Chapter 10: A New Week, A New Beginning Perhaps

Somehow I thought I was having a dream. I woke up thinking about Cindy and the last several days. You know how it feels. You wake up from a dream and struggle to remember it, before it fades away. Old age is like that too. Life becomes a dream that is fading away. I woke up in a panic thinking that all that had occurred over the past several days was a dream. I was gripped by fear and a dread settled over me. Then I heard the sound of giggling girls, confirming that it had not all been a dream. What a wonderful sound to wake up to.

I lay there in bed, allowing my heart rate to return to normal, as my mind gradually tuned into my environment and everything came back to me. I looked around me at the bed covers scattered on all parts of the bed. I felt a panic returning, building back once again, in the quiet morning. I lay there in bed for the moment listening to silence. Then the silence was broken again by giggles coming from the center of the house. I smiled again.

I thought back to Cindy, two nights ago, as she lay on the couch tossing and turning and then how she calmed down when she was in bed with me. I had been amazed by that at the time, still wasn't this the same thing in reverse. I had been panicked by her not being there with me when I woke up and calmed by the sound of her voice, in the sweet giggles coming from the other room.

I moved to disentangle my legs from the sheets. I hurried to my dresser and removed new boxer shorts, tee-shirt and shorts. Then I thought about what I planned to try to do today and put the tee-shirt and shorts back and went to the closet and pulled my jeans and a nice sports shirt from the hangers. I went to the bathroom and looked at my old face in the mirror and smiled. Not as many lines as yesterday maybe. I knew that was my imagination, but in reality things were now possible today that I had thought impossible yesterday. That always makes the day easier to face. I took the daily dose of pills to help me stave off the inevitable decline of my aging body. For some reason taking those pills always had been depressing, like I was just postponing a day of reckoning. Today, I felt more hopeful.

I shaved, brushed my teeth and thought about taking Cindy to the dentist with me when I went for my check-up in two weeks. I saddened as I thought about the check-up being scheduled by Naomi and I realized that in the future I would have to do that for myself and Cindy.

I had started my shower and was daydreaming about the future and planning my morning when suddenly the giggles were closer and I could see two outlines approaching the frosted doors of the shower. One form was moving boldly forward while the other was hanging back and moving more cautiously. Before I could say anything the door opened and Cindy was there, with Cynthia peering over her shoulder. She said, "Good morning Mr. Jim, as if watching me shower was something she did every day."

I didn't panic. In as level a voice as I could manage I said, "Cindy, Cynthia is not used to being invited into my shower. Think about what you are doing." It took a moment for that to register with Cindy and, in the meantime, Cynthia stood there with her mouth open, just staring at me with her eyes fixed on my rising dick. I began to panic as it began to rise, seemingly with an agenda of its own. Cindy seemed to be thinking in slow motion as Cynthia just stood there and stared with her mouth opened. Finally, in a composed voice I said, "Cindy, could you please close the door?"

After she closed the door I quickly completed my shower. Reaching outside the door I grabbed the towel from the hangar and put it around my waist. Cynthia had moved to the bedroom with Cindy and I could hear them talking in an excited voices. My apprehension rose as I wondered what questions Cynthia must have for Cindy and how Cindy was responding to them. I closed the door and finished dressing quickly. The last thing we needed was Cynthia running home to her parents asking questions about what she had just witnessed.

When I came into the bedroom they had moved to the living room. I followed them into that room to find them talking animatedly to each other, on the couch. Cindy had Mr. Whisker's in her lap trying to rub his stomach while she talked. I moved over to the other end of the couch wondering how I was going to explain her friend's actions to Cynthia. As it turned out, I didn't have to.

Cynthia said, "Jim, I'm sorry about coming into your shower. Please don't tell mum or dad about me being there. I won't do it again."

Cindy followed with, "I'm sorry too. I wasn't thinking when I came in there. I won't do it again either." At that Mr. Whisker's looked guilty, jumped down and ran back into my bedroom.

Looking after Mr. Whiskers I said, "There was no harm done. I was just a little embarrassed because I was daydreaming and forgot to shut the door. So you see, it was really my fault. Cynthia, I don't see any reason why anything needs to be said to your mom and dad unless you feel like I did something wrong."

"No, Uncle Jim, I just had never seen one ... errr you know ... up close before. It caught me by surprise, especially when it started growing. Please don't say anything to mum or dad, mum especially. I would die if they found out."

I caught Cindy's eye, while Cynthia was looking down, and motioned her to be quiet, as I feared she was about to try to impress Cynthia with her advanced knowledge of the male anatomy. At this stage that was the last thing that we needed.

"Cynthia, you don't need to be embarrassed. Of course I won't say anything... (they would kill me, I thought) ... This was all a misunderstanding and I hope you won't let a little embarrassment stand in the way of our friendship. I really need you as a friend and I think Cindy does too." Cindy was vigorously shaking her head yes and put her arm around Cynthia, giving her a hug.

"Cynthia, yesterday when you called me Jim instead of Uncle Jim I thought that you had gotten too old to think of me as your uncle. That made me a little sad. Then when you made the comment about not being able to swim all summer, I realized that it was all my fault. I had gone off and we hadn't had a chance to spend any time together. I am hoping that we can fix that. Just now I was glad to hear you call me Uncle Jim again."

I smiled and reached over and hugged her close to me. "I don't know if I have ever told you this before, but I hope you know that I love you as if you were my own little girl. If you ever have any questions about anything, and you can't ask your mom and dad for whatever reason, I hope that you will feel free to ask me. Cindy, you know that goes for you as well." With this I gave both girls a hug.

We then moved through the normal; well as normal as it got, morning routine of breakfast and dressing. No, I did not help either of the girls with their dressing. With Cynthia around, Cindy acted more like my daughter, and you would have thought us a normal family had you seen our house that morning. We got dressed, fed Mr. Whiskers, ate our own breakfast and then Cynthia reluctantly went home. Her mum had told her that she had to do her chores at her house this morning and I told her that, hopefully, we would return by the early afternoon.

Cindy and I went back to the trailer park. I needed to talk to Randy, the owner, about Cindy's mom moving out and go through her trailer again while it was light. I was hoping to find something with "Uncle Steve's" address on it, or something that I could use as leverage to force Cindy's mom to sign her papers. I still was not as confident as Cindy that her mom would just sign over her parental rights without a fight. It didn't matter to me if it took every cent I had though, she would sign those papers.

We got to the office to find Randy embroiled in an argument with one of the other residents. It seems that someone in a 4-wheel drive pickup had come through so fast that he had splattered mud all over his Corvette. I wondered why someone with a Corvette would live in this place. He told Randy that he had a description and was trying to get Randy to look through his card file to see if any of the other residents owned a 4-wheel drive pickup. He described the 4-wheel drive as being a dark Ford F-250 with an extended cab. Randy told the man that he didn't have to look through his database to know that no one here had a truck like that.