Around the Pool

It was 5:00pm. It had not started to get dark yet. The sun still shining its beams into the creases 

that were caused by the motion of a small child. His mother and her boyfriend lay aside each 

other kissing on a deck chair. An elderly couple squirted oils onto each others bodies and in 

reciprocal fashion rubbed the oils in on each other in unison, causing grimacing faces from the 

group of young men over the pool as the man's hands glided over his wife's dehydrated breasts. A

few chips clink down into the centre of the deck chairs drawing everyone's attention back to the 

hand: the bet is met by all five and another card comes down making potential flushes and 

potential full houses. One of them throws in a large bet and all but one folds. The last card goes 

down and both players throw their chips in; cries of pain from one and elation from the rest of 

them follow. A group of girls the boys had purposefully placed their deck chairs nearby to, start 

to laugh, drawing the attention away from the game, looking to see if the girls had finally noticed

them, but they were still laughing at the lifeguard. His cheeky routine he does for all the girls 

going down well with them. A scream erupts over the pool area from the mother. The sound of it 

rips through the pool area's atmosphere, resonating with each person as the worst kind of 

suffering. Gathered around the pool they all added their sorrowful groans to the child's body 

gently floating across the water. The lifeguard dived in and took the child from the pool and lay 

him on the ground, checking his pulse and breathing before attempting to revive his blue body 

back to life. The child's mother stood over the scene crying uncontrollably, the boyfriend 

wrapped his arm around her trying to console her, pulling her in close to himself and trying to 

cover her eyes whilst all the other eyes around the pool remained fixed on the lifeguard 

desperately pumping on the little boy's chest, cracking all the tiny little ribs doing so: the minute 

was long and the lifeguard started to tire and tears started to drop from his cheeks onto the backs 

of his hands. The child started to choke and immediately sat up and started throwing up, his 

mother wrapped him up tightly in her arms, cradling him as the puke ran down the back of her 

shoulder. Everything was silent but for the timid trickle of water into the pool. And then a 

memory began to trickle to the surface of the elderly woman's mind, running over to the 

lifeguard pounding her weak fists on his chest as the years of forgotten anguish came flooding 

out. She screamed at him in a language he did not understand, but he understood. And so did 

everyone else around the pool. The day didn't feel like a holiday anymore and everybody went 

inside. 

Reviews

[Starmountainkid]

I like this one, too. Reminds me, years ago I was on a bus to NYC. An elderly woman sitting next to me was babbling to herself and I was a little uncomfortable. She turned and saw my Army uniform and became momentarily coherent. She said, "I lost a son in the war." Then she sighed and said, "I guess some things have to be done." Then she turned away and began babbling to herself again.

So I guess your story has truth in it.

[James Walpole]

Wow thats incredible i have heard of tales of people withy alzheimers being bought back to life with music from their past i wonder if that is similar, I am hopefully going to NYC next year or late this year after a tour of the rest of the world, it is one of my dream places. As for the truth of the story, it did actually happen my brother told me about a kid who almost drowned and how it sucked the life of the holiday atmosphere from around the pool, and so i decided to dramatise it, and added in an old lady who lost a kid for kid measure, because I am a b*****d! :P