Play time at the pool

I went to the Brisbane pool (lido) the other day to practice my freestyle stroke. It was a Sunday afternoon and fairly hot outside, so I was a bit surprised that the pool was largely empty upon my arrival. It was just me in a lap lane and two women chatting with each other in the shallow end. The women left about fifteen minutes after had I arrived. I then had the entire pool to myself for a few, slow laps before a mother and son showed up. The boy looked to be around ten-years-old. Suited up and ready to get in the pool, he was smiling ear-to-ear. His mom wasn't swimming. She sat down on a set of bleachers to watch. At some point, the mother went into the women's change room. I assumed she'd gone to use the toilet. By this point, the boy had moved into the adjacent lap lane. Not really lap swimming, the boy sort of bobbed about, splashed a bit and dove under the water quite a few times. As he was goofing around, I was using a kick-board to scoot across the pool. The boy asked me what I was doing and I told him that I was attempting to improve my swimming kick. I asked him if he wanted to use the board, but he declined. I did a few more laps with the board, then moved into the recreational side of the pool. The boy swam over to where I was as well. I greeted him and smiled. He then asked me if one were allowed to dive at this particular pool. I told him that I didn't know and suggested that he ask the lifeguard. He did and she gave him the green light. Then he asked if I would like to watch him dive and I told him I would. So he swam over to the deep end, climbed out of the pool and made himself ready. I had already taken off my goggles by this point and was treading water, on the look out for the dive. He said, 'Ready?' I told him I was and over he went. He got a 'good job!' from me when he re-emerged. The boy went back for another round, or so I thought, but he wanted to show me how he'd learned how to dive. Apparently, one starts off on bended-knee and falls forward with arms together, pointing toward the water, sort of guiding the way. It looked like a very sensible way to learn to dive. 

'I'm gonna do a cannon ball!' 

'Go for it!' 

It made a great, big splash. More compliments from me. 

'I'm gonna do a somersault!'. 

'Okay, let's see it!' 

He performed one then two somersaults in a row. I joined in. We both got very dizzy. I asked him if he could do a hand-stand. He wasn't sure. As we moved toward the shallow end, he told me that he was 4-foot-something. I'm 5'8". The shallow end is 3'1" deep. The boy could not get purchase with his hands on the pool floor. The water was too deep. I, on the other hand, could walk on my hands a bit before falling back into the water. I watched him a couple of times trying to keep his legs from folding. As I was watching him, I wondered where his mother had gone. Neutrally, I asked the boy where his mother went. 'She went out front'. Hmm. Okay. Playtime was over, I had long since turned into a prune. I told him that I was leaving. 'When I'm gone, you'll be king of the pool!' He asked me if I really had to go. I showed him my shriveled fingers, smiled and said, 'It's time'. 'Can I have your kick-board?' I asked the lifeguard if the boy could play with the board. She said it was okay. I chucked it over to him before climbing out. 

I wanted to pay a compliment to the boy's mother about how nice her son was and also to sort of indirectly let her know that her son was now the only person in the pool. I walked out of the building expecting to see the mother 'out front'. No one was on the pavement. The five cars parked out front (mine included) all appeared empty. I felt confused. Where in the heck was this woman? I began approaching each car to see if there were anyone tucked away in a seat. Sure enough, in the second car I checked, the boy's mother had fully reclined the driver's seat and was curled up on it staring intently at her phone. She didn't seem to register my approach; I tip-toed away.

I've mentioned here before that none of my childhood pool memories include adults save lifeguards who were, to be honest, probably only teenagers. The mother preferring to sit in her car and look at her phone felt a bit like 70s parenting. In today's world, such behavior would be frowned upon, I should think. Not having kids, I can't be totally sure, but her lack of attention felt off. Anyway, I drove home wondering what the on-duty lifeguard thought about a ten-year-old playing alone in the pool on a Sunday afternoon. 

Quiet pool day