Georgia and her sister at the pool

Out of order again!  I think I wrote this one about five years ago but just cleaned it up now.  In this story, Georgia's twin sister, Heather O'Thomas, has come to stay with Georgia.  Let us remember that Georgia hadn't known about Heather's existence until Heather contacted her awhile back.  Georgia had always been told that her twin sister had died.  Heather lives in Virginia (where Georgia is also from) and has shown up on Georgia's doorstep in Vancouver, Canada.  She says she is only visiting but shows no sign of leaving.  This story takes place before Georgia's mom, Henriette, shows up.  I believe that David, the gay ex-Mormon midwife, is her roommate as well in this one although he plays no part in this story.
Rick plays a large part.  Rick is a one-legged surgeon that Georgia met at yoga.  He has some involvement in an odd and disturbing cult so that is mentioned here.  I pretty much drop the cult angle in later stories.  I like swimming so there is swimming in this story.

Georgia is not at all sure about this.

“I’m unsure about this,” she says to a co-worker.  Rita is photocopying and Georgia is standing beside her, discussing her upcoming swimming situation.  She has just explained that Rick, her non-boyfriend boyfriend and Heather O’Thomas, her newly discovered twin sister, want to go swimming.  Heather has been visiting Georgia for five days and in six and a half days will be returning to her family in Virginia.  Georgia had been vaguely stunned that Heather could leave her children for so long, even though most of the eight are grown with families of their own.

“My husband has it all under control.  Really, it’s only Sarah Lee who needs some looking after and my son Bobby and his wife Pam are popping over a lot.”  Heather told her this on the second day.  On the third day, Georgia decided to tell her about Rick.  Despite all of Georgia’s concerns, there was no denying it, she was completely in love with him.  The way he did yoga, the way he smiled and talked, even the way he walked on his natural and prosthetic legs. 

Still she’d been uncertain about telling Heather, worried that she would have to get into Rick’s cultish (some might say, Georgia wasn’t completely decided on that term yet) involvement.  But Heather spoke so proudly of her one-legged husband that Georgia found herself extolling the many virtues of Rick.

“They’ve lost different legs,” she points out to Rita, her voice raised over the drone of the copier.

“But it seems they both love swimming and so does Heather, even though she’s large.”  At this Rita looks at Georgia and Georgia realizes that her co-worker is heavier than Heather. 

“I mean, whatever, whatever floats your boat.  Sports are good.  Indeed good.”  Georgia sways a bit, almost as if a slight wind were blowing.

“I mean I’m sure she floats just fine.  Just fine.  And Rick, he doesn’t use a prosthetic in the water.  It’s quite remarkable to watch.  And he’s pretty fast too.  I must admit the first time I saw him swimming, I thought he might just flop around or go in circles.  But no, no, no.  He swims pretty darn straight.  I thought his, well, stump might get infected but no, no, no, it’s all closed over so it’s fine.  It’s not like a gaping hole.”  Georgia takes a small breath.  “Anyway, both Rick and Heather think swimming is a great way to meet.  We’re gonna swim a few laps, then sit in the hot tub.  I sometimes get a heat rash in the hot tub but not always.  But the more I scratch, the more it itches, you know what I mean?”

“I once got a bladder infection from a public swimming pool,” says Rita, “People urinate in there all of the time.  I don’t go swimming and I don’t allow my children to.”

“Oh,” said Georgia, “oh.”

That evening, Georgia and Heather walk the two blocks to Britannia Community Centre where they are to meet Rick.  .  Rick has seen Georgia in her swimsuit once before, when they went to New Brighton outdoor pool in the summer.  Since then, Georgia hasn’t joined him again.

She liked swimming well enough and did a fairly decent front crawl.  But after the concussion she sustained at the pool after hitting the wall and the few pounds she’d gained eating some of her roommates offered lemon meringue pies and date squares, she’d begged off.

But she admits to herself that the chance to show her body in comparison to her sister’s appealed to her; she would look downright slim in comparison.  Also, the opportunity for cultish (for lack of a better word) talk would be limited, what with the back and forth laps and the public hot tub.  Rick has asked her to be discreet about his involvement in the organization and she doesn’t believe he would blab it out, but Heather does have an interesting disarming nature that causes Georgia to share things she normally wouldn’t have.  Two nights ago she’d told her about her long ago meeting with Robert Kennedy, something she rarely talked about.

“Wow,” Heather had said, “That is quite remarkable.”  Georgia hadn’t sensed any judgement, so she’d gone on to tell her about her stint as a Squeeze the Charmin lady at Walmart four years ago, something she was more than a bit ashamed of.

“How fun for you,” Heather had said. “But hard too I bet with all of your education.”  Georgia had felt somehow heard in that conversation in a way she hadn’t in a while, even with Rick.  Having Heather around was not the hardship she’d so feared, although the two of them plus her roommate were quite squished in the basement suite.

“Oh, Georgia, I had four children under five years old in a three bedroom apartment for a long time.  This is no problem

 “It’s so great that you brought your bathing suit,” Georgia says to Heather.

“I find swimming so so relaxing, I bring my bathing suit no matter where I’m going.  I used to swim practically until the moment my babies popped out.”

“Oh my,” says Georgia.  “Well that’s good but I hear that people do sometimes urinate in the pool but I guess with all of the chlorine it, uh, it cleans it out.”

