Thursday, October 31, 2019

AND THE HEAT GOES ON... & on (Part 175l)

AND THE HEAT GOES ON… & on (Part 175l)

The first step was to remove the access panel. It was located behind a small night stand and after moving it I could readily see that it been removed and replaced any number of times based on the condition of it. I popped it off and saw what I needed… the shut offs for both the hot and cold water right there in front of me. But I also saw something I didn’t expect to see and that was water dripping from around the packing nuts of both of them. I was concerned where the water was going so felt down the wall to what was actually the floor that the wall had been built on. There I felt some damp cloth and pulled it out and when I did I was shocked. There were two balled up cotton panties. I checked over my shoulder to make sure neither of the women had come back upstairs to check on my progress before opening them up. It was, more or less, a familiar sight in that they were Lollipop band leg panties like the ones Barbara, one of the girls that had lived there for the year before the present owners purchased it. They were completely stained from having been wet and lying on the unpainted wood for quite a while. I was able to read the labels and confirmed they were the same size as Barbara wore. That discovery had me wondering just why they were where they were… but not for long. I remembered that I’d become convinced that Barbara didn’t really have a bedwetting problem but was wetting herself on purpose. While at our house she was free to do it and then to fall back on bedwetting as an excuse. But, living at home with brothers and sisters it wouldn’t have been as easy. Of course there was no way to prove my theory but it was certainly a possibility. By then it was starting to get dark as the sun that had been streaming through the windows was disappearing so I went back to focusing on the plumbing problems.

I realized I should’ve been better prepared after taking the core of the faucet handles out. The rubber washer at the bottom of the stems had no ‘life’ to them just as I expected. But, when I went to take out the screws that held them in place the heads disintegrated as soon as my screwdriver touched them. Luckily, the kit I’d bought to change my own had spare screws. What should’ve taken a short period of time was becoming a real chore. And, because of that Mattie had come to check on my progress. As I’ve previously described Mattie, she preferred to wear skirts (short) as opposed to shorts because she was a bit plump. I was on my knees and working through the hole in the wall when she walked up behind me and squatted down to see what I was doing. I turned around to see what would’ve been an absolute fantastic upskirt view of her crotch except for the fact that the light was getting dim. There wasn’t enough light to tell the color of them but it was still a nice sight.

I want to make one thing clear at this point… Mattie was nothing like Lynda in her actions. In Lynda’s case it was deliberate when she gave me a panty peek. Mattie was, for lack of another word, careless. After I’d inspected the panties I had just laid them over the handle of my tool tray. As Mattie stood up she pointed to my tray and asked what was on it. Talk about embarrassment!. I didn’t know exactly what to say other than I’d found them in the opening. She had a funny look on her face but didn’t stay long and I finished up a short time later. When picking up I balled the panties back up and tried to hide them on the tray hoping that Mattie wouldn’t see them when I was leaving. But that was too much to hope for. I made it to the screen door but Mattie followed me out onto the small porch. She started by thanking me and followed it by asking what she owed me. I wasn’t planning on getting paid so just shrugged my shoulders and told her I wouldn’t think of being paid. I don’t remember what else she said until she pointed to the tray and the two balls of cloth. She, hesitatingly, asked if I had any idea why the panties were there. Again, all I did was to shrug my shoulders.

Back in my garage I decided there was no point in keeping them. However, it got me to thinking of why and how they’d ended up where they did. I wasn’t sure which room Barbara had shared with her older sister but if it had been that one and she discovered how easy it was to remove the panel… it made sense. Possibly she’d forgotten about them or they’d fallen, gotten wet from the leak, and decided to just leave them. With this thought process going through my mind it got me to thinking about the fact that the room  she’d slept in when living with us was also the room that had the access panel for the tub plumbing. Walking into the house I wanted to go upstairs to check to see if by some chance she’d done the same thing with some of her wet panties when living with us. I was headed upstairs when Elle called to me telling me she was sorry she’d gotten upset with me earlier. I knew I better accept the apology when offered so stopped and headed for the den. It wasn’t long before the kids were headed for bed and that killed any chance of following up on my idea of checking the panel in Anne’s room. It would have to wait for another time.

I’ve mentioned that August was the slowest month for lobby traffic at the bank. I was ready for it knowing that there would probably any number of late nights coming up as we went to work on the race car. In reading my notes in my DayTimer preparing to write this I had to shake my head remembering the situation. I’ve written about the bank having to go through three separate financial audits per year and my frustrations dealing with them. I could tolerate the Federal and State ones but the one where we were required to have an outside accounting firm come in was a total waste of time (and money). The Feds and State, recognizing that the Summer months were when most employees were on vacation, didn’t do their audits in July and August. However, the accounting firm the bank hired had deemed it best to come during August this year. That wasn’t the worst part. The people they sent to do the audit were mostly recent college graduates with little to no experience. They arrived just before 9am and I soon went ballistic. The first thing any of them do is to count all the cash. That means the tellers can’t wait on customers until they’ve finished. While I stood there watching, fuming, they took their own sweet time. It was twenty minutes before they were through with the cash drawers with the vault still to go. By then I’d had it and told the tellers to start waiting on the customers. The head examiner screamed at me not to do it but I ignored him. I then spoke to each and every one of the customers waiting in lines apologizing for the wait. There were a few who were really upset but, thankfully, no one closed their account. When I finished with that and was headed for my desk I saw Bert, the president, and the man in charge of the audit waiting for me. I knew it wouldn’t be good.

To be continued…

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