MAKING PROGRESS… of sorts (Part 172z)
Conceding that I needed to
pay more attention to Elle and the kids and to be “a better husband and
father” I joined them at the 10am service at church. It was the last
Sunday school for the duration of the Summer and the attendance and
participation awards were handed out. The older two girls were excited
to be recognized and as a reward they were told we’d go sailing that
afternoon. I wasn’t looking forward to it because when I’d been at the
sailing club the previous day I tested the water and it was cold... very cold. Elle
wanted no part of it so it was up to me to sacrifice my comfort and to
get wet. The kids were able to stand the cold water for about an hour
before they admitted they had had enough. The one good thing that was
accomplished was that all the parts and pieces for the boats were there and worked.
The first time out each season was usually an ‘adventure’ but we were
actually ahead of most everybody else. It was a nice feeling to go with
the excitement the kids had shown getting back to sailing. For Elle, it
made her a little sad because she wouldn’t be able to be all that
competitive because of her pregnancy.
We ended up back home
earlier than expected which was OK by me. Elle wanted to take a nap so
it gave me some time to work on the dreaded sign. Once the girls and I were
showered and dressed Elle suggested that they go next door to see if the
neighbors kids wanted to play with them and asked me to go with them. I
really wanted to get started on the sign but, again, wanting to be a
“good father and husband” I agreed. It was about mid afternoon when we
walked through the opening in the hedge. The first thing I saw was this
rather large older woman sunning herself in a chaise on the new patio.
There was no sign of anyone else. I thought the woman might be asleep so
headed the kids back towards our yard. Then I heard it. It sounded like
the bellow of a sick cow, a sound we would hear from time to time from
across the road from the dairy farm. It was the woman yelling at us
wanting to know why we were on her property. At first I wanted to keep
on going as the tone of her voice was anything but friendly. However, it
immediately brought forth two people from inside the house. It was
Junior and Matty, the adult children of the owners. Matty ran up to
me apologizing as she did. She quickly explained that the woman was her
mother and was still “settling in”. She added that her mother was a
”private person” and liked her privacy. While this conversation was
taking place Junior was placating his mother. Kaye had ducked back
through the hedge opening and the other two were sort of cowering in the
opening itself.
Matty insisted that we all come over to be
introduced to her mother. As we made our way over she explained that her
real name was Genevieve but because of the grandkids insisted that
everybody call her Geemaw. It came about because the grandchildren hadn’t been able to
pronounce Genevieve and sort of mangled grandma. It was decided that the
compromise would work. I had the hands of both Anne and Jean as we
walked up to her. I’ve never been good at guessing the age of people
past 50 and, as for Geemaw, I had no idea. Based on the age that Matty had
admitted to being a safe guess would’ve been in her 60’s. However, when she
spoke she sounded older with a deep voice that I’d come to associate with
heavy cigarette smoking. Even with Junior and Matty right there she was
still not comfortable with having me and the kids there. Matty did the
introductions and all the woman did was grunt. Then her grandchildren
appeared and she mellowed up a bit. I chose that time to ask Matty if
the kids would like to come over and play in our playhouse. Of course,
when they heard that they were excited and Matty excused them and I let
my kids hands go. They were like bullets going back through the hedge.
However, they’d been my ‘buffer’ to the older woman’s stare and now I
didn’t know what to say or do.
Junior noticed my unease and
pointed out to the back of the property and headed that way. To get
there we had to walk past the garage and I asked if my ‘fix’ of the
garage door had sufficed. He didn’t know anything about it so we stopped
to take a look. While inside Martha, Junior’s wife appeared in the
doorway. With the sun behind her and wearing a light cotton sundress she
was like a silhouette and reminded me of the last time I’d seen her
when she wearing a tennis dress. Matty soon joined us and she explained
to Junior and Martha how I’d made the garage secure right after some of
their things had arrived. And then she proceeded to invite me, Elle and
the kids for a little picnic supper on their patio as a ‘thank you’. It
was totally unexpected and without Elle there I was reluctant to give an
answer. But, it did give me an excuse to get back to my house saying
I’d get back to them. On my way I was debating with myself knowing it
was the neighborly thing to do but would mean nothing would get done on
the sign.
Elle made the decision. We’d go and she’d make the
dessert. The strawberry season had been late that year and were still
available. My mother had a recipe for a strawberry pie that was
decadent. I was dispatched to go to the only food store that was open to
get cream for whipping (Sunday openings still hadn’t taken over the
retail marketplace) while Elle baked the crust. She got word to the
neighbors that we’d be coming and 5pm was set for the time. I told Elle
about Geemaw and warned her to be prepared. She asked about the father
and I’d not given him any thought at all so had no answer. I thought
back to when J J, had introduced him to me at the bank and how
’stand-offish’ he’d been. I was having second thoughts as we all made
our way through the hedge.
It was obvious that the invite had
been last second as there was little in the way of preparation. I had to go
fetch some lawn chairs and a folding table to go with the one they had
set up. Elle was the one to ask about Geemaw and when I heard Junior say
she preferred not to join in with her kid's friends I think I breathed a
sigh of relief. That was when I took a few seconds to look at what both
the women were wearing. Both had changed and Martha was wearing white
shorts with colored polka dots and a short sleeved top with lace trim.
It was another outfit that I could see Elle wearing. Matty had on a
short pink skirt with a pink and white blouse. For some reason the
combination made her look thinner than when she was wearing shorts. The
two women engaged Elle in conversation and as they drifted in and out of
the house it left Junior and I alone. I knew nothing about what he did
so chose that as a topic.
If you’ve been reading this for any
time now you know that I was just getting involved with the stock
market. I’d been given some advice by Stan, my broker, that had paid off
handsomely for me. Junior worked on Wall Street but not with stocks or
with ‘retail’ customers like me. He was with start-up firm that dealt
with all kinds of bonds and they sold them to brokerage firms. I didn’t
know much about stocks and even less about bonds and as he described his
job I found myself fascinated. I remember the word he used to describe his company calling it a “niche” firm and it was
obvious he was excited about what the future would be like after they
got established. I was about to ask for some details when the women and
kids burst out of the kitchen door with the food.
To be continued…
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