AND THE HEAT GOES ON… & on (Part 175k)
It wasn’t long before a
couple of people came in to the bank and hailed Bret. They had a newspaper in
their hand and, excitedly, showed him something from the paper. Bret
turned towards me and waved me over. There, in the paper, was the
picture I posted in the previous post. It seemed unreal that a local
racer made a major market daily newspaper. Over the course of the
afternoon there were more people who knew that Bret and C J were friends
and came in to ask how C J was doing. Bret would point to me to say
that I’d actually seen the crash. I was like a minor celebrity as I
described what I’d seen. As far as actual productive work being done… it
wasn’t much.
++++++++++++++++
Note: There was a photographer who
got the whole sequence from the initial contact between the two cars
right upon until C J’s car went over the wall with the chain link fence
wrapped all around the car. I have the pictures and thought I’d pulled
the right file from my storage area but it wasn’t. I had to go on line
to pull the picture I posted. The sequence of pictures won the
photographer a major media award.
++++++++++++++++
I went out and
bought the same newspaper that I’d been shown to take home to show Elle.
When I told her that all C J had were some bruises she thought I was
lying. After seeing the picture she wanted to know all about the
weekend. Normally, the only conversation we had about racing was about where we
finished and just how much damage had been done to the car. She seemed
truly interested. Cliffy had told the crew that we weren’t going to
unload the car on Monday night and that we’d meet Tuesday night. Elle
was happy to have me home on a Monday, not that she had anything special
planned, but when I told her we’d probably be working every night the rest of the week… I got one of ‘those’ looks that indicted she wasn’t very
happy. I changed the subject by asking about the “news” she’d mentioned
when I asked her about her weekend in the morning when I arrived home.
Her answer was a
typical one for her when she was upset. “It doesn’t really matter…
forget I said anything”. That made me mad and I demanded to know what it
was… or had been. She finally broke down and told me that Junior (from
next door) wanted some help with a plumbing problem. My reaction,
because I was mad at Elle, wasn’t very cordial and I made a negative
comment about them seeming always to need/want something. Elle sprang to
their defense saying that they reciprocated whenever they’d asked. I
acknowledged it and told her I was just thinking back to all the
involvement I’d had with the residents of the house since we bought our house. I
continued by complaining that it seemed like everyone who lived there
had no practical ability (or common sense) and I was just tired of being
their handyman. Elle had nothing to say so the conversation ended. Here
I was at home on a night I wouldn’t normally be home and Elle and I’d
gotten Elle upset. In a way it was like a lost night. I tried to make
amends by asking the girls if they wanted to play games on the lawn but
Elle told them not to because I was in a “grumpy mood”. At that point I
wished we were working on the car.
Not having been home all that
much during the Summer I decided to straighten up the garage and shed. I
was in the process of moving a bunch of stuff when in walked Martha. In
spite of the fact that she was wearing a halter top (with substantial
cleavage showing) I wasn’t in the mood for a visit. I made a concerted
effort not to be ’short’ with her in asking if she was looking for Elle.
She said she was looking for me and before I could say anything she
proceeded to ask if I could come over to look at the bathtub as they
couldn’t turn the water off. I definitely remember taking a big, deep
breath and telling myself not to say what I was thinking. I started to
make an excuse but then put down the things I had in my hand and walked
towards her.
I’ve written in earlier posts that I believed that
the two houses were built by the same person. There were a lot of
similarities about the ‘core’ of both houses even though from the
outside they didn’t look the same. The living rooms, dining rooms and
the four bedrooms were all in very similar locations and size. Another
similarity was the center hall on both floors with the lone full
bathroom located on the second floor in the front of the house. However,
ours was in the Dutch Colonial style and the neighbor’s house could
loosely be described as a Tudor. I’d discovered the original blueprints
to my house and had seen a lot of red pencil marks indicating additions
the the sisters who had had the house built had made. The people who
Elle and I had bought ours from had made major additions to the house by
enlarging the kitchen and adding a ‘breakfast nook’ to it as well as
adding a den like room to the living room and a screened in porch. But,
as I just wrote, I believed the cores were the same and I was familiar
with the plumbing for our tub.
I didn’t say much as we made our
way through the hedge that separated the two properties. Even though
Mattie and Junior’s father had made some updates to the house, as we
made our way through the kitchen to the hallway and stairs I was
comparing the two houses and could definitely see the similarity. That
would make what I was looking for a lot easier when we got to the
bathroom. The tub filled the West wall from the front of the house to
the wall that was part of the entryway to the Northwest bedroom. In my
house there was a 12 inch by 18 inch panel in the bedroom wall that
separated the two rooms. It gave access to the tub plumbing and seeing
it I felt better. Martha showed me how badly the faucet was dripping and
it was substantial. Since we both relied on septic tanks for our
sewerage I knew that it wouldn’t be long before theirs would have to be
pumped out if it didn’t get fixed. Having fixed ours I knew exactly what
I needed in the way of both parts and tools so told Martha I’d be right
back and headed back to my garage. On the way out Mattie stoped me to
ask how big a problem it would be to fix and I remembered what I’d been
thinking when I’d been talking to Elle about being their handyman.
It
took but a few minutes to get what I needed and as I was doing it Elle
appeared in the doorway to the garage wanting to know what I was doing.
When I told her I could see the start of a smile in the corners of her
mouth. Back at their house, I found both women playing games with their
kids. They asked if I needed any help and I told them I didn’t and made
my way up the stairs. I had no idea who occupied which bedroom. When
Martha and I had been in the room I was there for only a minute and
didn’t look around. However, with no one with me I had the luxury of
taking a good look. I noticed a pile of clothes on the end of one bed
and knew I’d have to take a quick look at it. As soon as I picked up the
towels that were on top t was obvious they were adult clothes and there
were panties right there. As I’ve written any number of times one of my
favorite things was in knowing who made the panties that women I knew
wore. I took the top two pair and opened them up and knew immediately
they belonged to Mattie by the size of them. They were both made by
Vanity Fair with one being a pale lavender and the other an off white. I
put them back and started in on the plumbing repair.
To be continued…
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