Short Stories Read online

I pulled the car up into the driveway and over to the left side. The garage door was up and I could see that Dad’s car was gone but that there was a car that I did not immediately recognize on the right side parked into the grass. Oh, I thought, that must belong to Messy Tessie although of course she wouldn’t like to be addressed that way. When I was in elementary school that was the unflattering way that all the kids referred to our teacher, Miss Tessing. That was behind her back, of course.

  I recalled that in the last letter from Mom she told me that Tessie was staying with them temporarily. Her home was nearly seventy-five miles away and during the school year she would rent a weekly room from someone in the community that lived near the school. As it had turned out the people that she normally rented from had taken an extended vacation and would not be returning until the end of the second week of school. So my folks had agreed to let her stay at our home until that time.

  For my part I was looking forward to a weekend visit with the folks. Since I had got my degree in June and took the job with Allied Engineering in Youngstown my schedule had only allowed me the luxury of one previous visit in July. Today I had left the office early in midafternoon for the three hour drive.

  I got my luggage out of the backseat and went into the house. I proceeded out into the kitchen where everybody usually hung out. Nobody there. I went back into the living room and called out. “Mom!” “Dad!” I got no answer. Well, I thought, they both must have gone out somewhere. Maybe Tessie went with them. But that seemed a little strange. I would have expected for her to be on the road to her home for the weekend. Well, I guess that I might just as well go upstairs and hang up my clothes.

  I picked up my suitcase proceeded and on upstairs. I reached the landing near the top where a turn to the right and two more steps brought you to the upstairs hallway. It also brought you right in front of the door leading into what we always referred to as the good bedroom. That is where Tessie would be staying. And Holy shit! There she was standing just a couple of feet back from the door opening. And she was completely bare assed naked. For the next few seconds we both just stood there looking at each other. Of course, I’ll never know what she was thinking but for my part it was kind of a revelation. As my teacher, she had never dressed in anything or anyway other than very conservative. And here I was looking at this female that from the neck down had a nice slender figure, shapely legs and surprisingly large breasts. Where had she been hiding all this?

  I didn’t know what to do. She stood there and with no expression on her face just looking at me. I looked back probably with my mouth hanging open. As I took the final step up on the hallway to walk to my bedroom, she stepped to her right and was then beyond my sight line. In my bedroom with the door closed I tried to understand what I had just experienced.

  Had this been an invitation? Had I missed an opportunity for a sexual encounter? But good heavens this was my school teacher, an old maid and actually a couple of years older than my parents. Certainly not a candidate for Playmate of the Month but from what I had seen not repulsive by any stretch of the imagination.

  The more I thought about the more questions that I had in my mind. When she saw that I had caught her in the all to gather, she made no attempt to cover herself. She didn’t exclaim in any way or speak out to admonish me for looking at her. It was almost as if she was on display.

  As I was ruminating on these things, I heard a door close and the sound of footsteps as someone descended the stairs to the first floor. The screen door banged as someone exited the house. I went over to my parent’s bedroom where the window afforded a view of the front yard and driveway. There was Tessie getting into her car and shortly thereafter driving away. Shaking my head in wonder I returned to my room, finishing hanging up my clothes and went downstairs. I decided to not tell my parents about Tessie’s unveiling. They arrived shortly thereafter and notwithstanding the bizarre beginning, a pleasant weekend followed.

  About a week later back in Youngstown I received a letter from Mom. It was the usually fare telling me about their regular activities. Towards the end she noted that the people Tessie normally roomed with had returned and so they had just lost their temporary roomer. And she added…”By the way, your Dad was passing through the hallway upstairs the other day and as he put it caught Tessie with her pants down. We had a good laugh over that.”

  That got me thinking again and I was remembering some experiences in eighth grade with Tessie. Sometimes when we were seated at our desks, she would sit on the back of her desk facing the class and often put one foot up on the seat of a vacant desk. Some of the guys would slouch in their seats for a better view but nobody could ever say for sure if they ever saw anything but undergarments.

  I thought about all these things and have decided that maybe Tessie had a problem. But I guess that she was dealing with it in a way that didn’t hurt other people, as far as I know that is.

  STEPS TO FREEDOM