"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days (Part 170d)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170d)

I had to ask him why not put the restaurant’s name on the car and after he answered it sort of made sense. Most of the people who attend the races at the track where we raced weren’t people who lived in an area near to the restaurant. But… the people who would stop by the car following the races had an interest in the car and were more than likely local to the area where the restaurant was located. By handing out cards we’d have an opportunity to encourage the recipient to visit the restaurant… and there was a coupon as part of the card. This to me was the most unique part of the card. Back in those days coupons were not in vogue and Cliff saw it as an opportunity. After he finished explaining he cut me off saying he had to start preparing the food for the evening crowd. I thanked him again and headed back to work, a very happy man.

I’d walked past the family homestead on the way to the restaurant but hadn’t stopped to look at it. It had been quite a while since my father had sold the house and property and my interest in it had waned by then. My father had gotten his money and, feeling bad about selling it, he’d made a point of avoiding going past the site. Not as deeply emotional about it, I’d pretty much ignored it. However, on my way back to the bank I made a point of stopping. It was in pretty rough shape. The formal gardens which had been a  downtown showcase had been removed. Some of the shutters were falling apart and it was obvious that somebody had attempted to break in through a front window. The lawn that my brother and I had played on lo those many years prior hadn’t been cut in a long, long time and there was a lot of trash spread throughout the yard. I don’t know how long I stared at the scene but I do know when I continued on towards the bank I was glad that my role in the reclamation was to only find a plausible use for it.

Neither Laura or Sandy had seen Liz during the time she’d been in the bank during the morning and I wondered what their reaction would be when they found out she’d be out for the rest of the month. My original concern had been that Liz would ‘bad mouth’ me to Laura after my talk with her. Now, it was my job to tell her. I called her to my desk to explain what had happened and saw her jaw drop when I did. I’m going to say I probably went a little further than I should’ve when I told her exactly what had happened. I didn’t know what to expect her reaction to be but she seemed to be OK with it. Before excusing her I, feeling a bit guilty, told her I hoped she didn’t think any less of me for calling Liz out on it. On that, she just softly shrugged her shoulders. To me, that was a good sign.

The only other thing on my mind was to tell Cliffy that we’d been promised $500. I knew that would take the pressure off Dick and might even give us a little cushion. With lobby traffic slow I dialed him up but instead of being excited he got hung-up on the coupon concept. I tried my best to explain but soon realized without him seeing what I was talking about I was wasting my time. There was also some doubt about ever getting the money and I had no idea what made him think that. As I write this I’m reminded of a line in the Tom Cruise movie, "Jerry McGuire"… “Show me the money!”. I hung up, lying, telling him I had to wait on a customer and that I’d see him on Saturday.

It was after 3pm when I saw Ward, the guy who cleaned our office up each night, walking across the lobby floor. I’d get to see him from time to time when I’d stay after 6pm but seldom during the day. I know he’d been paid for moving the big desk in the cellar so was interested to find out why he was there. He motioned for me to follow him into the vestibule. Once there he handed me a small plastic bag. He had a funny smile as he did and I couldn’t imaging what that was about and what was inside the bag. The light was very poor In that area so I didn’t recognize the item inside. I reached in and felt a soft, silky material and as I pulled it out recognized that it was a pair of panties. By then Ward had sort of a sheepish grin on his face. I quickly dropped the panties back into the bag fearful someone might walk past and see what we were looking at. He was the first to speak and asked if I remembered telling him to save any panties that might show up in the trash and I immediately did. It was when the elastic on Laura’s panties had broken and she’d fallen in the lobby when they got caught up in her feet. I immediately asked where they’d been found and he pointed to upstairs and said they came from the trash canister at the desk of the president's secretary. Lena! I was smiling by then and I remember thanking him telling him that he’d done a good job. After he left I went into the men’s  restroom to inspect the ‘find’. It was a pair of size 6 Kayser panties embellished with lace appliqués. Really fancy panties!. (I’m almost positive that I still have them but, for the second time in recent months have been unable to locate a part of my old “stash” or I’d show them.) They were dry but my inspection of them proved to me that she'd had an 'accident'... and that increased the size of the bulge in my pants. I’d had a number of opportunities to view Lena in her panties but could only guess as to the manufacturer. I’d thought they’d been made by Kayser and now I knew for sure.

As soon as she was ‘in proof’ Mae was ready to return to work in the cellar. I told her I was only staying until 5pm as I wanted to get home. I knew from experience how much the first day back in a classroom took out of Elle and I wanted to be there to help her with supper. Mae was sympathetic and made me promise to introduce her to Elle the next time she was in the bank. At first I thought it a little strange but told her I would. Not wanting to tackle a measurable project with limited time I chose to ‘explore’ the middle storage bin. As I’ve previously written, when the transfer of the things from the old bank building across the street was done there had been almost no organization of it. The bank was coming up on the 100 year anniversary and it had been obvious that just about every recorded thing had been kept. What was a real puzzle was why some of the equipment had been saved, some of which neither of us had any idea what it was for. I dug some of it out and set it aside with the idea of possibly using it during the 100 year celebration. We really didn’t accomplish much but our discoveries did prove interesting.

Elle’s day had gone better than she expected which put her in a better mood than I expected. She’d changed out of her school clothes and was just wearing a house coat which was like an open invitation to me. I didn’t even bother to take off my coat and was quickly over to her with my hand between her legs. She was dry but whispered the magic word… “later” as she pulled away. Hanging up my coat I saw the Polaroid camera on the shelf and pulled it down. I figured with my luck there wouldn’t be any film although I’d made a point of trying to leave at least one exposure in the camera for just such an opportunity. I went through the dining room to keep her from seeing the camera and when I got to the doorway to the kitchen I saw I had a shot. Not the greatest but I wouldn’t have to beg or plead… and pushed the button.
     

A nice surprise...

To be continued...