MAKING PROGRESS… of sorts (Part 172ii)
By the time I arrived home
Elle’s mother had gone. I saw three people sitting in the screened in
porch and it took a walk in that direction for me to recognize both
Mattie and Martha. Once I did I turned back towards the playhouse and saw
five kids playing in and around it. It was hard to tell Elle’s feelings
about my lateness with visitors present. The two woman made ready to
leave but I sort of pleaded with them to stay saying I had to get
changed. When I did Elle piped up that my dinner was in the oven so I
took that as a positive sign. I chose to eat alone leaving the three of
them to continue their talk. It was Mattie that came inside to fetch me
and told me she could see Elle was getting tired. I found out from her
that Elle’s mother had stayed to cook supper and then had sent one of
the girls over to see if someone could come over to stay with Elle until I
got home. I thanked her for being a good neighbor and as she turned to
go back out to the porch I took a look at her backside. As I’ve written,
Mattie was a bit overweight and that added weight made the shorts she
was wearing a bit tight… and made the VPL noticeable as she walked away.
It, again, reminded me that there was two months more of Summer and,
hopefully, many more chances for peeks and views.
With the women
gone meant I was alone with Elle. My observation was the same as
Mattie’s, that Elle was getting tired. Surprisingly, she didn’t comment
on my lateness. She had me call the girls in and then asked for me to
help her up the stairs to get ready for bed. She was wearing a housecoat
which conveniently hid her “package”. It was too early for the girls to
go to bed so I had them get some games to play out on the porch as I
guided Elle up the stairs. We hadn’t had an opportunity to talk about
her incontinence since she’d been home but as I helped her change her
‘package” I asked if she’d seen any difference over the past few days.
As her pregnancy advanced so had her incontinence. We talked about it a
bit and I remembered Elle saying that her friend, Ginger, had experienced
the same sort of thing. After the baby was born, her’s had gone back to
where it had been prior to the pregnancy. Elle was hoping for the same
thing. She accepted the level that she was experiencing prior to the
pregnancy but wearing a ‘package’ all the time was getting to her. Her
answer to me was to shake her head from side to side. I tried to offset
that by saying it was really too early to tell and that her whole
’system’ was readjusting. Before leaving her we went over what was to
happen the next day. She said she wanted to take “baby steps” getting
back into a normal routine. She did say she wanted to attempt to make
breakfast which I took as a positive. Mattie and Martha had invited her
and the kids over for lunch so that was taken care of. I suggested pizza
for dinner and that made her smile.
Even though my focus was on
Elle I didn’t let thoughts of the bank get put aside. I‘d gotten to
know the night desk sergeant at the police station a bit so gave him a
call. He told me both cops had called in at 9pm and there was no
activity at all. I asked if I was bothering him by calling in and he
laughed saying he’d happily take any call that wasn’t an emergency. The rest of
the evening was quiet for me and I took advantage of it. I called the
garage to see how things were going with the race car. I wasn’t
expecting to hear Dick tell me that the motor was f____d up. My quiet
evening was no longer. Short story… we always changed the oil after each
race night. In doing it Cliffy wanted it to drain it through one of the
filters used to strain the paint they use on cars. When they did they
saw all kinds of “shiny stuff”. I knew that wasn’t good and asked what
they were doing. He told me that Cliffy and Alan were dropping the oil
pan to check both the rod and main bearings. I asked him to call me
after they got into taking some of the bearing caps off and he said he
would. When I hung up I was on edge thinking the worst. He called around
11pm. I remember as the news was just coming on the TV. The early
prognosis was there was no permanent damage to the crankshaft. The
“shiny stuff” was from the bearings but none that they’d seen had worn
enough of it away to cause any harm. He said they were about to leave the shop
and would tackle the problem the next night. Another somewhat sleepless
night.
There had been no problem at the bank. The vault people were
there when I arrived and were putting the mechanisms back in place. The head
guy said it was a spring clip that had broken and a piece of it had
gotten jammed in a small set of gears. He told me they’d replaced all
the clips so that shouldn’t be a problem in the future. That was good
news and I hoped it was a positive omen for the day. Lobby traffic had
dropped off some which gave all of us a chance to breathe. I called Elle
to see how she was doing and I could hear some cheeriness in her voice. I
reminded her to take it easy and her vow to take “baby steps”. As soon
as I said the words I got worried… I'd mentioned the word "baby" and
immediately wanted to kick myself. However, I didn’t hear a reaction in
her voice. She seemed anxious to go over to the neighbors for lunch. She’d
not been in the house since it was sold and hadn’t seen the changes. I
told her I’d call before leaving that afternoon and would pick up the
pizza. So, that call was the second piece of good news. Since both good
and bad news comes in threes (most times) I was looking for a positive
sign in the afternoon. It came in the form of a call from Stan over at
the stock brokerage office. The cash was in my account for the stock I’d recently
sold and he wanted to know if I had any plans for it. I hated the
thought of the money just sitting there not earning any interest. I told
him I didn’t have time to do any reading about potential purchases and told him I’d run over and get a check. I’d only taken a few minutes to
wolf down a sandwich from the luncheonette so with little lobby traffic
I headed for their office.
Lynda’s space was just inside the
front door and immediately to the right. As always, after entering, my eyes went in that
direction. Lynda and Ruthe technically shared the same space but they
had low, two drawer file cabinets put in place to separate them. Lynda
much preferred to wheel herself from place to place in her chair rather
than to get up. As I turned my head to look for her I got my third
positive thing of the day. To propel herself and the chair she would use
her feet to push herself in the direction she desired to go and at that
very minute she was moving towards the cabinets with her back to them
but with her head turned towards them… and her legs splayed apart. Closing
my eyes as I write this I can still see the image clearly. There had to
be a spread of 12 to 15 inches between her knees and, for me, a perfect
crotch view. It only lasted for a few seconds, maybe three or four, but
it was perfect. I stopped and watched as she reached the cabinets and
turned the chair to face them. I was relieved that she hadn’t seen me
but, based upon some of the ‘free shows’ she’d given me in the past I’m
not sure why. When she finally saw me she smiled and wheeled herself back to her
desk and gave me an envelope with my check. I’d gotten my three
positive things for the day.
To be continued…
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