The swiming pool

I awoke to A scream in the early morning as a stubborn mist lingered too long for our summer senses. the scream came from the direction of our community swimming pool. There was A rustle in the trees, A slight late summer breeze coming from the north, which usually meant the coming of an early fall. I normally would not respond to screams in those parts, as there always were groups of children making their way to the swimming pool with their playfulness and eager voices,eager to place the first jump in the relief of those hot summers days. The scream was loud with A high shrill, and it was still too early for the children, and so I went to find out what it was all about. I got to the entrance of the swimming pool, and saw my old friend Ruth, who was also the lifeguard and pool keeper running towards me with her arms open wide, as to embrace me. She was shaking with fear. In the few mumbled words, she managed to convey that there was A body inside the pool. My friend Jonathan happened to arrive that moment, and we both walked into the pool grounds to see what the screaming was all about. I remember the stillness of the water that morning, and even with the slight breeze that was there, I could still remember how still the water had been. The pool was A large olympic size 50 meters, A kind of trophy price for all the hard work invested in what was once A swamp land and now A thriving community with its own factory and farm lands. I looked in the shallow side as the pool curved going deeper . My friend Jonathan was the first to spot him at the deep end. He was floating midway between the surface and the bottom. He faced us. his blond flowing hair moved with a slight flutter. It was too deep to see his eyes, and for A moment I did not recognize him.

ल

Jonathen

My memory of him is fresh; Almost too fresh to recall much of anything. The dead leave us hanging sometimes. They leave us with A certain numbness which is still alive and pulsating and perhaps misleading. Its never fair is it; its never expected. I had experienced death far too young to have even known life. The burning wave of A women who set herself on fire next door, out of A desperate attempt to atone the disability of her afflicted daughter. The discovery one morning of A young boy submerged under the calm and still waters of the outdoor public swimming pool. The death of my young stepbrother who ventured into the wilds of Alaska,only to succumb to A life long struggle with Asthma. Death will always surprise you; even when your looking. even when you know and wonder when the mystery will end. And yet, I was pulled my them all, even till their last moment. I was pulled and dragged and yes, even the tears were hard to to find. they seemed more easily spent on the living, and even those who were the walking dead, even they, in those last moments, even then, and perhaps more so; the tears flowed more readily, and I had to remind myself that they were still alive. They were still alive, and so was I, and so I will remain, God willing in the deep and penetrating glow that is this life.