“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170y)
I was in front of
the bus stop when I opened the envelope and when I saw what it was I
stopped in my tracks not believing what I was looking at. I’d seen the
picture in the album Lynda had shared with me back when I’d stopped at her
house. As I stared at it I remembered that I’d made a comment to her about it… and obviously, she remembered. I don’t know how long I stood
there, maybe 30 seconds or so, when I heard a voice ask if I was OK. I
looked up while quickly hiding the picture to see one of my former neighbors
from the mobile home park. We chatted for a few minutes but she had to
board the bus. As she did I could only hope she hadn’t seen the picture.
Back
at my desk I hid the picture in my briefcase. I can’t tell you how many
times I wanted to open it up back up to take a look at it as the afternoon
progressed. Being a Friday, and still in the ‘busy period’, both Trish
and Bret worked with me until 6pm. We were all anxious to get out of
there even though there were still things we could’ve done in
preparation for Monday. As soon as my butt hit the seat in my car I had
the briefcase open and the picture in my hand. Staring at it I
remembered there was a series of pictures that went with it. I thought
the scene, outdoors, was incredibly sexy and wished I could get Elle to
do something like it. As I put the picture away I knew it was wishful
thinking on my part.
On the way home my thoughts focused on
hearing how the trip to the circus had gone. I knew from Elle’s curt
demeanor that she was less than pleased with the fact that she had to
stay overnight. I’d thought about how she’d, reluctantly, taken extra
panties and pads, and wondered how she made it through the night.
Knowing her reluctance to discuss things that made her uncomfortable I
knew it would be like pulling teeth to get her to tell me about it but I
was determined. I got a somewhat convoluted view of the circus from
Kaye who was still excited. At least that part was a success. Naturally, she brought home some souvenirs which she lorded over
her sisters. Because there was no school the older girls were allowed to
stay up a bit later which annoyed me. I wanted to hear all about Elle’s
perspective of the trip to the city. With the girls all in bed I waited
for her to return… and wait I did. I expected her to be reluctant to
tell me but her not coming down stairs was ridiculous… so I went
up to confront her. I’d found that confronting her when she was in
this kind of mood would sometimes work… and it did.
NOTE: My
telling of this part is from notes I wrote after hearing Elle tell me
of her experience. I wrote it up in detail the next morning and put the
papers in a file folder. It took some ‘digging’ to find it but, as
you’ll see, I did…
The bus trip to meet the train was
uneventful. Elle fully expected to be able to use the restroom at the
station but the bus was late in arriving and the passengers were ushered right on
to the train. Based upon what I’d told her to expect she’d not had anything to
drink since eating supper the night before so she told me she was OK up
to then. The train ride was an experience in itself as there was little heat in
any of the cars and as Kaye told me, “it was noisy”. They arrived at the
terminal in the city around 9:30am. The first stop for all of them was
the restrooms. Elle said they were disgusting and Elle held Kaye over the
toilet rather than let her sit on the seat. She said she was happy that
she was still dry and was tempted to just go in her ‘package’ because
the place was so “disgusting”. No one had eaten before leaving and they were hungry. There were
plenty of places to get a quick breakfast before heading upstairs to the
arena. The show didn’t start until 11:30am but the doors opened at
10:30am. Ginger had been there a few times when she and Jon were first
married so led them to the ’side show’ where all the “funny looking
people” were located. Elle told me the kids were frightened by some of
the “grotesque” people and some of the things they did. Elle said she’d
never seen a swordswallower and was intrigued by him. They got to their
seats and, as Elle put it was, “absolutely unbelievable” as they were
front row in the mezzanine and right in the middle where they
could see all three rings. She said they didn’t realize the show was
as long as it was and when it finally ended they had but a little more
than a half hour to get to the train… and had to get to the restrooms as
well. That’s when things started to go bad. Long lines and the kids not
co-operating led to Elle not getting to use the toilet. Once on the
terminal level they ran to get to the gate but found it was closed and
they’d missed the train.
Elle had been fairly upbeat up to this
point but when she started in with Gingers’s decision to call her mother
and to invite herself and Elle to stay over with her parents without asking
how she felt about it I could see her mood change a bit. She said she
was upset about missing the train, that she’d wet herself and had no
input as to what they were going to do. After making phone calls they got a
cab and went to her in-laws apartment.
++++++++++++++++
Some background is necessary here….
Ginger’s
in-laws lived in a large, fancy apartment complete with a doorman and elevator operator. Her father in-law was a
senior officer in a large commercial bank and was born and raised in the
city. He married a ‘city girl’ and they had three children… Rob, Jon
and Vickie who were also born and raised in the city. As the father
in-law got promoted he invested money in a waterfront Summer home in the
town where Elle and I lived sometime back in the 50’s. Spending their
Summers there, Rob and Jon fell in love with the area and, after college
and marriage, took jobs that allowed them to settle there. We got to
meet Rob and Jon (and their wives) when Pat (the PTA lady) was trying to
recruit younger candidates for the local school Board. They were part
of “the Group” that Pat had put together and we eventually became a part
of. Rob, by then was an alcoholic, and after a while was dropped from
our activities. Elle became good friends with Jon’s wife, Ginger, for a
number of reasons. She had five children, all girls, and we had three,
also girls, with our two older ones matching two of hers in age. And, as
it turned out, they shared something else… incontinence. In time as
they became closer, Ginger shared some ‘dirt’ about her in-laws with
Elle.
Basically, they were both recovering alcoholics. The bank
where her father in-law worked paid for a stint in a recovery center and
he remained sober and kept his job. But, when the kids were growing up,
alcohol had flowed like water in their house. Rob and Jon were a couple
of years apart but were never really that close. The daughter, Vickie,
was four years younger than Jon and a ‘daddy’s girl’. She could do no
wrong in his eyes. Jon resented her in that she got anything she wanted…
new cars (plural, because she wrecked a couple due to drinking),
vacation trips, three colleges with six years to get a degree. All that
and he still refused to reign her in. Even with a teaching degree she
still hadn’t gotten a job and sometimes lived with them in the city
apartment.(74)
++++++++++++++++
To be continued…
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