11 years ago
"Wow! It is dead out there," Casey says peering out a window from the second floor of the guard room. "There is not a single person in the pool. Just Mrs Johnson out tanning as always. I thought old people got cold easily, but apparently not her."
I laugh as my finger busily work on yet another friendship bracelet. "It's a beautiful day. Mrs. Johnson would never miss a sunny day at the pool. If she does, we should probably do a wellness check."
Melinda looks at me like I'm crazy as she hides beneath her oversized hoodie."You and I must have very different ideas of beautiful days. It's only 60 degrees today. 60 degrees in August? I'm shivering over here. This is some bullshit. There's only a week left until school starts again. Is nice weather too much to ask for?" She rearranges a towel to cover her legs like a blanket.
I shrug my shoulders. "Maybe spending years swimming outside in the summer has built up my endurance, but I would definitely swim in this weather. It's lovely and at least the sun is shining. That's asking a lot of Ohio weather."
I hear footsteps clatter up the metal staircase behind me. "Did I hear someone say they would go swimming in this weather? Because I am so in!" A moment later, Charlie's head pops up from the staircase with an excited grin on his face.
"I just got off chair so I have at least an hour before I'm needed again. Why not?" I stand up and look for my work bag and towel.
"That's the spirit Jenna!" Charlie says withe the eagerness of a 6 year old boy with a new puppy. "Anybody else going to join us?"
"Hell no!" Melinda shouts.
"You're crazy," Casey adds.
"Suit yourselves," I say as I follow Charlie back down the stairs.
On our way outside, we tell Gina where we'll be in case she needs us. We leave our towels draped over the fence. I try not to gawk as Charlie takes off his lifeguard shirt to hang by his towel. I follow his lead and strip down to my own guard suit.
As we start to make our way over to the pool, Charlie races ahead and does a massive cannonball, splashing me with a wave of water. I let out a little shriek and debate my life choices as the cool air his my now damp suit. "Come on in, Jenna! The air is cold but the water is super warm."
At this point, I have nothing to lose. I get a running start and leap into the pool. Charlie was not lying about the water. With the air so cool, the pool feels like a giant bath tub. I spend as much time underwater as I can before coming up for air. I flip my head back and my hair sprays water into Charlie's face. "Payback."
We make our way over to the deep end. "Want to see something cool?" Charlie asks me. I nod my head eagerly. "Okay, but I need you to hold the guard chair steady."
Before I know it, Charlie and I climbing out of the water. The cool air hits me like a wall. As I walk over to join Charlie behind the guard chair, I become aware of the face that my nips have gotten hard from the cold and air straining against the red fabric of my lifeguard suit. I think Charlie may have noticed too because I catch him quickly glancing away as he shows me where to place my hands and feet on the back of the guard chair so it doesn't roll away.
Charlie climbs up the the steps on the front of the guard chair. When he gets to the top platform where the chair is, he looks down at me, the sun casting a golden halo around his head. "Are you ready?" I nod eagerly in response. Before I can process what a bad idea this is, Charlie does a backflip off of the chair (which is 5 feet in the air) and swan dives into the 12 feet of water below.
When he resurfaces, I pick my jaw off the ground. "Are you crazy? What were you thinking?" His only response is a boyish laugh and a contagious grin. " You could have killed yourself!"
He climbs out of the pool, shaking water from his head like a dog. "Don't be overdramatic. It's fun. What a rush! You should try it!"
I walk over and talk a look at his head. "Yup. That answers my question. Since it doesn't appear you knocked your head on the way in, you most certainly are crazy if you think I'll be flipping off of that!"
"Jenna, I'm not saying you have to flip, but just try jumping from the top! You won't regret it." Charlie moves behind the chair and uses his arms and legs to brace the chair from rolling. "Won't you try it, just once for me?"
I cross my arms over my chest and shake my heads no. "What is Mrs. Johnson sees and we get in trouble?"
Charlie laughs. "She fell asleep an hour ago. I'm surprised you haven't heard her snoring." I turn my head over to check on her and sure enough her chest is rising and falling accompanied by a chainsaw-like snore. "Just try one jump for me, please?"
The moment Charlie met my eyes with his, I knew it was all over. I was trapped by my desire to make him happy. I would do anything to have that boyish grin back on his face. So I take a deep breath and climb up to the top platform. "You promise this is safe?"
