HOME AGAIN... to some surprises (Part 157b)

HOME AGAIN… to some surprises (Part 157b)

Gertrude was her name. She didn’t want to be called Mrs.B____, Gert or Gertie. She’d told me her mother named her Gertrude, that was her name and that's what she wanted to be called. I walked through the front door of the agency and saw a big, broad smile appear on her face… for only a few seconds. The first words out of her mouth were “Tell me the truth!”… and then she proceeded to tell me, in detail, about her experience with Jerry. I knew it was useless to interrupt her so stood there and listened.

I’d known Gertrude since I was about 14. She had two sons, one of which was a high school classmate of Elle’s, that I knew. Her husband had been a State Trooper (motorcycle) that had been killed in some sort of accident while I was off racing horses but I never got the details. The son who was in Elle’s class also died in an accident but the rumor was that it was suicide. In any case, Gertrude ended up getting a large settlement from the death of her husband, plus life insurance, and that’s what she used to start the travel agency. Since it was located right down the street from the bank she had come in one day to open an account and saw me. We hit it off right away. Over a period of time I persuaded her to deposit a good amount of money… and she’d come in on Friday to deposit more.

When she finally stopped talking I tried, as calmly as I could, explaining that Jerry was new and was not aware of the arrangement and approval I’d gotten to open her accounts. She proceed to call him an incompetent and told me I should fire him. She was, at that point, ‘preaching to the choir’. I told her that her accounts were legal and that I’d have the bank attorney (and Trustee) call her Monday morning to reassure her. That seemed to satisfy her… and gave her an opportunity to just chat. That ‘chat’ ended up being a bit of a sales pitch when she asked when Elle and I had last taken a vacation. I remember laughing when I told her that just 24 hours earlier we'd been in Florida. That didn’t stop her though as she asked what the occasion had been. I explained and thought I could escape but I was wrong.

Gertrude then told me that if ever I (and Elle) wanted to go someplace to celebrate a birthday or anniversary to stop by to see her and that she’d “take care of me”. I thanked her and said I had to get home to get caught up from my week away. As I walked out the door she called to me that she’d see me on Monday. That told me that Bret’s suggestion to go to see her was a good one and I made a mental note to put a blurb in his file about it. The only bad thing was that I had to go home and try to make nice to Elle. I expected that it might be harder than talking to Gertrude.

I got home about mid afternoon to find no one there. Before I left Elle had mentioned that she wanted to do the grocery shopping and wanted me back by 2pm.  That told me I was really going to face some ‘heat’ when she and the kids arrived home. She hated to take them grocery shopping not because they misbehaved but because they got to see all kinds of ‘goodies’ that she didn’t want them to have. On top of that was the fact that I was planning on going to work on the race car on Sunday afternoon… and hadn’t yet told Elle. When I’d called Cliffy from the airport in Florida to confirm our arrival time I’d asked him not to talk about the race car on our trip home. That was when he told me about Sunday afternoon and I said I’d be there.

At least the kids weren’t mad at me when they returned with Elle. She didn’t speak a word as I helped carry the groceries to the house. They were all excited to see the pictures from the trip. I hadn’t unpacked anything so told them it’d be a few minutes. When I went to the carry case that had the Polaroid camera in it I discovered Elle’s ‘package’ from our last night there. I’d stuffed it in there along with some trinkets for the kids. I handed it to her and went searching for the pictures. I don’t know why it was then that I remembered that I’d hidden the bikini panties I’d found when I did some wash in Florida in the pocket under the bottom of the bag. If Elle had been looking at me she would’ve known something was ‘up” as I know I turned beet red. She’d opened the suitcase and was unpacking the dirty clothes so I knew I’d dodged that ‘bullet, at least for the moment. I located the non X-rated Polaroid pictures and showed them to the kids but was really trying to figure out how to get the bikini panty out of the bag without getting caught.

The bag in question was normally stored on the shelf in our closet. As an excuse to go upstairs and to put it back I offered to take the suitcase with the clothes that didn’t need washing upstairs. Still not speaking more than grunts she shook her head telling me “no”. I knew I wanted to get those panties hidden as soon as possible but I knew going up the stairs with just that little bag wasn’t going to ‘cut it’. As mad as she was it would be an untenable situation if she discovered them so I was really concerned. Leave it to the girls next door to come to my rescue. Both Barbara and Mo showed up to see the girls. I’d not had a chance to tell Elle about the guests that they’d be hosting so chose to have them tell her. They seemed surprised that I knew but proceeded to fill us both in.

To be continued…