It’s the Tree

“You sure do got you some good height there,” Flower Shower Cap Woman observed when Amazon Goddess Woman strode into the hot tub arena, her powerful legs longer than PP’s entire torso.

Damn. PP had to agree. AGW was a fine specimen, but PP had never had the brazenness to say it to her out loud, even though she'd been thinking it for weeks now. Yet she'd had no opening, only exchanging ‘hello’s' passing in the locker room.

FSCW had no such qualms, as she sunk into the bubblin' tub, nodding ever so seriously. “I bet you got you some Indian Blood in you!” she announced, as AGW grinned broadly, pleasant surprise on her lovely face.

“Now how’d you guess that?” she smiled. “Was it the freckles that gave it away?” (Native Americans, because PP just assumed that it was this group of people and not the ones that hailed from the other side of the globe, had freckles? PP never knew this! See what she learned in the Hot Tub at the YMCA? Images and information never seen in a John Ford movie!)

FSCW shook her head, “No. It ain’t that. Though now that you mention it, yeah, I can see it. But no. It your nice height and proportion. How tall are you?”
“5’11,” AGW answered proudly.




“Ooohweee! That some nice height! Me! I always wanted to make it to 5’6” but never did,” FSCW chuckled, glancing down at her round ample 5’3” frame.
“Oh, me too!” PP joined in. “My sister made it to 5’6” but I never did…”
Both women nodded in understanding at PP. Maybe they had taller sisters too?
“I bet you ‘bout 45 or so?” FSCW continued her assessment.
AGW laughed, beaming. “Add ‘bout 10 years to that!”
“Get outta here! You serious!”
“Yup!’
“Why! I never usually that far off. And you got you some nice breasts too. That what usually give it away. But you. No folds there. Nice and firm.”
“Yes…..” AGW laughed shyly, but so pleased. “I noticed that too. Why sometimes I just look at myself from here up,” she made a gesture with her hands, framing her upper torso from the waist up to the top of her head, “ and think that I don’t look half bad.”
“I say NOT!” FSCW harrumphed as they all laughed.
“But I bet you have yourself a hard time finding you a man with that height,” she continued.
“No. Not really.”
“Really?”
“No. It’s just never been an issue.”
“That real interesting. Cause from my experience with my Ex, men intimidated by Tall Women. They intimidated by the Height. They intimidated by their Salary. They intimidated by their Vehicle.”
PP was waiting for the inevitable Intimidation of their Manly Part, but FSCW had made her point. The unspoken hung, so to speak, heavy in the air. No need to say It out loud.


Shrugging, AGW paused, then repeated, “I don’t know. But I just never had a problem with my height and Men.”
“That cause you find yourself a Real Man. You find yourself a real Man that not intimidated and then you don’t hafta worry bout it. Now me!” FSCW laughed good-naturedly, “I don’t seem to have much luck in the Real Man department, but hell, it OK. I got my own needs to attend to if you know what I mean!”

Again, the women joined in laughter. At men’s expense. One of the beauties of the Women only hot tub. The Girl Gossip can run fast and furious and free.

Later, after her shower, PP had to reach around AGW lounging on the bench to grab her bag of stuff hanging on the hook behind her.Feeling like she needed to continue the conversation, she asked about her Height again, even though AGW must get so damn sick of talking about it all the time.

“Are your parents tall too?” PP asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious, but now she’d started it.
“Nope.”
“Really?”
“Nope. But lemme tell you a story,” AGW's eyes twinkled at the memory and the audience. Delighted PP nodded. A story! And from the Amazon Goddess whom she’d been wanting to talk to for months now. Thanks to Flower Shower Cap Woman she was gonna get a story! Too cool.

“When I was a little girl, growing up, and I grew up in New York City, but when I was a girl I would always go outside in front of our house and sit under this giant tree and just sit there leaning against it…..” AGW relaxed against the locker room wall, suddenly transported back to her girlhood tree. “…..and my Daddy would always say, what are you doing? Leaning up against that Tree all the time? You gonna grow into a tree yourself. And you know what, that’s where I got all my height. From That Tree!”





She sighed, wistfully, stretching her long legs out to demonstrate for PP the Power of the Tree. Which of course delighted PP to no end. Tree Power.

For herself, PP had had her share of Tree Power. She and her sister, not the youngest one that had reached 5’6” , but the middle one, had made tree houses in the branches of the Forest in Hacienda Heights, then relegated their little sister to The Bush. Ironically, it was this sister that had gotten the Height of the three girls.

But PP’s real power had come, of course from the Pool. Every day, she’d seek refuge in its watery sanctuary. Swimming back and forth and back and forth. 100. 150. 200 laps a day. (It was a good sized pool for a 12 year old, maybe 25 feet in length, thus the amount of laps did sound awfully impressive, though probably the total yardage was the equivalent of a mile.)




Pool Power. It gave her the strength to cope with her suburban day. Here she could escape into a watery world that was all hers with no interruptions. No demands put on her by others. Just her own rhythm. Back and forth back and forth.

To this day, it is the Pool that gives her strength with its predictable rhythmic sameness.

Tree Power? Pool Power? Sister Power?

Didn’t all this power come from the same source?

Deep inside the roots of her consciousness, PP knew it was true.

The real Power was in her soul, corny as that sounds. Though looking back, she wished she’d spent just a bit more time leaning against one of those tall ‘forest’ trees in Hacienda Heights to gain just a little bit more Height Power for today.