Senior Day at the Harper Pool

Every Wednesday is senior day at the community pool. That's the same day that Harper merchants give a 10% discount to people over sixty-five, so the turnout downtown is substantial. The pool committee decided it would be a good idea to try to get all the older folks to swim on the same day after a youngster tripped over a walker left poolside causing a domino effect with several other walkers. I, of course, qualify to go to the pool on Wednesday because I'm eighty-one years old but I get a little feeling of nausea when I see the condition of some of our people; people who have not taken good care of themselves. That's the main reason I built my own pool. Dorothy and I swim almost every day; rain or shine, hot weather or cold. Unlike the Harper Town Pool our's in not cluttered around the edge with walkers, crutches, wheel chairs, artificial limbs, and back and neck braces. Last week there was quite a disturbance down there. Carlos Quintbalm left his heart monitor on the side and it was drenched with a tsunami size wave when Mertis Mercher, who was trying for a smooth-entry dive, hit the water with what we used to call a belly flop. Apparently, the medics down at the Harper Hospital received a signal and mistook the water attack for a heart attack. The ambulance arrived in twelve minutes. Panic swept through the swimmers with several of them certain they were the one that was being called for. Five people were admitted to the E. R. All were released in time to get home for supper. Got me to thinking that the fifty-thousand I paid out for my pool was well spent indeed.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle