The apartment pool where I live is not very big. It’s only 15 x 30 and not much for swimming laps. But it’s better than nothing, and it’s a good way to cool off on a really hot day.
I tend to go check it first to see if anyone is in it. If there are kids splashing around then it means I probably won’t be able to do laps very well. I don’t mind though because I usually just put it off until there are no kids in the pool.
The other day I found it was deserted so I went out for a swim. I was wearing my faded green swim trunks because I’m pretty self conscious about getting caught in my Speedos should a mother and her kids show up. And that’s exactly what happened.
I heard them come in as I swam to the deep end of the pool. I didn’t know who had come in until I turned and headed back. There were three young boys in the water – two brothers and a friend of the family. I noticed right away that one of them was already in the water obstructing my path as I swam for the shallow end because I heard the mother holler for him to get out of my way.
Mom stood on the top step with her feet in the water. She was wearing a lime green bikini that accentuated some nice cleavage. There was even a bit of an ass crack peeking out from her bottoms when she turned around. She certainly seemed nice enough though.
Anyway the boys wasted no time starting to play around, telling mom to “Watch me – watch me!” as they did their dives. They fetched rocks off the bottom of the pool they had somehow acquired from around the grounds of the apartment complex, rocks that were probably not supposed to be there. But I didn’t feel it necessary to say anything about it.
Since swimming back and forth was no longer practical, I sat on the steps in the shallow end. I just sat there cooling myself off while watching the boys. Swimming laps was not an option anymore as I would have found it necessary to swim around them, although I’m sure their mom would have reprimanded them for getting in my way.
The boys kept saying, “Mom, watch this!” as they dove and chased after their rocks and such. Their mother saw me smiling at them and motioned out at them while wryly commenting, “It’s cheap entertainment.” I had to agree, telling her it was definitely cheaper than watching Cable TV.
I finally climbed out and took up a lounger to lie on and dry off. That gave me a better view of mom’s behind, although I tried not to stare. The boys kept telling her to “Watch this – watch this!” or they would tell each other, “Hey, watch this!” It was definitely cheap entertainment.
The youngest son went and fetched his plastic boat with a little army man that went with it. He began playing catch with his mom by pushing it toward her in the water and then her pushing it right back to him. She had finally gotten in water up to her waist.
For awhile there I wasn’t even certain she was going to get her hair wet. But she suddenly headed off toward the deep end by diving into the water and then pulling with her arms along the bottom. It was nice to see she wasn’t the least bit afraid of going underwater just like her boys were constantly doing.
I sat there for quite awhile, sometimes watching them and sometimes just staring up at the sky. The boys continued to fetch rocks off the bottom while mom came back and occasionally pushed the boat back and forth to her youngest son. Then she sort of looked around as though it was getting late.
“Ok, boys… out of the pool!” she declared. Her words were met with a disappointed cry of “Oh, mom!” But she was adamant; it was time to get out.
Boys will be boys, and naturally they delayed climbing out of the water. She told them more than once that it was time to go. But they kept finding loopholes to her instructions… reasons to delay getting out. She finally got a little angry and said “NOW!” That made them get out of the water.
She sighed heavily as the younger one began to protest, telling her he had lost his little army man from the boat somewhere in the deep end. The older one wanted to go down and get it himself since he was so proud of his ability to dive to the bottom of the 8 foot section. But by now I could tell mom was fed up because she just sighed, pointed at the gate and then told them, “HOME… NOW!”
“AWW, MOM!”
“But what about my man from my boat?” the younger one protested. It was obvious she wanted them out of the water. Maybe she was going to go to the deep end to fetch it herself.
“I’ll get it,” she told him. “You just get home now.” The two sons pouted, their friend not saying a word as they all left the pool area.
I wanted to watch her dive down to fetch the wayward toy. But I didn’t want to appear like some sort of pervert. So I gathered my belongings and got ready to leave.
She hadn’t gone down yet when I smiled at her. She saw me looking in her direction and shook her head with a wry smile. “Kids!” was all she said. I nodded in agreement.
I watched as she sort of jumped and then dove down toward the bottom of the deep end, pulling with her arms. The water was clear do I could see pretty much everything. She didn’t have any goggles or anything. She just went right down as though she didn’t need them.
I felt a little conspicuous standing there watching. I was all prepared to leave since I had my towel, goggles and keys in my hands. But since she was underwater I wanted to stick around for a bit just to watch.
She came back up a few seconds later. I assumed she had what she was looking for. I figured that was it and I turned to go. I didn’t want her to see me staring at her in case I might end up leaving her with a bad impression of me.
I went to the gate and was just about to unlock it to open it. Something made me turn back to look one last time. She wasn’t at the surface anymore, and I saw she had gone back down.
I figured she must have missed it the first time. Maybe she hadn’t seen it clearly… or by the time she had spotted it maybe she had needed to come up for air. I didn’t know what the deal was.
I felt like I should get going and not get caught standing there staring at her. But something made me stand there and watch a little longer. She didn’t come up, and I saw a lot of bubbles.
I began to wonder what was taking so long. But I didn’t want to be accused of being a pervert or anything for watching so long. Still, she seemed like she was staying down a long time.
