A NEW YEAR... and finally, a ray of hope (Part 41f)

Because of all of the above plus my disdain for the “conditions“ of Elle’s housing situation, I elected not to go down and visit. I spent Friday and Saturday trying to learn the clothing business well enough so that Mr B could physically leave the store. I don’t remember how I let Elle know. My pay was 75 cents an hour and I think I made $7.50 for two days work. That really helped. The following weekend I did go down to see Elle (and Teresa, her ”shadow“). The girls had been treated very nicely by their mentor teachers in that they had been fed, most nights, by one or the other of them. If there was a benefit it was the fact that they hadn’t had to buy much in the way of food. Elle had never had much, if any, money but when I arrived the girls offered to take me out to eat and then to the movies. It was a first for me. I’d always paid for Elle, at school and at home. It was strange but welcome.

There was no opportunity to really be alone with Elle. When I took the girls back to ”The Stalag“ and after Teresa went inside Elle was afraid that the landlady would be peering at us. So a few kisses and a good feel of one of her breasts through her clothes was as good as it got. I remember thinking that in only three weeks I’d be taking her to her next practice teaching job. I couldn’t wait!

The following weekend Mr B had me stay at the store until 4 pm on Saturday. I’d already told Elle that I’d be at the house around 5pm so it was a good deal for me... more money. It had been snowing lightly all day. I remember it distinctly in that it looked like soap powder... little tiny balls. It was cold and the snow wasn’t sticking to the road at all. As a car would pass me it was like a white dust cloud behind it. When I picked the girls up I was told we were going bowling. The parents of one of the mentor teachers students owned the local alleys and gave her a free pass for up to four people. She, in turn, gave it to the girls. As far as eating was concerned they had food available there and, again, the girls offered to pay. I was on the fraternity bowling team so, to me, it was like practice. We’d bowled a few games and were taking a break when Elle thought she recognized a girl bowling on a different lane. Not one to take the initiative she didn’t pursue it. It was about 10:30pm when we were about to leave that the same girl walked up to us. Elle had been right. It was a girl who was in a lot of Elle’s classes. We got to chatting and found out that she was practice teaching in the town that Elle was to go to for the second part of her teaching assignment. It was a very fortuitous meeting.

The house the girl was living in belonged to her aunt. She asked Elle where she was going to live when she moved down there. When Elle said she wasn’t sure the girl said that she should go live with her aunt. I knew from Elle’s body language that she was comfortable with the girl and when we finally finished talking Elle had the woman’s telephone number. As she walked away I knew Elle was excited about this discovery and she asked if, after she made contact with the woman, I’d drive her down to meet her. All I knew was that just about any place was better than where she was presently living.

We couldn’t believe our eyes when we walked outside. We’d all heard the term ”blizzard“ and had loosely used the term in just about every snow storm we’d witnessed since going away to college. But what we were looking at truly was a blizzard. The wind was blowing the snow almost sideways. From the doorway I couldn’t even see the cars parked at the curb. I knew basically where I’d parked my car and we started off in that direction. The wind was blowing the same direction we were headed and I found myself being propelled forward faster than I wanted to go. I ended up falling down and saw both Elle and Teresa down as well. As stupid as it sounds we ended up crawling back to the car. The trip back to the house should’ve taken 5 minutes and it took about 20 or so. I honestly don’t know where my head was when I decided to try and make it back to school. Maybe it was the fact that it was only 20 miles. In any case, I headed out. The trip, with dry, clear roads, usually took about 25 to 30 minutes. It took almost 2 hours. I came upon a huge snow drift and my first thought was that I was stuck. But the car, a big Buick convertible, weighed over 4000 pounds and I decided to try and bull my way through. In retrospect, it was monumentally stupid. In reality, I was incredibly lucky. I made it... but barely.

When I walked into the house it was deserted, at least as far as the first floor was concerned. It was a little after 1am on a Saturday night and, even though we were known as a ”suitcase college" where a majority of the guys took off to visit campuses inhabited by females on the weekends, I’d never seen a case where everybody left. What made it more puzzling was that when it snowed it usually cut down on those who had to rely on hitching rides. I’d only been in the house a matter of minutes when the phone rang. It was a brother who was stuck, looking for help. There was no way I was going to venture out again so I took his name and where he was. I ended up spending the rest of the night napping on the living room sofa and answering the phone. The next morning there were a total of 6 brothers, including me, who were there. It was like a morgue.

It was officially declared a blizzard. Seventeen inches of snow with winds over 50 miles per hour. The road that I’d driven back from Elle’s was closed for almost three days because of snow drifts. Brothers who had traveled out to various other colleges (that had females) drifted back to school over the next three days. Classes were canceled for both Monday and Tuesday and a liberal leave was granted for Wednesday. Some of the guys who had traveled to schools to the West didn't get back to campus until Thursday. Stories I heard from some of them bordered on being unbelievable.

To be continued...