Posted: Jun 26, 08 8:55pm
(okay, possibly it's too early to present this. I wrote it today based on a dream of appearing nude in public, and somehow I thought I needed to do something with it. It's short. Is it way too silly and fluffy? Or could it be developed? I always thought our dreams meant something universal. Guide, me, but gently, please. This is the first draft).
Diana’s Pool
Diana pushed herself the length of the pool, and back again, and again and again. The warm water sluiced over every part of her, lazily. The side stroke was the most relaxing, but the breast stroke developed the upper arms and the chest, and she was glad she got that out of the way first. Her limbs felt tight and burned with a pleasing warmth. Now she rewarded herself by kicking her bare legs oh, so languorously, as she clung to the edge, her face resting on her arm.
It was warm clean water, swelling gently, smelling faintly of bleached laundry, the tremors of life throughout the building vibrating the walls of the pool. She dropped her face below the water, then her ears, and felt, rather than heard the faint ringing of sounds traveling long distances through water. It was what life was like when you floated in the womb, she imagined, if only she could remember.
She could have rested here forever, just like this, if her skin never wrinkled and if she could have the pool to herself all day long. But she knew the place would soon fill up, and the walls would echo with calling voices and the ground would shake with thudding feet. Diana turned over into a float and was surprised to see her daughter staring down.
Kellie had her delicate hands over her mouth – little shell-pink nails indenting her cheeks. She was wearing her black tank suit and her finely arched eyebrows were raised in alarm.
“Don’t be so dramatic, Young Lady. What?” Diana asked her, fully knowing what, of course. Nudity was such an embarrassment to young ladies of Kellie’s tender years, and there Diana was, floating like a pale sponge in the middle of the YMCA pool, on a Wednesday morning, Ladies’ Day – clothing optional. And who would have thought her daughter would swing by. School was out, and they had a family membership, but Diana thought she had babysitting on Wednesday.
“Why aren’t you running herd on the Krauthammer twins,” she asked. These boys were three years old, quick, healthy, and running on batteries that never died, and there were two of them!
“Mother. What are you thinking?” was all she said “Get out of there and get your clothes on.” The color had drained from her usually pink cheeks and her eyes were startled, amber marbles.
“Darling.” Diana tried to understand. “I realize I could be in better shape. But this is what I’m trying to do – swimming, best exercise in the world.”
“What I’m trying to tell you,” Kellie said, clenching her fists frantically beside her ears, “is that this is Thursday – Family Free Swim from nine ‘til noon.”
