My natural reaction was to keep digging in the carton hoping to find more panties. However, it wasn’t to be. The other boxes held brand new nylon stockings (the old style, for use with garters) still in their original packaging, nylon half slips and brand new bras still in boxes. I quickly put those back in the carton and started to ‘inspect’ the panties. There were only four which was a bit of a disappointment. I started to spread them out and could see they were bigger than what Elle wore. A peek inside one to read the label gave me the reason… size 6. However, before I made it any further I saw headlights coming up the driveway. The first thing I did was to grab the panties and stuff them in a drawer of my desk located in the den. Then I started dumping the shoes back into the carton. When I heard the kitchen door open I reversed course and started taking them back out so Elle would think I’d just started to empty it. She was a bit shocked but was more interested in telling me what she’d found out about her situation at the school.
Nanci, her friend and former secretary for the school principal, couldn’t give her anything ‘concrete’. But Nanci did tell her that she’d been told by another substitute teacher that she’d been told she could count on being called on a regular basis. When I heard that I got upset. From the time Elle had started as a substitute teacher those on the list worked their way up by their availability. This was done to save the person assigned to find a substitute a lot of time and to also give the person called more time to prepare. What I heard was that the principal was choosing favorites and I didn’t like it… at all! We discussed what Elle could do about it and I suggested that she call to set up an appointment with the principal. Elle had a log of all the days she’d been called in the past and I suggested she have it when she went to the school.
After putting the kids to bed Elle came back to look at the shoes. I remember that she thought they were too “upscale” for our area and especially the clientele buying things at the shop. But, having said that she proceeded to pick out a couple of ‘dress shoes’ for special occasions. I didn’t let on that I was aware of the boxes at the bottom and let her be the one to open them. She made the observation that the slips were nice but were too big for her. However, she did keep the stockings. All the clothes were still stacked on the living room sofa and chairs from the night before. Knowing that there was no storage space at the church we picked over the clothes choosing items we thought might sell right away. Naturally, that took more time than I’d hoped as I wanted to get a closer look at the four panties I’d discovered earlier.
We usually went upstairs to bed together. I was trying to come up with a way to have her go before I did but couldn’t come up with one I felt she would accept without questioning me so we ended up going together. With my mind on the panties I couldn’t stop thinking about why the mother had singled them out. In the short time I’d handled them I’d been impressed with how fancy they were. The slips were also ‘fancy’ reinforcing the fact that the deceased woman had not only money but good taste as well. As I fell asleep I’d come up with the idea that the mother just couldn’t bring herself to throw them away. I was glad she hadn’t and was looking forward to seeing them in the morning.
It just didn’t work out for me to get to inspect the panties before leaving for work. I did manage to move them to a better hiding place before leaving. I knew the minister was usually at the church around 8am so loaded two cartons into my car to leave off with him. At the church I explained what Elle and I’d done as far as sorting the items and our ideas on pricing them. He seemed to agree that not putting everything out at once was a good idea but wanted to get as much money as possible for “good goods”. It wasn’t my ‘call’ so I kept my mouth shut. Before leaving I told him about the shoes and my concerns about them but he convinced me to bring them with the next batch of stuff. Walking out to my car I wondered how I’d gotten so involved in this whole project.
The day started at work with some good news. The guys from the ad agency had packed up some costumes for the girls who had volunteered to participate in the Halloween costume contest and left them off. There were two boxes and the only place to put them was up in the Board room. It was also the only place with room enough to try them on so Bret helped me carry them up and to lay them out on the table. It became very obvious that they were all from the Alice in Wonderland performance the local theatre group had put on back in the Spring. I hadn’t seen it but Elle had taken the older girls and said it was “cute”. I wasn’t all that familiar with the characters but a couple were pretty obvious. The Cheshire Cat was one with the purple and pink outfit. Humpty Dumpty, the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit didn’t leave much doubt either. Of course, there was Alice’s outfit to complete the scene. My immediate concern was how the costumes would fit the three volunteers. I’d found a note for us not to do any alterations which would make it somewhat difficult. I instructed Bret to have Trish bring the girls up to the Board room around 4:30pm to not only make their choices but, more importantly, to see if they fit.
Joanie still wasn’t ‘sold’ on the idea but I hoped that with Trish being involved it would help. I observed them gathered at Trish’s desk and was pleased to see that Woody seemed to be excited about it. Eileen was always ‘good to go’ but her problem was going to be finding a costume that would look good on her almost anorexic body. But that was for them to work it out. I made a mental note of who I thought would take which costume and couldn’t wait to find out the results. I was sure Joanie would end up being Alice but Woody had that same innocent look. Because the Cheshire Cat was a one piece item I figured Eileen to take that one. If any ‘fill’ was necessary there would certainly be room for it. When Trish returned it was without any decisions. She told me the three of them were going to work it out among themselves. I asked for a hint and all I got was a shrug of her shoulders.
On my way home all I could do was hope I’d get the opportunity to do my panty inspection that evening. If it were still Summertime there would’ve been no doubt because everybody would head outside as soon as supper was over. But not anymore. Sitting in the den watching TV after dinner was like torture because I could see the desk with the panties hidden inside a drawer. When Elle went upstairs to put Kaye to bed I did get up and retrieve them, stuffing them under a cushion on the sofa. It was like torture. If I hadn’t seen them and touched them it wouldn’t have been so bad. Then… the phone rang. It was another teacher calling to give Elle some information on what was happening in the realm of substitute teachers. I made a decision that it was probably my best chance for looking at the panties so I grabbed them and headed for the kitchen table. It turned out to be worth the wait. I found it interesting that each was made by a different manufacturer. The label in the one in the picture from the previous post only had one word… “Nylon”. Each of the other three, all fancy panties with lace appliqués across the front, was made by a different company, none of which I recognized. All were size 6 with the Gilead panties being nylon satin tricot.
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| Gilead |
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| Sherman |
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| Essence |
To be continued...
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