KEEPING UP... Busy, busy, busy (Part 166s)

KEEPING UP… Busy, busy, busy (Part 166s)

Elle was on the phone for quite a while. It was enough time for me to complete my inspection of all four of the panties, fold them up and make a trip to the basement to temporarily hide them until I could get to the attic and to my ‘stash’. While looking them over I remember wondering what the woman’s panty drawer might’ve looked like. A positive was that I’d been exposed to three new lingerie companies. After hiding the panties in with my sign painting supplies I returned to find Elle looking for me. I had to scramble to come up with a reason for having gone down to the basement. I wasn’t sure she fully accepted my reason but didn’t dwell on it as she wanted to pass on what she’d learned from her telephone call.

Basically, the new secretary was given the job of contacting the substitute teachers with the principal no longer involved. The woman had worked for the County in some kind of clerical/ administrative position. She’d been given a list of registered substitutes and, supposedly, was choosing them randomly. The woman who Elle talked with had only been called twice and she didn’t think there had been that much need for substitutes. Elle seemed to be satisfied that the lack of calls had anything to do with our situation with Barbara, the principal’s daughter, from back when she’d stayed with us. My reaction was for her to try and stay in touch with some of the other teachers to monitor what was going on. Fortunately, at the time we weren’t counting on money from her teaching… but once Winter set in it would be a different story.

I won’t deny I was a bit interested in who chose which costumes but had vowed (to myself) not to get involved. Trish seemed be on top of it so I wasn’t focused on that when I arrived at the bank the next morning. It was more like an ambush when Woody stepped out into the lobby from the tellers area right in front of me.There was no denying she was cute and it was turning out that there was no denying that she went after what she wanted. Totally unprepared, I was presented with a list of why she should be the Cheshire Cat. So surprised, I didn’t hear most of what she said. However, I did hear one thing that did make sense. The drive in area where she worked was also a hallway to the ladies bathroom and narrow as well. The cat suit was one piece and didn’t take up a lot of area space. I hadn’t thought of that, at all. To get out of the situation without having to make a decision I told her that Trish was overseeing the program and I’d have to speak to her. That’s when I got the ‘look’. Her natural persona was ‘bubbly’ and it seemed like she wore a perpetual smile. When she looked at me those attributes had a ‘flirty’ look to go with it. As I walked back to my desk I was wondering if I hadn’t misjudged her and that she was wiser in her ways than I’d figured.

Rather than let the matter simmer I called both Trish and Bret to my desk to talk about the whole costume idea. As I’ve written, to me it was an unneeded annoyance. But I pretty much realized that it was a necessary evil. I didn’t bring up Woody’s request but did focus on the costumes themselves and how much space they would take up. We all agreed that Humpty Dumpty was out of the question. Trish said she liked the Mad Hatter one but none of the three girls was tall enough for it to work. That was when Trish went to work on Bret saying that he’d make a perfect Mad Hatter. I immediately liked the idea and, in spite of Bret’s protestations, I sent Trish to get the hat that went with it. He wasn’t going to put it on until I spoke up and told him to do it. Trish convinced him to just step into the small bathroom that was right there and try it on. It fit him perfectly and after seeing himself in the mirror thought he looked pretty good in it. The bank was open to the public and although none of the three of us had any customers I felt it was time to get on to more serious work.

It was when Bret returned from lunch that he stepped up to my desk and said that if the costume fit that he’d play the role of the Mad Hatter. He talked with his wife about it and she encouraged him to go through with it. He added that he was doing it for his kids. Naturally, he was anxious to see if the jacket and pants fit so I told him to go on up to the board room and try them on. I really didn't want to get fully back on the subject but I did allow myself to think about Woody’s request. Another choice that I felt would work for her in the drive up area was the White Rabbit so made a point to go speak to her about while I was thinking about it. I could see disappointment in her face but she didn’t say anything. Walking away I knew we still had some time to work it out.

As I’ve written before, I seldom talked about work with Elle. But this costume thing was something she was very much involved with with her 4H group. She and a few other parents had worked with the girls to make their own costumes for the big affair at the school on Halloween night. I told her that we had some of the costumes from the Alice in Wonderland show that had been performed at our little local theater. She laughed and said that was the theme that her 4H girls had decided upon. It was ironic to hear her say that a lot of the kids wanted to be the Cheshire Cat. I remember her reaction when I told her Bret was going to dress as the Mad Hatter and she suggested that he’d make a perfect Humpty Dumpty. I agreed but explained that we all still had to do a normal day of work while dressed in these outfits. She laughed and said it might be worth the trip to see the people in costume.

Even though I really didn’t want any part of the Thrift Shoppe at the church, my curiosity made me stop by on Saturday morning on my way to the landfill to see how the new things I’d brought back from the city were being presented. There were already some people looking when I walked in. I was impressed that the new were separated from the stuff that had been there for a while. I also took notice of the pricing of them. They had taken heed to my suggestion and hadn’t priced the things based upon what they might really be worth but at a value people could afford. I also noticed the shoes were displayed but not prominently. I didn’t check on the pricing but hoped they’d done the same with them. I still wasn’t enthusiastic about the venture but couldn’t ignore the monetary success that it had shown so far. I was about to leave when I heard a female complain about not having a room or space where she could try things on. Hearing that I knew it was time to leave.

The rest of the weekend was anything but exciting. The end of October meant falling leaves and plenty of them. I can’t begin to explain how thankful I was that our farmer neighbor, John, had told me to just push the leaves out into the farm field. I always tried to do it when the wind blew out of the North so they would blow away from the property. However, that wasn’t always the case and this weekend was one of those times. I swear that I raked some of those leaves three or four times. When I finished up it was just about dark so when I was walking up the path to the kitchen door I could see some faint light coming from the second floor of the empty house next door. I remember just standing there wishing that someone would buy it. But, right then and there, I had to decide what to do… call the real estate agent or the police.

To be continued…