"Of course," he says. He playfully adds, "And if anything does happen, I'm a lifeguard. I'll save you."
I snort at his cheesiness before taking another look at the water below. It seems so much further down when I'm contemplating jumping in that it did as I scanned it all summer long. I take a deep breath and brace myself for the leap. One huge jump forward and I grab my nose. As I cannonball into the surface, I sink like a rock. I open my eyes and use my arms to guide myself back to the surface. When I do, I hear Charlie's gleeful laughter ringing in my ears and a smile comes to my face.
"Well?" he asks with a knowing look on his face.
"Alright, I concede. That was pretty exhilarating." I swim over to the edge of the pool and place my arms and chin on the edge. "Now what?"
"I have just the thing. I'll be right back," Charlie says before disappearing into the filter room. He returns with two little kid floaty donut shaped rafts. "Fancy a float?"
"You know we're a little too big for those right? Those are meant for toddlers." Charlie tosses me one anyways before jumping into the water.
"Well lucky for us, we know how to swim." Charlie pulls his raft under his butt and sits on it like a chair. "Just sit on it like a toilet seat. I discovered yesterday it will keep us floating just enough that our heads above the water so we don't have to tread as much."
I follow his lead and sit my butt in the middle of my donut. "Now what?"
"Now? Now we talk about life. We get deep. Consider this a deep-end deep talk. Patent pending of course,"Charlie adds. "We can talk about anything and everything you want. We've got nothing but time. Where shall we start?"
I pause for a moment and think. What is it that every parents stresses to almost juniors and seniors in high school? College. "Have you thought much yet about your future? About college?" I ask him.
Charlie nods his head. "I've known what I want to do and where I want to go for about 3 years now. I want to be a park ranger. And there's only one college near here that offers the program I need to get there so it made that decision pretty easy."
"What if you don't get in? Do you have a back-up plan?"
Charlie recanters his balance on his floaty. "I guess I'll probably become an electrician or something. I'd probably be good at it. Or maybe I'll follow my childhood dream of being the guy on the back of the garbage truck."
I gag at the thought of the smells of trash. "Sounds like a stinky job."
Charlie gives a chuckle. "Oh it most certainly is. I guess we better hope I get into the park ranger program then."
"What made you want to be a park ranger?" I ask with a genuine curiosity.
"Honestly? You're going to make fun of me. It's the hat. I want to wear the cool hat."
Of all the answers, I was not expecting that one. I let a little snort of surprise. "Fair enough. I do appreciate a good hat. And besides, who am I to judge? you have more of a plan than I do. I have no idea what I want to do with my life."
"You're only a junior. You still have a year to think about what you want to do. It's a big decision." Charlie pushes off the edge of the wall that our floats had started to drift forward.
"I know, I know. It's just so much pressure." I tread my arms for a moment to gather my thoughts. "It's crazy to think that just as recently as 60 years ago, women didn't really have the choices I do now. It was get married, go to school for an MRS degree, or do something dominantly female like be a nurse or a teacher. And all those paths ended the same: pushing out babies. I'm grateful that I have the time and ability to consider a college education and to have dreams bigger than even my own grandmother could have imagined, but it's daunting. I have absolutely no clue what I want to do with my life.
"Isn't that exciting though?" Charlie asks thoughtfully. "You have the power to go where you want, be who you want, try as many things as you want. It's freeing. You have a whole future of possibilities in front of you to pick from. They can be as wild or simple as you want. The world is your oyster!"
"I suppose so," I respond. "I'm just too ambitious I guess. I want to try everything. I've thought about be a radiologist and a pediatric nurse and musician and an author. But nothing really feels right."
Charlie scoots his pool raft over closer to me so I can see the hazel of his eyes clearly. "That's the beauty of being young. We still have plenty of time to figure our lives out while also having time to enjoy ourselves while we can. Don't be so hard on yourself. You'll know your path when it presents itself. Don't sweat it. You know what your should be more concerned about?" Charlie asks as he slides off his raft and into the water.
"What?"
"This!" Charlie says as he rips my raft out from under me.
I fall backwards from the surprise and I am suddenly submerged under the water. I resurface gasping for air. I splash a huge wave a water into his face. "RUDE! What as asshole!"
He makes his way over to the edge of the pool with both rafts in tow, smirking at me when he looks back. "And don't you forget it."