MORE SUMMER... and my new life (Part 34c)

The next morning was a Sunday and, although I was hoping to get to do her wash again I wasn’t expecting to see her as I walked down the shedrow. She told me that she wanted to talk some more with me but I didn’t want the others to see me associating with her. AJ, my boss had a “thing“ about women working at the track and especially didn’t like the idea of them driving in races. So, I told her I’d stop in to see her that night. I did do her wash and it was pretty much the same mix of clothes. The one thing I did do was to inspect her bras and found they were a 32B, which surprised me.

Ed and I went to the movies that night after we’d eaten and we got back to the track around 10pm. I did my usual routine of checking the horses and ended up at Alida’s tack room. I knocked and walked right in. I should’ve been used to it by then but there she was in just her bra and panties. She had a small lamp perched on a wooden soda crate and was lying on her cot, reading. She sat up but made no effort to cover herself. It was almost as if she was one of the ”guys” in a locker room. I wasn’t complaining even though she was old enough to be my mother. She sat up and pointed for me to sit in her chair.

This time, because of the lamp, I could see her face fairly clearly as well as her breasts. The poor lighting made her look older than normal. The gist of what she wanted to talk about was about how she was perceived by the other horsemen. She said that no one really wanted to talk or associate with her. I remember thinking to myself “No wonder, the way you carry yourself and the way you dress.” but I didn’t say it, at least right at that time. After listening to her ramble on for a while I remember putting my hand up and telling her to stop talking. I think that surprised her. Long story short... I ended up telling her that the first thing she needed to do was to get someone else to drive her horses in the races and the second was to stop trying to be someone she wasn’t... a man. Even though she’d somewhat asked for my advice the night before, I don't think she was ready for what I’d just said. I’d grown tired of listening to her complain and decided to get her attention. I actually didn’t believe I’d said it. I remember her slumping back onto her cot like a wounded animal. I was tired and wanted to leave but when I got up she jumped up and grabbed me by my hands. Then she asked if I’d help her.

What was I supposed to say then? Here I’d just rather brusquely to told her to change two major things in her life and was about to walk out the door. As you’ve already read, somehow I seemed to manage to get involved with females with problems. This, however, was really different. I sat back down and told her who I thought would do a good job driving her horses. That was the easy part. One of the drivers who’d taken an interest in me was a guy who his friends called “Wingo“. I’d learned that he had, at one time, been a leading trainer/driver but had gotten lazy when it came to the training aspect of the business. Because of that he only had a few horses to train and ended up driving a few other trainers horses when they were off at other tracks. I told Alida I’d put him in touch with her the next day. I could see in her eyes that she still hadn’t bought into the idea of someone else racing her horses.

Discussing the second part (changing her image) was far more difficult because it wasn’t as clear cut. I know I didn’t help the situation by trying to be a little less harsh than when I first blurted it out. It was more like a game of 20 Questions (a popular game show at that time) as I tried to get a picture in my mind of just why she had chosen to try and emulate a man. It was, for sure, an interesting process. When she and her husband started running the stable she’d seen the lack of respect that women were given around the track. She endured it and when her husband died and she started trying to be a driver it got really intense. She decided that she had to act like the criticism didn’t bother her and she became ”hardened“. She felt that by looking more masculine would take some of the pressure off her actually being female. Her hair in a bun and under a baseball cap; oversized western shirts to hide her breasts and dirty driving pants had all been part of her ”disguse”. But, when things started to go really bad, she didn’t have any choice. She said she’d pretty much forgotten what it was like to be herself. By the time we’d gotten to this point it was almost 3am. I knew I had to get some sleep and when I got up to go, this time she got up and actually up on her toes to give me a kiss (on the cheek). I tried to back away but it would've made me fall back in the chair. As I walked out of the room she said she’d think about the last part (becoming “herself” again), and had a smile on her face for the first time that I could remember. It wasn’t until I was walking back to my room that I remembered that Alida had gotten up to pee a couple of times. Unless she had some tissue hidden in the stall it meant that she’d been sitting there in somewhat wet panties. That thought, and not the fact that I’d just spent 5 hours or so with a woman in just her underwear, started a slight bulge in my pants.

To be continued...