INTO SUMMER… a busy time (Part 173d)
By the time I got showered
and changed my clothes it was after 5pm. I asked Elle if she’d heard
anything from Junior about going or not going to view the fireworks and
she shrugged her shoulders. Even though I was a bit late I decided to go
over to check with him before leaving. I was on my way across the lawn when I
realized I hadn’t given him a time when I told him to get back to me and
I felt kind of foolish for not doing it as I ducked through the hedge. I was headed for the kitchen door when I heard a female voice
from their back yard. I turned and saw Martha at the wash line hanging
clothes. I figured they were the ones from the sprinkler spraying a little
earlier. I waved to her but kept heading for the door. She called my
name again, loud enough for me to stop and turn around. She was waving
me to come back to where she was. I remember thinking to myself that I
didn’t have time to chat and questioned why I’d not just gotten in my
car and headed off. Approaching her, my mood changed immediately because
I was heading for where she’d just hung two pair of adult panties. One
was a pair of plain white cotton and the other was the flowered pair I’d
seen through her wet shorts when her husband was running around getting
us all wet. I was sure she’d seen me looking straight at them and I
could feel myself blushing. She wanted to thank me for inviting them to
see the fireworks but she said she and Mattie didn’t want to leave
Geemaw alone. She said Junior and her son would be right out. At that
point I was trying to position myself to get a closer look at the
panties without it being obvious. It was only a minute or two before I
heard Junior calling. As we ducked through the opening to go back into
my yard I was envisioning seeing more panties on that line as the Summer
progressed.
It only took about twenty minutes to get to the area
where the display was located. That was the easy part. Finding the place
to park was far more time consuming. As a sponsor, the bank had been
given two parking passes for a cordoned off area. Whoever designed it
and chose the location for where the sponsors were to park must’ve had
something against them. Leaving the car I could envision a total mess
when the fireworks were over. I apologized to Junior saying that we
would probably be late in getting back home. In past years the parking
had been on a first come, first served basis but the chaos from the
accident the previous year changed that. Somehow some of the fireworks
had ignited accidentally and there was pure bedlam as people were
running around trying to escape the shower of sparks coming from where
the rockets had been ignited. As a result of it, the town was going to
prohibit any more fireworks but the residents and sponsors raised such a
ruckus that they relented… but instituted a whole bunch of new rules.
As part of the compromise entertainment was added which made for more
confusion. Someone on the Town Council came up with the idea to rent a
vacant field located not that far away and to park cars there and bus
the people over to the beach/park. It may have been a good idea in
theory but no one took the time to make sure the plan would work. The
one good thing that came from the previous years’ debacle was to have
more fire trucks and firemen available. However, I was scratching my
head at the lack of organization.
I’d hoped to be able to ask
Junior about his father. It just seemed strange that he hadn’t spent
much, if any time, at the house. He’d been the one to pick it out and
with his wife there (Geemaw) it just seemed odd. However, when I made a
cursory attempt to ask he shut me down while, at the same time, nodding
towards his son. The boy was about 12 years old and in the little time
I’d had to observe him, seemed like a nice kid. When I asked the boy if he
liked being out in the country he just shrugged his shoulders. I was
able to elicit from him a few off hand comments about being relegated to
“playing with girls” and missing out on playing baseball with his
friends. When I’d invited them I neglected to tell them the fireworks
wouldn’t start until it was dusk, about 9 pm. The entertainment, a few
local bands and a juggler who’d been on TV, held the boy’s attention for
some of the time. In the sponsors area we were provided finger foods,
soda and beer. I was able to smuggle some of it to them and that helped
pass the time. With the boy engrossed with the entertainment I made a
second attempt to get information about Junior's father. I won’t say he was
annoyed but it was clear that he was uncomfortable talking about the
man.
I remember the first thing he said was his father was a
“restless soul” and that was why they had lived in many places. He went
on that his father bought, sold and sometimes created businesses “for
the fun of it”. But he’d often get bored and move on to something else.
At this point I got the feeling he thought he might’ve said too much. As
curious as I was I didn’t prod him to go on and kept my mouth closed. I
don’t remember how long he was silent before he made a face and said
that he might as well “finish it up” and told me that that restlessness
included women. Hearing that I got the idea the reason for his father’s
absence had to do with that last tidbit of information. He went on that
he was currently starting a new business in New Jersey and was devoting much time to it. The
last part didn’t really ‘ring true’ to me after what he’d told me right
before it. The last thing he mentioned on that topic was that his father
would be there sometime Saturday and wanted to know if I wanted to meet
him. Since I’d already met him at the bank the day of the closing on
the house and had been pretty much ‘put down’ by him told Junior that I
didn’t want to interfere with family plans and that I had a full schedule of
things to take care of. We agreed that it could be done on his next
visit. I changed the subject and asked him what he thought of the house
and area. I got the feeling he didn’t want to upset me as he gave a very
bland assessment of both. He did make one off-hand comment about his
mother (Geemaw) saying that if she wasn’t there it would be a lot more
enjoyable. I mentioned that both his sister and wife seemed to like the
area and he did acknowledge that. One thought I had was it seemed like
it wasn’t a very cohesive family and that maybe them not being year
round residents was a good thing.
The fireworks display was about
the same as in the past but both Junior and his son seemed to enjoy
them in spite of some debris falling on us. I found out that they’d only
seen real fireworks a couple of times so thought they were pretty good. I told
them the best place to witness them was in a boat out in the bay and
pointed to hundreds anchored off shore. When over, as expected, the traffic exiting
the place was horrific and we were among the last to leave. In casual
conversation while waiting our turn to get out and on the road I mentioned
my involvement with a race car. Junior didn’t think much of it but his
son did so from that point to home my conversation was with him. When we arrived I told him that with his parents permission I’d get him to the
races one night. All in all, taking them along was a positive.
To be continued...
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