I put my stuff down on a nearby chair and began walking along the side of the pool toward the deep end. I was curious as to what was taking so long. She still hadn’t come up.
At first I thought she was going to catch me watching her and get mad at me for sticking around to gawk. Then I got a really good view of her down on the bottom. I thought I saw her trying to jerk her hand out from under the drain cover as more bubbles came up.
Right away I got the impression something was wrong. I hadn’t figured it could be the drain or anything. But when she jerked her arm again and it didn’t come free, I knew then she was in some sort of trouble.
Now I’m a lousy diver… never was very good at going into the pool head first from the side or a diving board. But I remembered watching a little girl diving around into the pool from the other day while I had been here. So without thinking too much about it I sort of stuck my arms out and dove right in. It was more of a belly flop than anything else, but at least I was in the water.
I swam down and saw she was really yanking on her arm. It looked like her fingers were caught under the drain cover. It was as though she’d tried to lift it up or something and had gotten them wedged in good and tight.
What I did next was kind of instinctive. Her fingers looked stuck and she was really thrashing about while losing air fast. So I grabbed her arm, braced myself, and then pulled really hard.
She came loose right away with a bubbly cry. I sort of hauled her up to the surface until we burst up together. She gasped and then flailed, pulling me back under with her.
I glubbed as I tried pushing her back up. Then we sort of flailed ourselves over to the side of the pool. I helped her grab onto the metal ladder.
When she grabbed on, only then did she stop resisting me. That’s when she really started coughing and choking. “You ok?” I asked, and she nodded and coughed some more.
She and I swam to the shallow end where she sort of flopped down onto those steps leading out of the water. I sat there with her until she managed to stop coughing. Then she looked at me as though it had just dawned on her.
She thanked me for coming down to help her. “You’re welcome,” I replied. And that was pretty much it… it was just that casual.
After a couple more minutes she composed herself enough to say, “I can’t believe I nearly drowned over some stupid toy!” I chuckled as I replied fetching toys in the deep end was not for the faint of heart. She laughed at that.
She said it looked like her son’s army guy was stuck under the cover. So she grabbed the drain cover and tried to pull it up. “I got him out, but then the cover pinched my fingers,” she explained. “Somehow I couldn’t get it up again.”
She went on to say all she could think about down there was how her sons wouldn’t have a mother anymore and how stupid it was to drown over some stupid toy army man. Then she added how she vaguely remembered seeing me over by the gate but that she thought I was on my way back to my apartment and that I would never know she had drowned until later.
I told her I had seen her go back down and had stuck around to watch. But I was concerned about staring too long as I didn’t want to come across as being a little too pervy sticking around watching a woman swim underwater. “But when I didn’t see you come back up I began to get concerned.”
“Well I’m glad you stuck around!” she told me appreciatively. “I’m glad you were watching when you did because I was sure you’d gone back to your apartment.”
She paused a moment as though trying to remember things. Then she said, “I remember telling myself to just hold my breath a few seconds longer and then a few seconds longer and that eventually I would free myself. That cover was pinching my fingers pretty good and I finally went into a panic.” Then she looked down at her hand, wincing when she saw her fingers looked rough and all scraped up.
“Sorry about that.”
“Oh don’t be!” she replied kindly. “I would have never gotten back up without you!”
She paused and looked at me for a moment as though trying to remember something. Then she added, “I vaguely remember you coming down… almost like a dream. I was struggling and struggling, and all I could think of was ‘NO – NO; I CAN’T DROWN!’ And then you were there and you pulled my fingers out… and I was suddenly at the surface getting air and I slipped back under and it was all so confusing. And then I was over at the ladder and then I was coughing like crazy and my head started to clear.”
I asked if she had gotten any water down her windpipe. She said maybe a little. I told her she had to be really careful about that, and that it might be better if she went to the ER because you can get serious complications from a near drowning. But she said she thought she would be ok. So I told her to be careful and to watch out for any dangerous symptoms from having inhaled a little water.
At that point I became self-conscious again. So I stood up as I told her I should probably be going. She thanked me again and I told her she was welcome.
I didn’t even bother to dry myself off. I just grabbed my stuff and headed for the gate. She was toweling off when I left the pool area. But there was something in her features as she looked at me one last time… as though she was super thankful, although a little embarrassed she had done that to herself and that I had to come save her and pull her up.
When I reached my apartment I think it finally hit home. I got the shakes something fierce… like something could have happened to me trying to save her or that she could have drowned. I had to sit down and rest for awhile before I finally calmed down. I never knew I would have a story to tell after going down to the pool just to swim some laps that day.
© 2014; 2017 (written for JQpublic Aug 17 ’14; ed. Jun r ‘17 by riwa)
Author’s note: Parts of this story are true. For instance, there WAS this mother in a lime green bikini, although that picture is one I found on the Internet and is not her. And there WERE three boys in the pool with her. And I DID get to see her swim underwater for a few very short seconds.
Anything beyond that? Let’s chalk it up to the vivid imagination of a guy who writes underwater stories, shall we? Besides, my friend loves tales of women being stuck in the drain. My swim was so boring that I felt I had to make up something exciting to tell him.