It was a Friday evening after a hot muggy summer's day, and it looked like it was leading onto a hot muggy Friday night. It was one of those rare evenings when I had no plans. No date, no baby-sitting job, nothing. I was going to have a long cool bath and relax on my bed, watching TV and nibbling on junk food. Then the phone rang.
Unfortunately it wasn't an attractive young man whose life would be ruined if I couldn't break all my engagements and go out with him tonight. It was a desperate Mrs Zimmer looking for an emergency babysitter to stay overnight.
From what I could gather Mrs Zimmer's next door neighbour's father had had a stroke. The neighbour was frantic and Mrs Zimmer had promised to go to the hospital with her and stay with her overnight, as the old man was in a rather precarious state of health. Mr Zimmer was currently interstate and not due back until Saturday afternoon. Could I please come and sit for her and stay the night.
I could and I supposed I would. I grabbed some nightwear, keeping in mind the stinking heat, and headed over to the Zimmer's place. Mrs Zimmer said "Thank god," when I rolled up, gave me a quick hug, some quick instructions, and rushed off.
Basically the instructions were that the kids were in bed, keep them there, I'd have to use the master bedroom as the spare room was currently out of order, and that she'd see me in the morning.
I checked the kid's room and the little angels were asleep. Long might they stay that way. I then checked the spare room, because I was puzzled as to how a room could be out of order. It was a shambles, absolutely packed with stuff, a pile a mountain high on the bed. I vaguely recalled that the Zimmer's had sold their house. It seems the spare room was where they were doing all their packing and storage as they got ready for the shift.
I then checked the master bedroom, never having seen it before. It was a case of, wow, that is a bed and a half. It was the biggest bed I'd ever seen. My parents had a queen size bed but this was even larger. Definitely a king size. You could fit a dozen people in that bed, no worries, and I'd have it all to myself.
I watched TV for a while and the kids did not stir. This was going to be one of the easiest babysitting jobs I'd ever had. Finally bored with the TV I went and got ready for bed. I stripped off and grabbed my nightie and had a moment of consternation when I found I'd grabbed the wrong one. I had wanted a light nightie because of the heat and I'd just grabbed the first one in the nightie drawer.
Now I'm not saying I dislike this particular nightie. I love it. It's just that it's not the sort of nightie I'd normally wear at someone else's house. Does the word diaphanous mean anything to you? It's the only word that adequately describes this nightie. The same goes for the panties that go with it. You've heard of clothes that are transparent when there's a strong light behind them? My nightie was probably transparent with any sort of light. Definitely the type of nightie to wear at home, but I was stuck with it. Making a mental note to get dressed before I ventured out of the bedroom in the morning I put it on and went to bed.
When I say I went to bed I actually tossed back the covers and lay on top of the sheets. It was still hot and muggy and the air conditioner was pretty ineffective. In my opinion, summer with that air conditioner was an excellent reason to sell the house.
I fell asleep and a couple of hours later woke up when the light went on. Mrs Zimmer had arrived home. She looked a little despondent.
"Mr Baxter had another stroke and died on the spot," she told me. "Muriel went into hysterics. Fortunately her husband had arrived and he took charge of her. I wasn't required any more so I came home early."
I was sitting up in bed by this time and Mrs Zimmer finally noticed what I was wearing. Her eyebrows rose.
"That is some nightie," she said with a slight laugh. "Are they allowed to sell something like that to anyone under the age of eighteen?"
I giggled. "Probably not. My brother brought it for me on my eighteenth birthday. I don't normally wear it. I grabbed it by accident in my hurry to come over."
"Your brother has good taste," she said, slightly tongue in cheek. "The colour suits you."
"How can you tell? There's not enough material to actually show the colour."
"Well, I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Fortunately there's enough room that we can share the bed and not disturb each other."
With that Mrs Zimmer disappeared into the en suite and returned shortly afterwards wearing some silk pyjamas. As far as I was concerned it was a case of if my brother had to buy me nightwear, why couldn't he have bought some silk pyjamas. They looked marvellous. Mrs Zimmer climbed onto the far side of the bed, just a short walk away from where I was lying. She pressed a button on the bedhead and the lights went out. I had been wondering what all the buttons and things did but hadn't dared experiment. Now I knew one of the answers.
I lay back down and went to sleep.
When I woke I could tell it was early. The sun had risen but I was willing to bet it hadn't risen very far. The bedroom light was on and as I opened my eyes I automatically turned my head to look at where Mrs Zimmer had been lying, thinking she must have got up. She was till there and appeared to be dead to the world. So who turned the light on? The kids?
I turned my head back toward the door, expecting to see the kids out of bed and staring at me. Instead I found myself staring at the crotch of a man who was standing next to the bed. I gasped and looked up to see that he was looking down. He was also looking amused and interested.
"Oh, Mr Zimmer. I thought you wouldn't be home until this afternoon."
"Chairman came back early and offered me a lift in his plane, so here I am. Ah, Carly, the babysitter, right?"
I nodded.
"You've, ah, changed since I last saw you."