"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days? (Part 170m)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170m)

It was after 5pm when the phone rang. Joanie was gone so I answered it fully expecting it to be Lynda. Thankfully, it was… because if it had been Elle I would’ve been in trouble. Don’t ask me why I opened with “Meet me at the house at 8am.” before identifying who was on the line but I did. It surprised Lynda because I didn’t get an immediate response. When she did speak it was to ask how I knew it was her… and that brought forth a little laugh from me. It was probably the first time since the whole ordeal had started. She asked if I had something to cover the blood in the house and I told her I had some old chenille bedspreads that I’d used for drop cloths when painting the interior of our house. There was another pause before she agreed. Then she told me she was on her way to the hospital to see Ruthe and to find out just what clothes she’d like. I, wanting to get home, told her I’d see her in the morning.

I told Elle I had an early morning breakfast meeting for the Chamber of Commerce about the upcoming Easter promotion. I actually did have such a meeting that day but it wasn’t at 8am so it wasn’t a total lie. As I pulled to a stop at Ruthe's house I saw that someone had nailed a wood panel over all the glass in the door. Lynda’s Corvette pulled in a few minutes later. When she got out she told me the key was in the birdhouse hanging outside the kitchen window. It took a bit of effort to retrieve it and I’m not sure anyone had ever tried to get it out after placing in there. I told Lynda to stay in her car until I spread the cloths in the house. I really wasn’t looking forward to going inside. Standing in the doorway to the living room I looked around. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting to see but it didn’t look all that bad. The blood had dried and was now a dark red color and not the bright red that I’d seen that morning. I’d never gotten all that far into the room so in seeing it up close this morning it didn’t look that bad. Most of the blood was on a pillow and one seat cushion but I put the old bedspreads over the back and seat of the couch anyway. While doing it I was in a position to look down the hall to the bedroom. It looked like there was a pile of clothes in the doorway.

I immediately headed in that direction and when I got to the doorway I was shocked at what I saw. It looked like a tornado had gone through the room with clothes, all kinds, spread all over. Most of the drawers of the low dresser were either pulled out all the way and empty and the ones that weren’t were askew. Taking a few steps into the room I could see the chifferobe doors (the house had been built prior to 1900 and had no closets) were open and all the hanging clothes that had been inside were now in a heap in front of it. All in all it was a mess. I retraced my steps to go and get Lynda making sure there were no signs of blood anywhere as I did. Back at her car I warned her of what to expect as far as the clothes were concerned. She hesitated but I prompted her to come in saying that she should be able to find a few things to meet Ruthe’s needs. I'm thinking it was after 8:15am by the time we entered the house. I assured her there was no blood to be seen as she gingerly made her way to the hallway that led to Ruthe’s bedroom. The cry from Lynda’s mouth… “Oh my god!”… when she saw the clothes skewed all about startled me. I had to sort of shove her into the room so I could enter. I know she repeated her ‘cry’ at least one more time before asking what we should do. That was a good question!

It took a few seconds for me to get back to the basic reasons we’d come to the house… get some clothes for Ruthe to wear when leaving the hospital and some clothes to wear for her stay at her office manager’s house for, hopefully, but a few days. My first thought was to at least try to sort through some of the things and to make piles of like items. I suggested that Lynda tackle one side of the bed and I tackle the other. I’d walked past Lynda by then and was standing in front of the low dresser and on a pile of clothes. I was able to survey the room from there so suggested that we start by picking up the clothes from the chifferobe and putting those that still were on hangers back inside it to make room for Lynda to move about. The primary makeup of those clothes were mostly skirts and blouses with a few suit type jackets and dresses. With that done I suggested that I start on the other side of the bed and to pick the things up off the floor so Lynda could sort them. As I did I noticed the clothes on top were mostly sweaters. I asked Lynda if she’d had a list of the type of things Ruthe wanted and she reached in a pocket of her coat and pulled one out. When she read it off I asked about a nightgown or pajamas and she she made a face indicating that might be something to add to the list. I almost immediately pulled a flannel pajama top out of the group of clothes I’d just dumped on the bed. Lynda didn’t waste much time as she quickly sorted through the pile. I scooped up a couple more piles of mixed clothes that were clumped together and placed them on the bed. Then I started on the pile of things in front of the dresser. I’d pretty much determined that it must have been Ruthe’s ‘ex’ who had created this mess and it had been done from pure vindictiveness rather than as a robbery. Standing in front of the dresser and looking at where some of the clothing had ended up he had to have been blind with rage. I noticed some small colorful clothing items wedged in behind the night stand next to the bed and the lamp that had probably been on it now between the table and the bed. I pointed it out to Lynda who agreed with my assessment about the rage. For some reason she suggested I go stand the lamp back up and, with time running out (Lynda had to be at the office at 9am to answer the phones) and so much more important stuff to do, I ignored her. The things right on top of the pile were mostly sweaters. I grabbed a couple of them and asked if they were something she wanted for Ruthe. She had a sour look on her face and I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d not picked up the lamp or that the sweaters were not acceptable. So, I continued to ignore her and dug deeper into the pile… more sweaters and what appeared to be a bunch of warm weather clothes. Seeing them, Lynda told me to leave them on the floor as she was running out of room on the bed.

I figured it would take between 10 to 15 minutes for Lynda to get to her office so, looking at my watch, suggested that she make her selections. I watched her start to pick some items off the different piles and realized we’d need something to put them in. The only thing I could think of off the top of my head was the carton I’d stored the old bedspreads in. I went to the car to get it and when I returned she had a batch of clothes in her hands. As she placed them into the box she had what I’d call a ‘wicked’ smile on her face. I noted it and asked what she  was thinking. Her answer made me smile as well. It was something along the lines of… “I still need to find underwear for her… something that should be right up your line…”

To be continued…