WINTER... The bleakest time of year (Part 30a)

The trip back to school was long and boring. The further we went the worse the weather got. What should’ve been, at most, a 9 hour trip, ended up taking over 11 hours. Because I’d expected to be back around 7pm I’d asked Elle to call around 8pm to let me know she’d made it back OK. Instead of being dropped off where I lived, I asked to be left off at the fraternity. As I think I mentioned before, there was a large oil painting of the fraternity crest hanging in the foyer. Someone discovered that if you pushed the canvas back from the frame you could push a slip of paper in and it would stay. As strange as it seems, it became a bulletin board, of sorts, where telephone messages were posted. Because we’d all been away on vacation, there weren’t many there and when I saw one with my name on it I was excited. Only it wasn’t Elle who had called. It was Mrs T. from the farm family that had befriended me. I was invited to dinner on Sunday. I was disappointed that Elle hadn’t called. It was too late to call the sorority so I headed for my room. As I walked though the snow I got to thinking about the "T's" and was happy for the invite. In spite of my missing Elle so badly, the thought of seeing Joanne again did offer some “sunshine” in what appeared to be a very daunting period of time for me.

I was able to call Elle the next morning and talking to her actually made me feel worse. I think it was the thought of waiting 3 weeks to see her again that made it so bad. I put off calling Mrs T. for a while but when I did I agreed to meet her at her church on Sunday to make it easier for her. At least it was something positive to look forward to.

As hard as it was, I'd made a conscious effort to try and get caught up on my schoolwork. I’d promised Elle I would and, with my primary thoughts on her, I found myself feeling guilty if I wasn’t at least trying. I found the best place for studying was the library. There weren’t the distractions that were all around the fraternity house and, of course, the BIG one back at my room... my bed. In truth, I was way behind in two courses. As I made the attempt to get caught up I was gripped with the fear of failing both. That made it even harder.

By Sunday, I was ready for a break. I knew it would’ve been polite to have gone to church with Mrs T. but used the excuse that it wasn’t the right denomination. I waited outside and, feeling somewhat embarrassed as the people filed out, almost walked away before she appeared. I was actually relieved when she did. I had managed to get the proper Christmas present exchanged with Mrs B. and had that with me as well. It was a good “ice breaker” and helped get the conversation started on the trip out to the farm.

When we pulled into the yard I couldn’t believe how much more snow there was than when I was there just before Christmas. I couldn’t see the house from the road because of the way Mr T. had piled it up with his bucket loader. However, the big surprise was when I walked into the house. I fully expected to see Joanne but there was another girl there in the kitchen as well.

It only took a few seconds to recognize her as one of Joanne’s older sisters. She had the same long blond hair as Joanne but was a little more “solid”. Actually, the first thing I noticed was that both her hands were wrapped. Mrs T. followed me into the kitchen and then proceeded to introduce me. The sister's name was Suzette. Then she explained that she was still home because she had fallen leaving church on Christmas eve. She'd broken one wrist, sprained the other and had also sprained two fingers on the same hand. All the time her mother was explaining what happened I could see that Suzette was embarrassed. She was to go back to the Doctor's the next day, and, if everything looked OK, would then be headed back to school. She was wearing a skirt and blouse, as was Joanne. I assumed that Mrs T. had mandated it because of my being a “guest”. I took a close look at Suzette when she was talking to Joanne and could see that she wasn’t as pretty as she’d appeared in the picture of her that I’d seen. That’s not to say she wasn’t pretty because she was but as I looked at the two sisters, I found Joanne to be the prettiest one.

Joanne had volunteered to do most of the meal preparation. With Mrs T. at church, Suzette had overseen the process and it appeared that everything was on schedule. I still had Mrs T’s Christmas present but didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of the girls so put it aside. We had to wait for Mr T. to come in and get cleaned up before we ate. I tried to make conversation but was concerned that if I paid too much attention to Suzette that Joanne would get jealous and possibly sulk if I did. It was awkward, at best. As we ate Mrs T. continued to make positive comments on the nice meal that Joanne had prepared and I followed suit. But I wanted to know more about Suzette. I wondered if it was her room that I’d slept in the night I’d stayed over and had peeked into the panty drawer. If it was, I now had another face to put with the panties I'd seen.

To be continued...