him staring at her and decided to “tease” him a few times. It led to him introducing himself and inviting her out on a date.

To be continued…