This is Part II; don't forget to read the first part
first. lol
Miss Helpful is wearing a nightie kind of thing that looked to be more of a
summer type sleepwear, didn't even come down to her knees. And she
was barefoot. I don't think JD exactly explained to her what was involved
and how high up this window was. When she gets to the camper, Miss Helpful
says, "You boys have got to be kidding here. I can't get up there."
JD says, "Sure you can, all three of us can lift you up and slide you
through. We've already tried it with Blake and he weighs a lot more than
you do." Miss Helpful is probably 5' 1" and 100 lbs, which is why she was
called for the job in the first place.
Now, I gotta admit I am standing up again and peeking out my tent
window. I can't see much, not very clearly cause of the screen and the
distance, but, man, I just can't lay down and listen to this without some kind
of visualization. And I've gone this far with being silent, I'm not about
to speak now. After all, "where's Blake going to sleep tonite," if Miss
Helpful isn't successful?
So, reluctantly, Miss Helpful agrees to the whole thing, but throws in a
caveat. "Now, you boys have to promise me that once you have me up, you'll
turn your heads away. I should go back to the trailer and change, but it's
a long walk, and I forgot my shoes, cause JD told me this was some sort of
emergency. (Miss Helpful has a nursing background). So, I want ya'll
to give me your word that you won't be peeking." And, in unison, the three
of them say, "Oh, yes ma'am, we won't look, promise."
The tone of the men's voices, which implies that they couldn't believe
she even had to mention the thought of such a thing, that they would never
act in an Ungentlemanly fashion like that, was one of the most beautiful and
hilarious things I have ever heard in my life. I was doubled
over, in pain, trying to keep this all in, without making a
sound. Somehow, I was able to maintain my silence; I think one of the
things that helped me was I couldn't see the _expression_ on their faces,
although my imagination was able to partially fill in this void. If I had
been able to see Ashley's face, up close and personal, as he spoke, in unison
with the other men, his voice standing out more than the others, that, probably,
would have given me away for sure. Even though I wasn't able to see their
faces very clearly, I knew I'd be able to see if any of them was going to break
that promise. What would make this promise even more difficult for the
three men to keep was the fact that Miss Helpful was young and quite
purty.
So, up she goes, and, right when they were supposed to, the three of them
turn their heads away from Miss Helpful, in unison. Problem was, when they
did this, they kind of messed up the aim and positioned Miss Helpful a little to
the right of the opening. It was at this point I lost it entirely. I
could take it all no longer. I yelled out, "She needs to go a little to
your left." Well, the shock of hearing my voice was more than I thought it
would be, cause one of the men lost his balance when he turned his body to look
in my direction. This movement threw the whole project out of whack and,
kind of like dominoes, the three men came tumbling down, with Miss Helpful
landing on top of them. Her legs ended up in a compromising position
around Ashley's neck and shoulders. Credit goes to Ashley here, cause I
did notice he went out of his way to keep his promise to Miss Helpful.
Well, the cat was out of the bag and some words, not all of them kind, were
said in my direction. The most beautiful sound was from Ashley, my
favorite Southern tenor. "Howard, is that you?" After several
attempted apologies from me, thrown in with hysterical bouts of laughter (I
don't think they even heard my apology, but they got the idea how much I was
enjoying the whole thing), they all got back up and went at it again. This
time, with more success, I watched them slide Miss Helpful thru the small
opening so easily, I wondered why this project had taken over two hours to
complete. She walked thru the motor home and opened the door for
Blake.
Everyone was laughing pretty hard, even Miss Helpful. By this time I
had put on some clothes and came out of my tent to join them. We all started
talking about Blake, where his keys were, how glad we were that Blake now
had a place to sleep tonite, and Blake kept thanking Miss Helpful
profusely. Voice imitations were done, and I did my best to tell the whole
story, from my perspective. And I kept getting interrupted, from one
of the others, who either corrected me or added another twist to the tale,
which made the telling even more enjoyable. We all had a couple swigs from
Ashley's bottle, even our hero, Miss Helpful, had one or two or
three. She said she was kind of cold, even with my jacket on that I
had brought out for her, but I think the truth was she just wanted to join in
and have a drink with the boys. And, about an hour or so later, we
all went to bed.
In closing, I just wanted ya'll to know that it's this kind of
thing I am Thankful for. The camaraderie of endurance riders, and the
friends that you make and, hopefully, keep, with the sport, surpasses anything
I've ever experienced in my lifetime. Including 20 years of that sort of
thing with my Air Force buddies, most of whom I've since lost contact with after
my retirement. I hope that never happens with friends like JD, Ashley,
Blake and Miss Helpful. As long as I can keep going to these rides I plan
on trying to make sure it never does. Happy Thanksgiving ya'll. God
bless, and please remember we are all in this together. Our love for
our horses and our love for each other only makes us stronger.
