While the crisis created by a resident's complaint over the threesome at Hannah's apartment evolved and then abated, Harry was literally lying low. He was informed about the complaint on Tuesday along with everyone else in the Club, and fully expected someone from security or the administrative to summon him for a dressing down, but nothing happened.
Wednesday, his physician gave him a painful series of subcutaneous cortisone shots for the sciatica and bursitis in his left hip, and sent him home with a prescription for pain killers. He was told to get lots of rest and to use a cane to take pressure off the hip. He spent the whole week in his apartment, availing himself of the food trays provided for those temporarily incapacitated brooding over what might happen if his role in the threesome was revealed.
To his relief, Linda informed him on Friday that the crisis was over but the Club meeting was still on for Saturday at 8 PM. He told her about his hip problem and said he might not make it. Linda told him not to worry; if he could not make it, someone would give him a reading on how the meeting went the following week.
One Saturday morning, he felt well enough to take breakfast in the dining room. He was wary of making a public appearance, because he still harbored concerns that people would know abut the threesome and single him out for gossip. He figured breakfast would be the acid test. The room was packed when he entered at 9AM. Hardly anyone noticed him. He saw Pete hunched over his food with a bunch of men he did not know. Hannah was nowhere in sight but he learned during their social chat she was not a morning person and rarely took breakfast.
Looking around for an empty place, he saw Kate and Janey waving at him. He thought these two would know, if anyone did, if his identity had been compromised, so he went to join them. He had practiced beforehand several stories if he was confronted. If he could stand up to their questioning, he felt he would be home free.
Janey noticed his cane first. "Harry, what happened to you? You do not look so good?"
True to form, Kate heckled him: "You look like some woman turned you inside out," she chortled.
Harry quickly concluded they had no clue what really had happened. He elected to divert their attention by referring to the Saturday night gathering.
"Kate, if you are referring to Saturday night, you are off base. The fact is I have had periodic bouts of hip problems. I have bursitis and sciatica, which can flare up anytime and I may have to have a hip replacement in a year or so."
Harry went into detail about his out patient treatment and his medical problems. The ladies joined in talking about their own aches and pains. There is nothing that preoccupies seniors more than discussing their health issues. For many, there are more medical appointments on their calendars than social obligations.
Changing the subject, Harry asked: "Where's Marie?"
Kate smirked. "Don't try to kid us, Harry. You know Marie had to take off early Sunday morning."
Harry had assumed the three sisters shared secrets, which was good to know. It did not really bother him since Kate had seen him pair off with Marie.
"I know that ladies," Harry smiled. " I just do not know when she will be back. I have not spoken to her since Sunday."
" Sorry, Harry, " Janey said. " We thought Marie might have called you to keep you posted. Everything went fine with the birth of her grandchild, but she had to extend her stay to help care for her daughter-in-law. She'll be back today. You can see her at the meeting tonight."
On the spot, Harry definitely decided to bow out of the meeting.
"I better not go. I should stay off my leg for another couple of days. Linda knows about my hip. She said she would let me know how the meeting turned out."
"Do you think you might be able to go to the regular Friday night cocktail party?" Kate asked.
"Gosh, I hope so. Tell Marie I asked about her, will you?" It was prudent to leave while the questions were relatively benign, so Harry excused himself.
By themselves again, Kate and Janey talked about Harry.
"I really think he is a nice guy. Did you notice he would not have mentioned anything about Marie if we had not forced him to." Janey remarked.
" I think we should tell Marie to call him. He could use cheering up."
The Club meeting was very informative. Only 30 members were able to attend; the rest would learn the particulars by word of mouth. The Senior Center and Club Manager Aggie made opening remarks. Standing by for their remarks were Linda, their lawyer and the head of Security, Harold Pierce.
"Thank you for coming here everyone," Aggie began. This meeting will be brief and I ask you at the end to stagger your return to the compound rather than descend at once. So here goes.
The three of us here are going to summarize the administration, legal and security position concerning the complaint we received about one of our Club members and its ramifications. We will not embarrass anyone by revealing names. You all know by now that a non-Club resident complained about the noises and sexual activity that took place Monday at the residence of one of our members. Ordinarily that would not have raised many eyebrows among any of the admin staff. We would have handled it discreetly, but in this instance we were handed a tape. It was a three-minute clip of a very raucous and I must say extremely erotic threesome. We could not ignore it, especially since we have received six other similar complaints in the last six months. All about the activities of our members. This obviously did not bode well for maintaining our discretion. Fortunately we were able to persuade the resident to withdraw the complaint. At the same time, we received an anonymous complaint about a non-Club member's sexual boisterousness, which is serendipitous, since we can now conflate the two complaints for the purposes of renewing our calls for all residents to respect people's privacy while being considerate of their neighbors."
Linda continued by informing the Club members of the confidentiality of the statements they signed when they joined the Club. "There was no specific statement in that form about recordings but I want to emphasize that anyone who makes a clandestine tape can be sued in our state and prosecuted for a felony. It is a serious matter."
Harold got into the meat of the matter. " I want to review with you the security steps we take to insure your privacy and to tell you what you must do to avert undue attention to the Club's activities or to your individual get social engagements. What you do in the privacy of your homes is of no business to anyone. Short of pedophilia or necromancy, you are free to do as you please. (A few chuckles were heard from the audience.) The tape recordings emphasized that we must be alert to the possibility of eavesdroppers. I therefore did a survey of the residences.
First, the residences were constructed taking into consideration that older people's hearing ability decreases and they are prone to talk louder and turn up their TV's and radios louder than normal. The insulation is very good, but standing in front of an entrance door, one can hear raised voices in the living area. That means intimate activities should be confined to bedrooms. I checked out the balconies. Standing on any of our balconies one can not hear bedroom noises unless the windows are open.
The main problem lies with the stairwells. The walls in the living areas and bedroom walls that abut the stairwells are vulnerable to eavesdropping. The reverse problem is true, too. We have had numerous complaints from residents about workmen carelessly slamming doors to the stairwells and working on various equipment contained there. These stairwells are unfortunately echo chambers. Here is what we plan to do about both problems.
We will cushion the doors so they close noiselessly. That is a simple problem. No work in the stairwells will be permitted earlier than 9AM and past 5PM. A work schedule will be posted online and on your bulletin boards. To prevent eavesdropping of any sort, we will deploy cameras in the stairwells, which will be reviewed weekly.