“Oh, I don’t worry too much about that.  I’ve certainly had all manner of bodily fluids on me.”

“Oh,” says Georgia.

“Oh yeah, poo, pee, spit up, you name it.”

“Oh, oh, right of course, of course.”  They are at the pool now and walking into the lobby. 

“Georgia,” says Rick, walking toward them.

“Oh, hi, Rick,” Georgia says, reddening as he approaches.

“Rick this is my, uh, my uh, my sister, Heather O’Thomas.  Heather, this is Rick.”

They shake hands. 

“So nice to meet you,” says Rick.

“And you,” says Heather, smiling but not reddening, Georgia notices.

“I have a pass here,” says Rick. “But let me get this for you guys.  He goes to the cashier and pays for two drop-ins.

“Well, thank you, Rick, that’s very nice,” says Heather.

Georgia feels something like joy and pride well up in her.

“See you guys in the medium lane!”

It is in the medium lane that Georgia realizes she needs to be in the slow lane.  Swimmers are passing on her left, causing water to fly into her nose and mouth, which in turn makes her cough it back up into the pool.  Worse still, her goggles have almost completely fogged up.  Heather is keeping up the medium pace without a problem and Rick has moved to the fast lane.  Georgia stops at the shallow end to look over at Rick, enjoying the sight of his calf and thigh muscle working hard.  This is as close as Georgia has seen him to naked and this causes her to sigh.  Even with only one leg, Georgia finds Rick almost intolerably attractive.  His chest chiselled and with just the right amount of hair (Georgia is repulsed by large amounts of body hair, not that this stopped her from seducing a hirsute German tourist eight years ago) Georgia more than longs to lay her head on it and hear his heart beating.  She very much wants to run her fingers through his thick head of brown hair and touch her tongue to his.  Even his stump intrigues her.  She wants him, she wants him.

“Hey, Georgia,” says Heather, stopping beside her, “This is a great pool.”

“Oh hi, Heather, hi, hi.”  She gawks for a moment at Heather’s ample bosom.  While it is covered by a Speedo like bathing suit, it is still large and noticeable.

“Uh huh,” says Georgia, “Actually, I’m thinking of getting out, you guys can meet me over by the hot tub.  I’m gonna go dip my feet into it.”

“Oh, okay, sounds good.  I’m going to swim for maybe another half hour or so, I hope you don’t mind.  I find this so very refreshing.”

Christ, thinks Georgia, another 30 minutes.

“Geez, you must be in great shape.”

“Well, I do like a good swim.  In the summer, I swim all the time at Bopper Lake near our house.”

“Oh,” says Georgia. “Okay, well, I’ll see you over there.”

Twenty five minutes later Georgia is still sitting on the cement floor, her feet and lower legs dipping in and out of the hot tub.  She feels hot and itchy but isn’t sure where else to go.  Two elderly men and what Georgia assumes is a lesbian are in the hot tub, discussing their upcoming weekend plans.

“There’s a potluck at Ivan’s,” says the young lesbian, “Or we could just stay home and get a movie.”

Odd, thinks Georgia and then decides that the lesbian must be the caretaker of these men or perhaps their adult child.  She finds herself wondering if the lesbian has a lover and if the lover lives with them or has her own place.  Is the lover resentful of the time her lover has to spend with her aging parents?  She should be more understanding, thinks Georgia, surely they aren’t going to live much longer.  Will there be an inheritance of some kind?  Georgia thinks of her own mother, who at 83 will leave behind only a small bungalow and a 1980 Honda Civic Hatchback that has been sitting unused in the backyard since her father died 27 years ago. 

“Leave it there,” she’d kept telling Georgia, who thought they should sell the car. “It, well it seems a shame to get rid of it.  Your father loved it so much.”

Georgia is brought out of this vehicular reminiscing by the two old men and the lesbian getting out of the water.  The paler of the men puts his arm around the lesbian as they walk toward the change rooms.

‘Oh,” said Georgia as she looks toward the swimming pool.  She notices that Rick is standing in the shallow end of the medium lane, looking down.  A second or so later, Heather pops her head up and is soon standing beside him.

“Oh, geez,” says Georgia. “Geez,” and attempts to erase the image from her mind.

No, no, no, she thinks, they are just talking for god’s sake..  Rick is smiling and Heather laughing.

Rick is gesturing with his hands, something he is in the habit of doing, thinks Georgia, momentarily pleased that she is aware of a Rick habit.

She swears she seems him make the sign of the cross, something Georgia herself learned when she dated a Catholic boy named Anthony back in the 1960’s.

“Huh?” thinks Georgia and her mind rushes to remember if the sign of the cross gesture is part of the many bizarre rituals involved in Rick’s non-cult.  He had confided in her a few of the rituals over the last few months, growing more trusting.  A few even made some kind of vague sense to her, they could even be construed as having a scientific basis.  The most recent reveal though seemed to involve the planetarium, the winter solstice and four small crows.  That one was difficult for Georgia to wrap her mind around and she was more than a little relieved that the next longest night of the year wasn’t for 10 more months.

For now, Rick and Heather seem to be having a great time.  Georgia walks over quickly and jumps into the water beside them.  The displacement of water from the jump causes a child swimming laps to swallow a bunch of water and he stops, stands up, coughs mightily and begins to cry.