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

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

It was a fair warning. The young lady soon returned carrying a tray with a carafe of coffee and a couple of mugs. She put it on the little table that was between us and then went over to a side cabinet and opened a door. That’s when it got interesting. To get the creamer additive and sugar she had to bend over to get the items from inside… and that’s when Dan’s admonition came into play. Back at the bank I’d become somewhat immune to seeing Eileen’s panties when she’d bend over at the waist as it had become a fairly common occurrence. But, this was someone new and definitely more attractive (and shapely) than Eileen… and seeing her white panties with either black or dark blue polka dots was definitely refreshing. It lasted but for maybe five or six seconds and when she stood up with the items in hand I’m sure my face was somewhat red. As she closed the door when leaving Dan sort of mumbled “just another one of my perks…” That was when I remembered a comment of his at the last meeting when he told me to always keep my eyes open. I wanted to pick up on both of those comments of his but I’d only known the man a very short time and figured there’d be other occasions… or I hoped there would.

Time flew by quickly and before I knew it the girl was opening the door to say “Good night…”. I’d shared both my prepared materials along with my overall thoughts on the project and Dan, much to my surprise, had peppered me with questions. I, at first, was annoyed but when he read the expression(s) on my face proceeded to explain. I don’t remember the words but it was along the lines of “sometimes you have to be negative to make progress…”.  He went on that what he was doing was role playing and trying to identify some of the negatives the committee members might have. That way we’d address them during the presentation and not appear to be reacting. It sure made sense to me and as we finished up my admiration for him continued to grow. As we were putting on our coats he slapped me on the back and said “Let’s eat!”. I thanked him for the offer and told him I had to get to my hotel but he insisted. I gave him the name of the hotel and he called to say I’d be late. Then we headed for a restaurant that I’d been to with my parents when we lived in the city. I remembered that it was very much ‘upscale’ and attempted to protest. He laughed and told me one of the Trustees of his bank was a part owner. Not only was it a very good meal but we continued to address potential obstacles my idea might face with the bigger banks. When I got on the subway to go to the hotel I was more enthusiastic than I’d ever been.

My proposal wasn’t on the agenda and Dan suggested that I bring it up in the ‘new business' section to formally request it be added to the next regularly scheduled meeting. Most of the business that was discussed concerned the one week long School of Savings Banking that was proposed to kick off in October. I’d been added to the sub-committee but it hadn’t yet met and the chairman of the main committee was concerned as we had only 6 months to get everything together. After the meeting was over the sub-committee members got together to set a date to meet. I wasn’t happy when the decision was to meet again in a week. I knew Elle would have a fit. Being on all these committees was almost a full time job in itself.
At home, the news from Elle was that a new teacher had been hired but she wasn’t to start until the end of the month. The arrangement with Beth’s mother to watch Kaye (our youngest) was working and Kaye told me all about “Auntie Alice” as I ate my warmed up supper. I did a quick calculation and with the increase in the per-diem for substitute teachers we’d end up with a gross of $375. To me it was like found money. My last pay increase had made it so that we didn’t have to depend on Elle’s teaching to make ends meet. We still had out Wants/Needs list but it was now weighted more to the want side. It was a nice feeling, especially when it came to money for the race car.

A while back I wrote about Ruthe, the woman who worked with Lynda at the stock broker’s office, and how she, knowing where I lived and the route I took to work, had asked me to pick her up for a few days while her car was being worked on. I’d stop and pick her up on the way in to work and then her mother, who looked after her kids, would pick her up at the end of the work day. It had worked well enough that Ruthe ended up asking if I could continue to do it on Friday’s. It had something to do with her mother using her car to do grocery shopping but the details were always a bit ‘cloudy’. Ruthe’s father would drive her mother to Ruthe’s house and then she’d take the car. I’d stop and pick Ruthe up around 8:30am. I’d pull up in the driveway and Ruthe would pop out the side door almost immediately and we'd be on our way. But, not on this Friday morning. As usual, the car was gone and I expected to see a body appear immediately. I waited for a few minutes and then blew the horn. As I sat there waiting I kept my eyes on the door. Then I saw something that didn’t look right… the pane of glass right above the door handle was broken.

When I got to the door I could see that it wasn’t latched. I pulled it open and walked in. I called for Ruthe but didn’t get an answer. I’d only been in her kitchen but it was obvious the next room was the living room. I walked in and what I saw took my breath away. Ruthe was half lying on the couch with one leg up on the seat cushions and the other draped over the edge with her foot on the floor. But it wasn’t her position that had my attention… it was her face. There was blood all over it and on the couch pillow under her head. I’d never seen a scene like this in my life. I went into a panic. It’s always easy to ‘Monday morning quarterback’ but I still can’t face the fact that I didn’t go right to her to see if she was even breathing. What I did was to look for the phone. I found it on the floor in a corner. When I picked up the handset there was no sound. Then I saw where it had been ripped from the wall. Now I was even more panicked.

Running back outside there were no other houses within sight. I did know my Father’s cousin lived just a little further to the East so jumped in my car (which was still running) and headed there. Being a farmer he wasn’t there but his wife was. I’d been friendly with her sons but hadn’t had much to do with her so it was awkward. I’m sure she saw the look on my face and probably asked what was wrong but all I wanted was a phone. I got the police and gave them the approximate location (being rural there were no house numbers and Ruthe’s house was on the Main Rd). The person who answered the phone asked me one very basic question after I described Ruthe’s condition… "Is she breathing?" That’s when I had another panic attack because I couldn’t answer the question.

To be continued…