MAKING PROGRESS... of sorts (Part 172j)

MAKING PROGRESS… of sorts (Part 172j)

To be sure, I was conflicted. Elle seemed sincere but I still wasn’t ready to take her up on it and told her I’d think about it. Later, while lying in bed, some of the ’tidbits’ “Wick” had fed me about some of the guys who were supposed to be coming back to participate piqued my interest. Most of the guys had nicknames used primarily within the fraternity and hearing some of them again made me wonder just what they’d done with their lives. I knew about some, primarily the three guys who had been in the Air Force ROTC program with me, and how they’d stayed and made it a career. The alumni bulletin had promoted that info so it was general knowledge. But hearing “Wick” say he’d heard that “Oddo” had become a high school teacher and that “Gip” was into data processing was kind of hard to process. By the time I awoke the next morning I was seriously hoping that Elle would be well enough on Wednesday for me to join “Wick’ on what he called his Odyssey back to college. Upon getting up I didn’t say anything to Elle about my thoughts choosing to wait… but the more time passed the more I wanted to go. Truthfully, it was a dead week at work. I spent some time in the cellar on the project Mae and I’d started and attended a Chamber of Commerce meeting to finalize the plans for the annual Township picnic. At home, Elle’s mother told me there were signs of activity at the house next door but, when asked, couldn’t tell me much. I found that somewhat interesting because, in her own neighborhood, she knew everything about everybody. I asked her how she knew and was told that she’d seen a moving van. I wanted to laugh upon hearing that because the only way she could know that was to go though the opening in the hedge that separated the two houses. At least it was something.

On Wednesday morning, when Elle told me she was really feeling better, I wasn’t sure she was saying it because she sensed I wanted to hear it or that she really was. The appointment with the doctor was in the afternoon and included blood work, something Elle absolutely hated. I told her that if she wanted an OK from the doctor to go back to normal living she’d have to do it and headed off for the bank. Not knowing how the blood work was processed I called her just before leaving for him and was disappointed to hear she wouldn’t get the results until the next day, if then. The doctor did tell her that her ‘color’ was back and she thought she could resume some of her normal activities but with one caveat… at least a two hour nap during afternoons. Not getting an ‘all clear’ put some pressure on me as to my decision about going with “Wick” since I’d not given Elle the slightest hint I’d been thinking about it. However, on Thursday morning I called him and told him there was a 50/50 chance I’d go with him. I didn’t go into the details but was again told to just show up at his place of business by 4pm on Friday. You probably won’t believe this but when I hadn’t heard from Elle by 3pm I took a coin out of my pocket and flipped it to make the decision. Heads I’d go… tails I’d stay home… and it was heads. Now, how to broach it to Elle. I based my approach on what Elle had told me back on Sunday night… that it would be good for me to go. Added to that I pointed out her improved energy level and the partial OK to resume her normal day to day activities. I remember making my ‘pitch’ to her and watching a smile start at the corner of her mouth before she hit me with a ‘zinger’… “I wondered when you’d finally tell me…”.

I was actually at “Wick’s” office a little before 4pm. We both knew the trip to the city would be easy at that time of day on a Friday. All the traffic would be headed East for the weekend and we were going West. Our ‘bottleneck’ would be in leaving the city headed North. While in college I’d made the trip from home to school at least two dozen times. It took anywhere from seven to eight hours unless there was a weather related problem or an accident. Leaving from “Wick’s” office would take almost an hour off that time and we projected arriving somewhere around 11pm which would give us adequate time to join in the party we knew would be in full swing. We split the driving with me taking the boring part, the thruway, and “Wick” driving the back and state roads. We never really stopped talking the whole way there. Going through some of the small towns elicited some funny and not so funny incidents involving them. When we drove down the main drag of the college town it looked almost the same as when we’d graduated. The hotel that “Gerb” had booked for the guys was about 5 miles South and as we approached it we both had the same memory of it, almost simultaneously. It had to do with “Panda” and it was at an all fraternity dinner celebrating the initiation of that year’s pledge class. Almost all the guys in our group were ‘characters’ in some way shape or form. “Panda” when drunk, had no inhibitions… at all. We were seated for dinner and the waitresses were pouring water into the glasses at each place setting. One of them squeezed between “Panda” and “Oddo” and when she did “Panda” reached up and under the hem of her skirt and gave her butt a squeeze. Then, all hell broke loose. She took a step back and with her water pitcher filled with water and ice and threw it at “Panda”. She didn’t pour it on him but actually threw the contents of it by reaching her arm back and then thrusting it forward like throwing a ball. We couldn’t remember who was right across the table from where she was but they got pelted with ice and water as well.

As I said, all hell broke loose at that point. The girl started screaming and was trying to hit “Panda” with the pitcher (it was a metal one… plastic hadn’t taken over back then.) “Oddo”, who was right there had also been blasted by water and ice, jumped up and tried to get him arms around her to keep her from hitting “Panda”. When he tried to pull her back and away from “Panda” he tripped and she ended up on top of him. By then, everyone in the room was aware of the skirmish and were trying to get closer to the ‘action’, me included. “Oddo” was on his back and had his arms around the girl just under her breasts and she was still screaming and by then was kicking her legs. (For a voyeur like me it was picture perfect) The manager of the hotel then came into the dining area and started yelling that the police were on their way… and that pretty much ended it… for everything. The police told us all to leave the building and to go back to the college. The president and other officers of the fraternity tried to plead the case that it had only been a couple of guys that were involved but to no avail. We didn’t get our dinner and, worse, we didn’t get our money back either. Needless to say, the news about what had happened spread quickly around the campus and we were all celebrities, of sorts, for a few days. Even though it had only involved a couple of the ‘brothers’, the whole house was put on social probation for the remainder of the semester. What was really humorous about that was that the majority of the brothers weren’t that upset with “Panda” or “Oddo”. After reliving that ‘escapade’ "Wick" and I couldn’t wait to get inside and to catch up with both of them.

To be continued…