BLINDSIMMING LADY

CHRIS'S BLINDFOLDED SECRETARY

 

Back now to my brother, Chris. He works in the building profession as a surveyor, is self-employed and has a small office in the same town that I, and my husband of course, live in. He has a long serving, middle-aged secretary, unmarried, who travels in each day from Redhill and who, as it happens to turn out, always takes an afternoon off once a week to do her weekly shopping in Croydon. This means Chris has to ‘hold the fort’ himself – not an ideal situation as he otherwise spends a lot of time out on building sites and at meetings. From time to time he has hinted that perhaps I could fill in for him on that afternoon, always the same afternoon, but I had ignored the hint until he made me a proposition I couldn’t ignore. He said he would arrange things so that I spent the afternoon in his back office answering the phone and taking messages. He would even pay me! Provided I agreed to be blindfolded for the whole afternoon or, as we soon agreed, from 2 to 5 o/clock! How could I refuse?

So, for some years now, I have helped out on most, not all those afternoons. I told my husband who remarked that it was a good idea – he felt perhaps I was a bit bored being at home alone a lot. He had never seen me on Friday mornings of course! I go in around half past one, Chris’s secretary having left for Croydon, and do a few remaining tasks for her. At two o/clock Chris blindfolds me and leads me to the door of the back office and I go in, find the desk and the phone and make myself at home. He often has moved the furniture around and enjoys watching me grope around, hands outstretched. His weekly treat, he says, and I know he enjoys tying on the blindfold of course. I realised that he too got a ‘kick’ from that a long time ago.

I don’t have a great deal to do, occasional phone calls, make the tea at three and listen to my little walkman type radio. It used to be Gardener’s Question Time but that was moved to Fridays a year or so ago. Now it is Choral Evensong, which is lovely music and singing from one of the cathedrals. One task that Chris said was a part of the bargain, is that I should gradually write up a journal of all my past blindfold activities and this, that you are reading now, is of course the result. So, I try to do such writing up to three o/clock when Chris insists that I be blindfolded and then get on with making the tea, at which I am now quite proficient. At five o/clock, I am released in time to get home to prepare husband’s meal for when he eventually gets back from London about seven.

Having a blindfolded secretary around started giving Chris ideas for other blindfold activities. As I said, because of his work pressures days out bird watching were few and far between now. However it wasn’t long before he came up with another idea.