GETTING CLOSE (PART 13a)

Fate is cruel. When I came home for lunch I went right over to Elle's house. I expected to find her in her side yard as she usually was but she wasn't there. I knocked on the door and her mother told me she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be going in to work. I told her I'd be back later. I was puzzled because she was fine when I'd said "goodnight" to her. Being a Saturday it meant we be racing the car that night. I'd been hoping that we'd get done early so as to have more time with Elle but now that was in doubt... and it was confirmed when I got home for supper. Elle was up and waiting for me. The problem...? Elle had her period. NOT good news! Right from her first one, her periods had lasted anywhere from six to eight days. During her recent ones she'd experienced cramps and her flow seemed to be excessive. I couldn't believe it. We only had 11 days until Elle was to leave for college and now possibly 8 days of our "private time" could be lost due to her period. I was really down... selfishly, I admit. Elle was the one having to endure the ordeal. I went off to the races trying to figure out just what days we would still have that weren't going to be emcumbered. I figured I could count on three days. I wasn't happy... at all. Neither of us had any idea how much time we'd have to see each other at all once we were at college and no idea if any of it would be "private". Therefore I wanted to have as much "private" time at home as possible.

It wasn't that I wasn't going to see or be with her. Let's say she were a patient in a hospital and the caregivers were describing her... "she's NOT a good patient!" I spent the same amount of time with her as before except that it was more like a platonic relationship and not one on the verge of exploding with passion. We still went to our place on the inlet but only for a short time. She was concerned about overfilling her pad and wouldn't even consider changing it in the car. I still couldn't understand her thinking on a number of things but at least this was somewhat consistent with some of her other "quirks". At least I knew when we'd get to her house she'd invite me in. However, all she wanted to do was to be held in a way where she was sitting next to me and all I could do was put an arm around her.

Conversations were mostly about college and what we thought it would be like. Somewhere during that week we got to talking about our fears concerning being away from home. Mine were minimal as I'd already spent two years away at boarding school. For Elle, this was the very first time. She'd recieved some correspondence from her college giving her the names of her roommates and she was very concerned about how they'd accept her. I didn't know anyone who didn't like her so I tried to encourage her. But it didn't help. It took a while to draw her out to find out what was really troubling her. When I did I couldn't belive that I hadn't thought of it a long time before.

I've been detailing Elle's "dribble" problems and how she'd had to manage her time so as not to embarass herself. I'd known that two hours was about her limit before needing a toilet in the daytime but I'd never given even one thought to her nights. Common sense would say that the two would go hand in hand. If she needed a toilet every two hours in the daytime it would be reasonable to assume it would be somwhat similar at night. The only thought that seems plausible for my not considering it was that I'd not known anyone who was a bedwetter. It just wasn't in my inventory of knowlege. The "light" came on when Elle wondered what they would think of her for having a rubber pad and towels in her bed. Since I knew nothing about what she did at night I tried to be what we now call "cool" when she mentioned it. I kind of danced around it a bit but finally got to asking her about it. Long story short... she had a rubberized pad under her sheet and then a bath towel doubled over on top of it. Then she had four alarm clocks on her night stand, each set about two hours apart. When she'd hear one she'd get up, use the toilet and then go back to bed. You have to remember that back in the 50's there weren't any disposable diapers... or any kind of adult diapers that were readily available. So she was dealing with her problem the best way she and her mother could come up with. I wanted to ask what she did if she didn't wake up and, even as insensitive as I could sometimes be, I didn't. After she got through telling me about it I remember giving her some trite words of encouragement. It was hard because I had no experience to draw from. About the best I could muster was that she should be open with them and ask for their consideration.

As the week came to an end Elle decided to stop working. She needed to go shopping for new clothes and supplies for college plus she wanted a few days to just relax and enjoy herself. It was that Friday that she went shopping with her mother and Nan. I remember arriving home for supper and walking up the path to my house when I saw their car drive past. I reversed my direction and headed for her house. As I was almost up to her driveway I saw her leaning into the back seat of her car. She emerged with a whole bunch of bags. I called to her but she didn't stop. That surprised me. By the time I reached the door it was already closed. I knocked but no one answered. I knocked about three times before her mother answered and invited me in. After a few words of small talk I asked where Elle was and was told she'd be right down. I had no problems with her mother but I didn't really have much to say. Thankfully, I heard Elle bounding down the stairs. The first thing I noticed was that she was wearing a different pair of shorts. The second was that she was definitely in a better mood than she'd been in all week. As I've learned, shopping does that to females! In any case, what I needed to know was how Elle was going to "escape" from home that night as I wouldn't be picking her up from work. By the time I'd get off it'd be well after nine and, based on the way things had been all summer, she was relagated to staying home unless she had a very definitive place to go to.

On most of the nights that Elle would come to the gas station she was very bored. In fact, on the nights that I projected that I'd be heavily involved in working on the racecar she'd call Nan to come pick her up and then I'd drive to Nan's to take her home or she'd stay over. So I suggested that she go over to Nan's and when I got done I'd pick her up. BUT... as it turned out she'd turned down an offer from Nan to stay for supper and had done it in front of her mother so that option was out. Even though she was still saddled with her period I didn't want to give up any time with her that I could have. Out of the blue I came up with the idea for her to go with me to the gas station and that she could finish up with the month end billing of charges (remember, there were no credit cards at that time) that I's started the night before. That way I could use more time on the racecar and get away from the station earlier. She wasn't thrilled with the idea but agreed to go. It turned out perfectly. The lights were out right after 9pm and we were on our way.

To be continued...