INTO THE "HEAT" OF SUMMER... (Part 25a)

By the time I got home it was dark. I had to tell my parents about my day and show my trophy off to them before showering and trying to go find Elle. When I walked outside all the lights at her house were out. I remember feeling really stupid as I thought back on the previous night. I decided to walk out to the water. In all that had been going on I’d failed to notice that there was “life” at the house next door. I honestly don’t remember which one it was that had died, the lady or the man, but the house hadn’t been opened for the Summer as it normally was. But I noticed a light on in the living room as I walked past. As I’ve previously written, the owners had three daughters and they had taken turns visiting with them along with their families for weeks at a time in previous Summers. It made sense to me that it had to be one of the daughters. I walked up to window and peeked in. I could see a female, curled up in a wicker chair, reading. What caught my attention was that, because of the position she was in, I could see the part of her panties that rode on her hip. I stood there for about a minute and then moved on out front. The last thing I needed right then was to have my mother catch me peeking into the house. I finally came in and went on up to bed. It was another long, pretty much sleepless, night.

I don’t remember the details of the next morning. I know that Elle’s shade was still down in her bedroom window and that I had been right about that it was one of the daughters who was staying next door with her family. I’d pretty much worked out an apology to Elle during my sleeplessness but had to figure a way to give it to her. It became obvious, to me, that she was avoiding me when I called her home and was told by her mother that she wasn’t there. I didn’t want to go to the drug store to apologize with the possibility of other people being around so decided to wait.

Help came in an unexpected way. Buddy and Carol stopped at the gas station to get her mother’s car washed. While out of the car I asked Carol if Elle had spoken to her yet. Carol gave me a puzzled look which indicated to me that she hadn’t. Carol, now curious as to what it might be about, asked. At this point I knew I was in trouble. She wouldn’t let up on me until I “spilled the beans”. When I did I told her about when Elle had told me and about my less than enthusiastic response and that Elle hadn’t spoken to me since. I remember Carol saying she’d “take care of it” when she and Buddy left.

I didn’t find out about what I’m about to write until a few days later. Carol had Buddy drive her to the drug store where she went in to visit with Elle. The long and short of it was that Carol proceeded to get Elle to explain, in detail, what had happened between Elle and I. Even though I’d told Carol that Elle was leaning towards meeting with her parents about her “problem” she wanted to hear it from Elle herself. Because of the nature of the subject and the fact Elle had customers to wait on, Carol suggested that she come back and pick her up to take her home that night, allowing them some privacy. When she did Elle agreed to the meeting and Carol was to set it up. However, I did not know it.

In the meantime, Elle continued to avoid me. It was frustrating, to say the least. As far as the racecar was concerned we pretty much agreed to “take a break” and reassess our whole situation. On the one hand I was disappointed but the reality of it made sense. Here I’d been home for a month and not had any real time to devote to Elle... and because of it was paying the price right at the present. What I had to concentrate on was getting Elle to see me so I could apologize.

That night, with no Elle and no racecar to work on I was “lost”. I decided to stay home and wait for Elle to get home from work. I sat on the back porch so I could see all the cars as they came and went. That way I could, hopefully, get over to Elle’s before she disappeared inside. But I ended up having my attention diverted. The people who were staying next door drove into their driveway. One of their children was a teen aged girl. I immediately recognized her as the female who’d been sitting in the chair the night before. She wasn’t pretty in the typical sense but had a cute smile. It had been a few years since I’d seen the family and the kids had grown quite a lot. I didn’t remember their names but the mother recognized me and called me over to reintroduce her to her daughter. The girl’s name was Marge and she was almost as tall as me. (6’1“) It was awkward at first but after the typical “small talk” I ended up being invited over to their house to share in the ice cream that they had, ironically, purchased at the drug store where Elle worked. Marge curled up in the big wicker chair that I’d seen her in the night before and I sat across from her. Once her brother had finished his ice cream he left the room. I couldn’t stop looking at Marge because, sitting that way, I could see about six inches of her panties sticking out from under her shorts. I kept catching myself... and blushing. In thinking about it I’m not sure she didn’t do it on purpose. In any case, I enjoyed that part of my evening. Actually, it ended up giving me something pleasant to think about when I went home and to bed.

To be continued...