DEALING WITH THE HEAT… & more (Part 174n)
When I got home I
found Elle and the girls set up in the den with the TV on. She was
mildly surprised and, in a snide sort of way, told me she thought I’d be back. Hearing that I
decided not to tell her all the reasons why. I left it at we didn’t have
a boat for the race committee. I couldn’t have picked a better time to
arrive as they were about to land. Needless to say I was glad I got to
see it. Kaye, our youngest really had no idea of what she was watching
in spite of Elle’s efforts to get her interested. I remember her lying
on the floor coloring.
Other than the excitement of the
successful landing there wasn’t much to see and I got bored. Back
outside I took a look around and was reminded that I’d said I was going
to trim the opening in the hedge between the two houses… but hadn’t done
it. We’d all gotten used to having the leaves of the boxwood brushing
our arms as we passed through. I gave a thought to going over to ask
Junior if he minded me doing it but, since most of the passages were initiated
from his side I didn’t. Electric hedge trimmers weren’t that popular yet
so all I had was the hand held type that were like a big scissors. I
hated them because I’d usually end up jamming my hands together when pulling the handles together any
number of times. As I started I realized it was the usual time for
supper. All I’d eaten was a sandwich I’d made myself. That meant it was
made without all the ‘fixings’. But, I figured it would only take me
about fifteen minutes or so to get the clipping done so went ahead with
it. I was about done when I saw Junior coming out the kitchen door. My
first thought was that he was upset with what I’d done but he wanted to
know if Elle and I wanted a pizza as he was going to get a couple for his
family. He thought as long as he was headed in that direction he’d ask. I
told him I’d check with Elle and be right back.
It was amazing
how closely Elle’s and my mind were working that day. She told me she
was going to ask me to make the trip to get a pizza for us. She added
that the astronauts were presently making the preparations for them to leave
the module to actually walk on the moon and that nothing much exciting was really
happening. She felt it was a good time for a break. I got my wallet and
headed back through the now wider opening in the hedge. Junior was
waiting for me to return and as I walked up to give him the money he
asked if I’d like to go with him. We really hadn’t spent much time
together, at least alone. I had any number of questions about the family
that I was just too uncomfortable asking the women. As I’ve written any
number of times in the past, Elle was reluctant to share much
information when I’d ask questions about her female friends and
acquaintances. I took this as an opportunity to delve into a bit of
background on them.
One of the things that lay right on top of my list was
why Junior’s father chose our area to buy a Summer home. I’d heard about
the loss of Junior’s brother to a drowning from the realtor who handled
the sale. But, our area was a Summer destination because of the ability
of the people to access three different bodies of water… and they
weren’t taking advantage of it. The closest I’d observed any of them
being involved with water, of any kind, was running though lawn
sprinklers. I didn’t waste any time in asking as we turned onto
the road from his driveway when I did.
Trying not to drag this
out… the choice was his father’s and was driven by the fact that he
wanted to “deposit” (his word) his wife in a place where she would not
be able to cause problems for him. I remember him shaking his head as he
told me. I knew I was taking a bit of a chance by asking why, if that was so, did she end up back in the city. That made him laugh and brought
forth a comment along the lines of “you must not have spent any time
with her”. He was quiet for a minute before continuing. He went on that
if he hadn’t she would’ve ruined the whole Summer for the kids. He was
going to continue but stopped with his head shaking from side to side
followed by an emphatic “you just don’t want to know!”. I didn’t know
what to say so just sat there, quiet, until we got to the pizza place.
We placed our orders and while waiting I asked another question. I
prefaced it by saying I was aware of the family tragedy (the death of
Junior’s brother by drowning) but access to the water was what drove
people to come to the area. His facial expression told me I was going
where I shouldn’t but I went on anyway. I asked if he knew how to swim
and he said he could “get by” if he ended up in the water. Then I asked
about his wife and sister. He said his wife could swim and then
hesitated. I was about to ask why she didn’t take the kids to the
beach. This is where I heard him let out a big sigh and then,
resignedly, said because it had beaten into his head that the water was
just too dangerous. I was going to counter that Elle and I had spent a
lot of our lives around and in the water but Junior went on. I can’t
reprise just how he went about it but, basically, he told me he and
Mattie had chosen not to go against his parents wishes. By then our
pizza’s were ready.
As I remember it, our conversation on our way
back was mostly about the moon landing. He was hoping that they’d gotten
all the preparations for the moon walk done by the time we got back.
Back at his house I thanked him and started for the hedge opening. I was
just about to go through it when he called me back. I remember the look
his face as I walked up to him. I was not prepared for him to ask me
what I thought he should do to get his and Matties kids introduced to
the water. “Get them swimming lessons.” was all I could think of. We
were each standing there with hot pizzas in our hands so I told him to
stop by later if there was nothing happening on the moon. He agreed and I
headed for the kitchen.
After eating we found out there had been
some delays and the projection was for it to be sometime after 9pm
before anything or real interest would take place. Even though I’d
devoted but a couple of hours to watch the programming I didn’t want to
sit there and listen and watch the same stuff being regurgitated for the
upcoming couple of hours so was getting ready to go outside to find a
simple project to attack. I hated to start projects that I couldn’t
finish but after a couple of minutes none jumped out at me. There was
one thing that definitely needed attention and I’d studiously avoided
it. When Jay (my co-worker/friend from back in my days working for the
data processing department at the County Center) and I’d built the ad-on
shed to the garage, we didn’t put in a permanent floor. And now, about 5
years later, there was no putting off addressing the situation. The
reason for my delaying the start was I didn’t know what to do with the
stuff that was in there… and there was a lot. I was trying to figure out
how to start when Mattie and Junior walked up.
To be continued…
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