When I walked into the kitchen Elle spied the box and made a ‘face’ as if to disapprove. Before I could rect to it she stated that she’d told Martha that it wasn’t necessary to replace the radio. She then went on that she was going to miss them when school started. I asked if she knew of their plans for any weekends during the Fall and she just shrugged. But the question triggered a statement that Geemaw, Mattie and Junior’s mother, would be there over Labor Day weekend. It had been over a month since Junior had taken her back to the city. I had to ask what Mattie and Martha’s thoughts had been on that. I was surprised when the answer was they were looking forward to it as my memory of what it was like when she was there with them was somewhat contentious.
The decision was that we’d both go to the sailing club and race that afternoon. It appeared I’d unleashed a ‘monster’ by taking Anne as crew with me the previous Sunday. She was pleading for me to take her again. The problem was our older daughter, Jean. She’d not been upset when I’d taken Anne with me but, after hearing about it all week now she wanted to race. Even though Elle was a trained teacher she really wasn’t that knowledgeable about racing so it was agreed that And would go with Elle and Jean with me. As I stated in the previous post, having the added weight of a crew in a Sunfish makes it less competitive. Neither Elle nor I was in contention for trophies so it didn’t really matter. So, we pretty much raced each other. The one thing that stands out from that was how animated Anne had become while Elle was trying to catch up with Jean and I.
It turned out that I wasn’t fully ‘fudging’ my sick day when I called in on Tuesday. When we unloaded the race car on Monday night I tripped and the car rolled over my foot. There’s no doubt I could’ve gone in to work even though it really hurt. Not having to wear a shoe certainly made it feel better though. By having my friend, Dan, over to visit at my parents house meant I could go without shoes. I’d touched ‘base’ with him and we agreed that 10am would be a good time for he and his family to arrive. We’d not ever talked much about his wife and kids… a pre teen boy and a freshly minted teen age girl. His wife’s name was June and she was a stay-at-home mom. It had puzzled me a bit in that Elle was ‘chomping at the bit’ to be able to work full time once Kaye was in school full time. But, I’d never asked about it.
Our kids didn’t have sailing lessons so we loaded up our beach stuff and all the ‘fixins’ for a cook-out and got to my parents around 8:30am and my mother got her desired ‘private time’ with the girls. She’d told me she’d be gone by the time my friend arrived but I took that with ‘a grain of salt. My mother was very social and into that you can read… nosey. My father had been pressing her to leave but she found ways to delay it. Dan was on time and as he and his family were exiting their car my mother made her exit from the house. She reached the driveway just after Elle and I did and was her usual ‘social’ self, falling all over herself to welcome them to ‘her’ house. I just stood there cringing. While she was doing this I noticed that there were only two other people other than Dan who had gotten out of the car. It was their son and my first impression was a bit negative. It was clear that he didn’t want to be there. Dan made the introductions with June being his wife’s name and Trey the name he gave for the boy. June explained that his given name was Daniel III but had been dubbed Trey at a very young age. Elle proceeded to do the same for our side and then motioned for them to follow her to the front of the house where they could all view the water. As we walked Dan took me aside and proceeded to explain that his son was a bit “different”. He described him as having a condition called autism. I’d never even heard the term before. The simple description Dan gave me was that “he walked to a different drummer” and was sometimes a problem to control. However, he quickly assured me he was not a threat to any of us as long as he and his wife were around. That statement was far from reassuring because I knew nothing about the traits of someone with that condition.
We were standing by the kitchen porch and could not only see Elle, June and Trey but also the water. Dan changed the subject saying that he couldn’t believe what a great location the place was. He then told me his brother’s cottage was “buried in the woods” with no water rights and commented on how lucky I was too have lived there as a boy. That triggered me to ask about his daughter and why she wasn’t with them. He kind of shook his head and nodded towards his wife and son when answering that it was “a long story” and didn’t go into it. We then joined all the others out by the beach. Trey was out on it and running wildly about. Dan shouted out to him and he immediately stopped. I looked at Elle and my girls and from the looks on their face they didn’t know what to make of him. As for me I was upset that I hadn’t been forewarned about his affliction. But, there was nothing I could do about it then.
It was almost like a bribe when Dan told Trey to calm down if he wanted to go in the water. He immediately went into a squat there on the sand with a fierce look on his face. I wasn’t liking what I was seeing. June, his mother had retreated to the back yard with Elle while my girls stayed on the upper level of the dock as far away from him as they could get. I’d not had the time to look June over but when she and Elle returned I noticed that she’d changed her clothes. She was now wearing an oversized T shirt. Only about 5’5” tall, she was dwarfed by Dan but the boy was almost as big as she was. That concerned me a bit in that if he was to get violent it seemed to me the she was vulnerable… but it wasn’t for me to worry about. Dan was now crouched down next to Trey and he seemed much calmer. Dan asked me where they could change into bathing suits and I told him to follow me.
I’ve written about this house in posts from when I was young and how it was designed. What I called the “back porch” was actually built into the body of the house. Off to one side of it were two small “changing rooms”. Back when the house was built it was felt it would be a way to keep wet, sandy feet and dripping wet bathing suits from going into the house. I led them to the rooms and then told them to come back out to the water and returned there myself. June was sitting on the edge of the dock and as I approached I could see something pale blue between her legs. I had to assume it was a bathing suit but wanted to believe what I was looking at were panties but there was no way to know until they went swimming. When Dan and Trey reappeared I had to do a ‘double take when I saw Dan in what I now know is a speedo type bathing suit. I’d never seen one before and… it was interesting.
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| Dan & family |
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