INTO SUMMER… busy time (Part 173a)
The book “Perfect Storm”
hadn’t been written yet nor the movie made so the term wasn’t in daily
use. But, in thinking back on this part of my life, especially as the
Summer of 1969 began, it would have been the perfect description. About
the only thing working in my favor was that the banking committees I
served on were recessed for July and August. I’d just brought Elle home to
recover and was faced with the ‘busy period’ at work and the fourth of
July coming up. Annually, the Chamber of Commerce held a fireworks
display at the town public beach and as the bank’s representative I was
expected to be there. The sailing club was now open and sailing lessons
started that week with formal racing to begin on Sunday. Then, there was
the race car with races Saturday night. I, as a vestryman of our
church, was expected to be there for both services on that Sunday. We
were expecting a rare visit from the Bishop. On the following weekend
was the annual Rotary Club/Chamber of Commerce barbecue picnic that I
and the other officers of the bank had to work at. And, with all that to
handle I still had to keep up with both the lawn at church and my own.
It didn’t leave much time for Elle and the kids.
Now, I glossed
over the situation where my mother had come to visit Elle in the
hospital and had gotten her upset with the comments/questions she asked about the miscarriage.
That night I called her and said some pretty harsh things. I’d told her
that we were both trying to move on from the loss and that our focus
was on getting Elle healthy again and not looking back. I’d closed by saying that in the
future when she talked to/with Elle there was to be no mention of the
miscarriage. Just to prove how clueless she was she ended up asking me
if we were going to “try again”. Upon hearing that I slammed the receiver down. The reason I bring that up here is that she was trying to
‘mend fences’ and had called to invite us to the house on the fourth of July. We’d done that any number of times since I’d given up racing
horses and moving back to the area. It had been kind of fun seeing some of the
people from the neighborhood once again. But, I didn’t trust my mother so told
her we’d get back to her. It was now Wednesday and before I left for
work Elle asked me what she should say/do when my mother called. I knew
we couldn’t avoid her for the whole Summer and told her to say we’d come
but only for a while. I was still monitoring Elle’s recovery and even
though she seemed to be at 75% I didn’t want her to overdo. I knew that
later in the morning she was taking the kids to the sailing club for
lessons and it was to be her first time driving. So, when leaving I had a
few more things on my mind.
Even though it was a Wednesday and a
mortgage committee meeting with Trustees, I managed to avoid having
to deal with any of them and the day went well for me. I made a point to
leave at 5pm even though it meant leaving some letters still to be
written. I’d checked with Elle before leaving and she asked for me to
stop and get some more sanitary pads for her. It was a reminder for me
to keep following up on how she was doing in that regard. We both hoped
that, at worst, she’d return to where she’d been prior to getting
pregnant. Elle, for the reason that it severely restricted her activity
and increased the chances of embarrassment. For me, it was wanting her
to be happy plus the fact that the pads were costing me three times as
much a week as I spent on gas.
Elle told me about her day and how
she’d just left the older girls off at the sailing club and not gotten
out to talk with the other mothers. I’d suggested that she do that to
avoid being asked about the loss of the baby. Back at home she'd busied
herself for a bit out in the garden and had a nice visit from Mattie and Martha from
next door. She told me that when they left she got to thinking she
needed something to give them for being so nice and so helpful to her…
and looked at me to come up with an idea. One of the things that I’d
left undone when leaving work was to confirm that I’d be part of the
‘parking lot gang’ at the Rotary Club/Chamber of Commerce picnic the
following weekend. Volunteers got two free tickets and since the bank
was a sponsor, all the employees got tickets as well. In the past we’d
invited various friends and neighbors to join us and her asking right at
that time seemed to fit right in. They’d have to pay for their kids
tickets but they were more than reasonable so that became the ‘plan’. As
soon as we finished supper Elle went over to make the offer. I couldn’t
wait to hear that they’d accepted thinking of the potential for panty
peeks of various and sundry types.
It seemed like forever for
Elle to return but when she did she had good news in two ways. The
answer was a "yes" but only if Elle would accept half of an angel food cake
in return. She had it in her hands as she walked in the door. Of all the
cakes out there in the world, angel food cake was my all time favorite.
I was lucky in that none of the three girls liked it and Elle was not a
fan of it either so turned it over to me. I devoured most of it sitting on the
screened in porch watching the kids ride their bikes in the driveway.
It gave me the opportunity to talk to Elle about keeping some sort of
tally on her incontinence so that we could see if there was any
improvement as the days passed. She admitted that as long as she was
home and was outside she was foregoing wearing even a partial package. I
found that to be somewhat interesting but since I wasn’t home during
the day there was no way for me to take advantage of it. I did ask what
she had on right at that moment and she hiked up the hem of her sun
dress to show a partial ‘package’ (ribbed cotton Spanky Pants along with
a sanitary pad and a pair of sanitary panties with the plastic crotch).
I asked if she was dry and she had to put a few fingers inside the leg
elastic to be able to answer as she’d become somewhat insensitive to the
wetness. As I tried to persuade her to take the sanitary panties off and
the pad out she made a ‘face’ but did stand up and slide the panties down.
As she stepped out of the panties she did two things… she looked towards
where the girls were playing to remind me to ‘behave’ and said that was
all I was going to get. I started to complain and she just shook her
head, lightly, from side to side. However, as she sat back down in the
wicker chair she pulled the hem of the dress up to expose the crotch of
her panties. It had been a while since she was even willing to give me
that little bit of a tease. Things were definitely starting to look up.
We
sat and talked about a number of things not the least of which was that
even though it was near the end of the day she said she felt good. We
focused on how we would handle going to my parents on Friday. As we
discussed it I noticed something sparkling in the setting sun right
under the rocking chair. I had a smile on my face almost immediately…
and as I looked at her face saw she also had a smile. I started to get
up but she shook her head and pointed her finger right at me as she did.
I got the message and wasn’t unhappy as I knew it wouldn’t be long before
everything would be back to normal.
To be continued…
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