LIFE GOES ON… and on… (Part 171v)
I was awake early on Monday
morning, even before Elle’s alarm went off. My thoughts were on Dotty
and, after having had time to consider my ‘suggestions’ to her on
Friday, how she’d respond to them. At breakfast Elle even commented on
the fact that I seemed “distant”. It didn’t take long to find out
Dotty’s decision. I arrived around 8:30am and talked with Mike, the
messenger/custodian while waiting for her. As she walked up to the door I
had to do a bit of a ‘double take’ to make sure it was her. She’d
completely redone her hair. It was no longer ‘perfect’ like after a
permanent wave, but it looked more like natural hair would look. The
next thing was the absence of make-up on her face. No rouge or eye liner
and just a very pale lipstick in place of the red that she’d worn since
starting there. Some of the younger women didn’t even wear lipstick,
Cara being one of them. She was wearing a light weight jacket that only
went to her waist so it showed she had on a floral cotton skirt that
came to just above her knees. Looking down at her feet, she was wearing a
pair of grey leather ‘flats’ in place of the high heels she’d worn
right from the time I first interviewed her. To say that she’d ‘dressed
down’ is putting it mildly, especially from the type clothes she’d been
wearing. I was waiting to see the blouse she’d chosen to go with the
flowered skirt so followed her to the coat room. Right in line with the
colors in the skirt, it was a pale blue cap sleeved top and ended just
below the waist band of her skirt. Seeing me there she did a bit of a
curtsey and smiled. Seeing her like that told me we didn’t really need
to have a chat and that she'd 'bought in' to what I'd suggested.
However, I did remind her about perceived attitudes and reminded her to
not be so “hard’ when asking questions or “defensive” when giving
answers. I told her that she would have to work on “softening” up a bit
but encouraged her by telling her that it was now up to her to ‘sell’
the others that she was a “nice person” and could work well with them. I
walked away with my fingers crossed.
This was the day that Dotty
got her own cash drawer. Laura, the assistant to the auditor had to be
present as she counted the cash in the drawer. I made a point of
observing how the two of them interacted with each other. There was at
least a 25 year difference in their ages and I knew Laura was younger
than Dottie’s two sons. After the money was counted I saw them talking
and saw Laura smiling as they did… a good sign. As the day progressed I
got word that two dinner meetings that I’d been scheduled for that week
had, much to my great pleasure, been cancelled. That meant I’d be home
for supper both nights and I might be able to help with the flower
plantings at the church. When Bret was leaving he made a comment on how
Dotty looked more “at ease”. I told him I agreed but didn’t say anything
about my involvement in her transformation. I also made it a point not
to talk with her during the day figuring I’d wait until the next morning
to get her feelings on how she felt it had gone for her.
Monday
night was the usual night for unloading the race car. The other guys
were really ‘hyped-up” about the proposed trip to Connecticut on Friday.
I wasn’t. Cliffy had raced at the track a couple of times when his
father owned the car and hadn’t done well. As I had previously written, I
felt we should take our winnings and limit our focus on our home track
where we knew we were somewhat competitive. Some of the best drivers in
the Northeast raced up there on a regular basis and had their cars set
up for it. There was another reason for not wanting to go. I’d let
Jonesie talk me into doing the “lights” for the PTA play at the school.
Thursday was the dress rehearsal and the first time to work with the
lights and Friday was the opening. I hadn’t yet told Cliffy and the guys
about my conflict. I’ll admit I was “chicken” to do it. I’d started to
formulate a couple of stories why I wouldn’t be going but wasn’t ready
to break the news just yet. To race at the Connecticut track we had to
change a bunch of things on the car because it was a much larger track…
rear end gears and springs to name a couple. Cliffy had made some phone
calls about what we needed for tires. A couple of other teams told him
we should be able to get by with the tires we’d bought for the
championship race back in October. That made me a bit happier, not
having to spend money on more new tires. By the time we left that night
we had most of the preparation done but Cliffy wanted us back on
Wednesday night. That was a night that Paula was coming to babysit as
she would on Friday as well.
The first thing on my schedule
for Tuesday was to speak to Dotty. She admitted that the hardest part of
her transition was in watching what and how she said things. She told
me that Cara had told her she liked her “new look”, especially her hair.
To me, that was progress. When I called the ‘other Elle’ about the
plantings for the church she said she could do it that night. At supper,
when I told my Elle she said she wanted to go too. It really wasn’t
jealousy. She wanted to see what we were doing. The church yard had been
bare since we’d moved back to town and as a “flower lover” she was
excited about the possibilities. My only thought was that should I be
lucky enough to get a few DP’s (down pants) or VPL’s I’d have to be
careful about where my Elle might be. As it turned out I wasn’t to get
either. The ‘other Elle’ wore a pair of “Farmer Johns” with the bib
front and buttons on both sides. They’d belonged to her father so were a
bit large on her… which was to my benefit. Over the hour we were there I
spent about twenty minutes working side by side with her and I got far
more ‘looks’ down the sides of those coveralls than I would’ve gotten
from a DP. At one time, for about a minute, I had an unobstructed view
of her white panties down her hip about four inches and was almost 100%
sure they were Evette panties from the waist elastic. I was able to
avoid Elle catching me because she decided there should be flowers
around the sign post out by the sidewalk and was busy planting some
there. When we were done we were pretty proud of how the place looked.
I’d gotten a ‘thrill’ without getting caught so it had been a very good
night.
Wednesday night at the shop it was more ’talk’ than work
that got done. I still hadn’t mentioned my conflict on Friday night.
Robob had showed up and said he’d be going so there’d still be five guys
so didn’t feel so bad… but I didn’t have the nerve to tell them. The
‘plan’, at least as we walked out the door to go home, was to leave the
garage at 1pm Friday.
My next project was to show up at
the school around 6:30pm Thursday night to be ‘introduced to my new job
as a “lighting technician" according to Jonesie. I wasn’t looking
forward to it for a number of reasons not having anything to do with the
race car. The brother of one of the partners in the ad agency the bank
used was involved in the “Broadway scene” in the city and had arranged
for the use of the portable spot lights we’d be using. He’s the one who
told me I’d be “cooked” by the time the night was over as they lights
put out a tremendous amount of heat. When I heard that I wanted to
“cook” Jonesie for roping me into this deal.
To be continued….
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