ENDING THE YEAR… Odds & ends (Part 167i)
Fast forwarding to
Saturday, the results of the re-opening of the church’s Thrift Shoppe
were mixed. There wasn’t time to publicize it but the few people who
showed up were pleasantly surprised. The new paint, a pale yellow,
certainly brightened up the place. There was one surprise while I was
there and that was in seeing my new sailing friend, Marty, and his wife,
Jane, show up. Now fully moved in, they were reaching out to become a
part of the community. In having to downsize they decided there was no
reason to hold on to their kids out grown clothes and dropped them off.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to price them but it reminded me that
Elle was supposed to go through our kids clothes.. and that I’d not
followed up with Alan and Dick from the race car crew. Alan lived but
three minutes away so while it was on my mind jumped into my car and
headed to his house. I’ve described Alan’s wife as being “mousey” and
when she answered the door I saw nothing to change that description. The
had three kids, two boys and a girl and when I asked about the clothes
she stated that by the time the boys had outgrown them there wasn’t much
left of them. She didn’t come right out and say it but I got the
distinct impression that she and Alan were hoping for another girl so
wanted to hold on to the girl’s things.
Now on a mission, I
headed for Dick’s house which was about a quarter of a mile from mine.
Dick and Ra had a two and two combination. She said she could come up
with some clothes for girls but laughed about the boys. I remember her
laughing and saying that their clothes didn’t last long enough for her boys to
outgrow them. We closed the conversation with her telling me she’d drop some things off at my house during the week. Not a truly successful foray, at
least it was a start. The last stop would be at home and a reminder to
Elle. Pulling up the driveway I saw Johnny, the painter, walking down
the path from the house. I didn’t see his truck so was a bit puzzled. I
hailed him and he explained he’d been asked by Andy, the realtor with
the listing for the house next door, if, when he was painting the
bedrooms he’d heard any noises from the attic. I laughed. Johnny didn’t
think there was anything funny about his question so I quickly
explained. I told him about my finding that squirrels had infiltrated my house before I bought it and were nesting in the attic. He didn’t appear to believe me
and stated that he hadn’t heard anything suspicious. Having spent some
time in and around that house I told him that the tree on the property
line in the Northwest corner of the house gave squirrels a great
launching point to the eaves and soffits of the house. He still looked
doubtful. Curious as to just how much differenc painting the upstairs bedrooms
made I offered to go with him to check it out. He still had a key so we
were off on a mission.
As soon as we walked into the kitchen
I could smell the stuffiness of an unoccupied house. My house and this
house were built around the same time in the middle 1930’s. Mine was a
Dutch Colonial and this was more of an early Tudor style, at least from
the outside. Inside the two were very similar. The four bedrooms were
almost exactly the same size as the four in my house. Walking into the
one right at the top of the stairs I could readily see the difference
painting it a light color had made. I commented to Johnny about it and
he said recently he’d been asked to paint using darker, richer colors
and cited one where he’d painted a bedroom a deep lilac. I remember
him shaking his head in sort of disbelief. I’d not had anything to eat
since I got up and was hungry so suggested we head on up to the attic. After
I’d discovered I had squirrels in my attic I'd gone searching and found
where they’d built nests. This attic was similar in that there was a
walkway about three feet wide right down the middle from one end to the
other. The squirrels in my house had built nests just under the edge of it. I’d not
thought to get a flashlight and the only light was an overhead one,
right in the middle, which didn’t offer much help. Even so, I could see
evidence of squirrels being in the attic. However, I wasn’t about to go
feeling under the floorboards even knowing that no squirrels would still
be there with us walking around. Johnny said he’d call Andy and tell
him we’d both been up there but were unable to find anything. He went
on that he’d tell Andy that because of his bummed up arm he
really hadn’t been able to do much searching. Then we both headed back
down the stairs.
Seeing the fresh paint in the bedrooms triggered
the idea to call Andy myself. He’d told me he’d been prompted to suggest to
the owner that painting would help the looks of the interior. It had
been a while since I’d talked to him about the prospect who been looking
at the house. After lunch I gave him a call and went over what Johnny
and I’d done. I explained what I’d found at my house and told him it’d
only take a few minutes to check it out. I suggested that he stop by and
I’d show him. He said he was tied up for the rest of the day but asked
if I’d do him a big favor and do it for him. The prospect was coming
out the next week and he really needed to know if remediation was
necessary. It wasn’t a job I wanted but Andy was a good guy so after I
said "yes" told me where the key was hidden. Not where I expected it to
be, it was in the garage which was unlocked.
Armed with a big
flashlight, a pair of leather work gloves and a pail I made my way back
over to the house. I made sure I made a lot of noise on my way up
the stairs to the attic. I started at the West end since that was where
I thought the squirrels might be making their way in. I found success
about 10 feet from the wall. A very neat nest, I took care in removing
it thinking that Elle could use it in some way when teaching. I made my
way towards the middle and then found something soft right under the
floorboards at the attic opening. With the heavy gloves I couldn’t
readily tell what I’d found but when I pulled on it I almost choked with
surprise when I pulled out a pair of cotton panties. I immediately saw
the band legs and knew who they belonged to… Barbara, the daughter of
the school principal who’d lived there and also with us for a while back in the Spring.
I spread them out on the walkway and shined the flashlight on them.
That was another surprise. The staining in the crotch area was not only
extensive but I could clearly see that the panties had been wet a number
of times. There were at least three distinctive stain lines.
I
was on my knees and immediately remembered my thought(s) when Barbara
was living with us that she was wetting on purpose and not really a bedwetter. The different stains
meant they had been wet, dried and then re-wet again and again. To me,
they were deliberate but why? And then there was the question as to why
the panties were in the attic? I don’t remember how long I stayed in that
position but I do remember picking them up and taking a whiff of them. I
was a bit surprised when it wasn’t what I’d expected. Having lived with
Elle and her wet panties almost every morning I was expecting a bit of
ammonia smell… or what I called being “ripe”. The stale pee smell was there
but not really that bad. But, my next thought was “Maybe there’s more…” I
went back to reaching under the floorboards but didn’t find anything
else.
To be continued…
No comments:
Post a Comment