INTO SUMMER… a busy time (Part173b)
It was too early in her
recovery to even think about having ‘extra curricular’ fun but I knew it
wouldn’t be too long. I also knew we would have to be extra careful
moving forward. Without drawing out the subject we’d both come to the
conclusion that the family that we already had would be enough. One thing I
remember about that night was that, in bed, we snuggled for quite a
while. Sometimes, silence say it all.
There are no notes in the
day timer about my day at work. I have no idea why. I did go to the
garage that night as Dick had called asking for a ride. It’s somewhat funny that
when he’d call and ask for a ride Elle didn’t have much to say. At the
shop we got an update from Cliffy that the motor ran well with the
proper oil pressure. That confirmed that the new bearings had been spun
in correctly. If they hadn’t there would’ve been a drop in the pressure
and we’d have to do it all over again. There wasn’t anything to do to
get the car ready so we left and I was home around 9pm, making Elle
happy. She’d talked with my mother about out arrival time the next day
and they’d settled on 11am. In passing, Elle told me that the son of one
of my mother's best girl friends from high school would be there with his girl
friend. Without mentioning names I immediately knew who it was. His
mother was a successful children’s book author and the father was the
illustrator. But the son was ‘different’, and always had been. I hadn’t
seen him for probably over 15 years. One memory I had of him was when visiting
them when I was in fifth grade. His father was concerned that Patrick
wasn’t showing interest in things that most boys his age were. Just
before we came to their house the father had bought boxing gloves and was pushing
him to be more aggressive. He wanted me to box his son and I wanted no
part of it as Patrick had been taking lessons. The reason I remember it
so vividly was that after but a few minutes he was crying and ran out of
the garage looking for his mother. It was the only time in my life I
had on boxing gloves. So, with that as my main memory of him and some
passing comments by my mother about him being “different” I was more
than a little concerned. I had no idea of what her definition of
different was and really wasn’t looking forward to finding out.
That
little surprise had Elle a bit concerned about what to wear. We’d told
my mother we’d only be staying until mid afternoon as I had to go to the
fireworks display as the bank’s representative. She didn’t pick up on
it like I thought she might and suggest Elle and the kids stay later.
However, with guests at their house and Elle’s incontinence I suggested
she just wear a bathing suit and a beach cover up. That way an
occasional visit into the bay would serve to ‘cover’ the incontinence.
She bought it but, as usual, she still wore a pair of panties under the
suit.
It took but a few seconds to see which kind of ‘different’
Patrick was… a hippie… as was his girlfriend. Our area had escaped the
trend, at least the ‘locals’ had, and our exposure to it was mostly TV news coverage,
pictures in newspapers and magazines... and an occasional tourist. Well,
Patrick fit that description, for sure. I’m not sure how long it’d been
since he’d had a haircut and shave. His girlfriend, Joy (not her real
name as she’d changed it to fit her new lifestyle) had hair down to her
waist and was braless. That was easy to see as her blouse/top was
nothing more than multi colored gauze wrapped over her shoulders much
like a shawl. On the lower part, around her hip, it appeared to be a
mini skirt made of something like burlap. They were helping my father
set up his charcoal grill with my mother nowhere in sight. I remember
getting out of the car and looking at the faces on my girls as they
stared at them. I could only imagine what my mother thaught when she saw
them the first time.
I remember walking up to Patrick and
putting out my hand to shake his but he didn’t respond. Joy just stood
there with her nipples showing through the gauze. I didn’t know what to
say or do after being somewhat rebuffed by Patrick. I turned around
looking for Elle but she was still getting beach things from the back of the
station wagon. When she finally started in our direction I was looking at
her face and it was a classic in disbelief. From that point on I didn’t
know what to expect. As it turned out, my mother had had a bit of an
‘episode’ after greeting the two of them. They came on the 6pm train the
night before and my father had picked them up at the station. Upon
arriving at the house my mother was waiting on the porch and when she
saw the two of them ran back in the house and poured herself a drink…
and then had quite a few more. Now it was after 11am and she still
hadn’t come down from her bedroom.
I couldn’t think of anything to start
a conversation with so turned to Elle and suggested that we go out to
the beach even without introducing her to the two of them. It was just
plain bizarre. Patrick was almost mute even when my father asked him
to help with the charcoal. Joy just stood there with her head cocked to
one side like she taking in some thrilling event. Elle took the kids
out to the beach and I followed. I helped her set up the beach towels
and put the beach umbrella up just wishing that I wasn’t there. The
older girls had been to sailing lessons for the previous two day and
were somewhat used to the cold bay water but Kaye wanted no part of it.
Elle made it out to mid calf and that was as far as she wanted to go.
By then Patrick and Joy had made their way to the stairs down to the
beach. I watched as Joy came down the five steps to the beach
with Patrick holding on to the stair rail like he’d fall over if he let
go of it. Elle asked Joy if she’d like to sit on one of the beach towels
and she nodded affirmatively. I watched as she lowered herself down to
it, sitting yoga style. At that point in my life I’d not heard the term
“going commando” but as I stood there there was nothing covering her
‘privates’. You probably won’t believe this but I didn’t find it sexy at
all. I was concerned that my girls would see what I could see and
wanted to make sure they didn’t… and I didn’t know how. Elle was sitting
with Kaye snuggled up to her. That was her shyness showing through. But
it also took care of one of the girls. I walked out into the water to
try and keep their attention from Joy. I have no recollection of how
long I was standing there but I remember beginning to lose feeling in my
toes. I kept turning around to see if anything had changed with Joy’s
position. Finally, I heard Patrick calling her and watched as she stood
up and then climb the steps. My toes actually hurt when I was walking
back up the beach to Elle. We were both shaking our heads when I heard my father
calling asking what we all wanted for lunch… hot dogs or hamburgers.
What I wanted to say was that we wanted to go home. When we were walking
up the steps I told Elle what I’d observed about Joy. She didn’t
believe me… but I know what I saw!
To be continued…
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