BACK TO REALITY Same ole, same ole (Part 165r)

BACK TO REALITY… Same ole, same ole (Part 165r)

It had been months since I’d seen Gracie. However, when I saw her waiting for me the next morning I still had a trace of guilt from having taken a pair of her panties the night I’d stayed at her house back when I was going through my training on the teller machines. Even with that to me she was the lady with the dimpled panties. Once over that little trauma I was actually glad that the person that had been sent was someone I and most of the staff knew. It took meeting between Lorie and Liz to get the process started. I wasn’t exactly sure how it worked and I was positively sure that Liz didn’t. Thankfully, there hadn’t been many transactions and by the time they were all processed it was a little after noon. I offered to take her for lunch but she said she needed to get back to the office. I told her I owed her one and would call the next time I had a banking meeting at the restaurant just down the street from the data center. I was pleased when she said she’d like that.

Time wise I was glad she didn’t accept the offer. I’d gotten a telephone call from Stan, my stock broker, that one of the bonds that had been part of the trust fund my grandfather had set up for me had been called. I was still learning my way when it came to stocks and bonds. The one thing I knew about bonds were that they were a pain to work with .The reason people invested in them was to earn interest on their money To get that interest the investor had to cut off coupons that were attached to the certificate itself and take them to a bank. For the tellers it was a pain and often led to problems when it came to proving up at the end of the day. From the time the trust was turned over to me they had been a pain. I’d forget to clip the coupon and it would be months until I’d realize it. So, having all that, hearing the the last of my bonds had been called was good news. Even though the call date was October first I wanted to get it to Stan so I’d have access to the principal on the first. It was also a chance to find out if Lynda had returned from her trip. Visiting the brokerage office without her there wasn’t nearly as ‘interesting’.

I was disappointed when I walked in and didn’t see her. Stan was busy with a customer which meant I had to deal with Ruthe. She’d been a lot more friendly with Lynda gone and it continued on this day. She took the bond from me and gave me a recipt for it. As she did she asked a strange question. She wanted to know which road I took on my way to work. I knew where she lived and had, one Saturday, seen clothes on a clothes line in her yard. Hard as I tried I couldn’t come up with a reason for stopping to see just what was hung on it. So, I willingly told her. The reason for her asking was that her car had “died”. She was wondering if it were possible for me to pick her up on my way in for a few days until she could get it repaired.

I’ve always had a problem saying “No” when asked for a favor. But this time I had no reason to. I can tell you that as soon as she asked I had to keep from seeming to be too eager to say yes. Ruthe was a single mother involved in a nasty divorce. Her husband, an alcoholic prone to causing trouble was a constant worry for her. Her mother would pick up her kids after school to keep their father from having access to them. Ruthe would then pick them up on her way home. Now, without a car her mother was going to drive in to the brokerage and then take them all to their home. My only involvement would be to stop and get Ruthe in the morning. I didn’t drag out my “Sure…. I’d be glad to do it’” answer for long and by the time I did I was already contemplating viewing a full clothes line.

With Gracie working with Liz and Lorie I was able to finalize the advertising for the “busy period”. Bret had been the go-between between the main office and the branch since I’d left for vacation. Nothing much had happened at the branch and none of the suggestions that Morris had made to the Board had been acted upon. One had been to severely cut back media advertising geared for the branch area and I’d thought about it… for a short time. It was time to make the ‘buys” for ad space. But, before I did I made a call to the branch to talk with the staff to get an idea of what the addresses were of the new accounts that had been opened over the past few weeks. I felt it would give me an idea of what area to target and then to use the Pennysaver paper that covered those areas. I just couldn’t abandon the branch even if I knew in my heart that Morris was probably right when he told me… “Shut it down and start over…”. It was the first time I’d talked with anyone from the branch since returning from Bermuda and from what they told me things were slow but running smoothly. I remember shaking my head in thinking about all the things the board had done wrong in deciding to open a branch.

It was near the end of the day before I got to see Woody wearing another of her purchases. I was a bit disappointed because it was a chocolate colored skirt and not colorful at all. However, it, like the plaid one she’d worn the day before, was well above her knees. I did make a comment to Trish and all she’d say was that it was part of an outfit. She added that it might be a while before I’d see what she was talking about and smiled. Seeing and talking about Woody triggered my thought concerning her comment to me about Peggy being “special” and I decided to pursue it before she left.

Talking with her was refreshing as she was so positive. I made ‘small talk” to start with but didn’t waste much time before segueing to Peggy. I ‘danced’ around the question a bit asking how they were getting a long and if she thought Peggy was a good teacher. I knew what the answers were before asking so I waited a few seconds to ask why she called Peggy “special”.
Other than for her periods of shyness right after her being hired this was the first time I’d seen her pensive. I think I shocked her when I brought it up. In fact, initially she didn’t remember actually calling her that. But I insisted that she’d used it when she was thanking me for helping her out with the clothes. Then I saw her blush. She really didn’t want to talk about it. I guess you could call me cruel for continuing… but I did.

What had happened was that Peggy had told her about all the ways I’d helped her. I was not happy to hear that she’d done it because I’d made her promise not to tell anybody but her parents (and they weren’t supposed to know about some of it). In any case, what doing it had accomplished was to convince her that I was, for lack of any other words, not to be feared. It was a bit of a shock for me to hear that… but, later, on the way home I managed to grasp the concept. Here she was, young, away from home, living with people she didn’t know all that well, in need of monetary help and working with people she didn’t know and someone offers to give her money for clothes. It made sense. But, getting back to Peggy being “special”, it was because she had made a real effort to make her (Woody) comfortable. It was in hearing her say it that it made sense.

To be continued...