Pools and Mermaids

When you get old enough, you become removed from many childhood memories that you were sure could never be forgotten.  I exercised in the pool today as it's my day off from the weights.  I love being weightless.  I like the that water pressure pushes water out of the tissues if you're retaining fluid. I like that movement in the water provides a mild massage to the lymph system just under the skin. When I finished my fifty minutes of walking, jumping, and swimming, I stretched in the steam room, I let the jets beat on me in the spa tub, and then I went in the dry sauna hoping to dry off a bit before getting back in the car. As I laid down on the bench, for an instant, I was whisked back in time. I was eight, it was high summer and the goal was to spend the entire day in the pool.   When forced to get out we'd lay down on the hot pavement around the pool.  The heat would immediately seep all the way through muscles we didn't know were tired.  When we pushed up, the water from our wet bodies would leave prints that looked like a mermaid.  Sometimes we would get wet again to see what other shapes we could make with our bodies on the hot concrete.  When I got up to leave, I looked back at the bench to see if a mermaid had been there.