Water Bubble

 

Rushing into the locker room at Kennedy High pool, I’m breathless and late. Thankfully, there is only one woman here today. Roxanne, in her wheelchair, trying to pull a large floral blouse over her head.

            “Hi, how ya doin’?” I ask.

            “Oh, I’m fine. Fine.”

            “How’s the water?”

            She grins, radiantly. “It’s wonderful. I come here and all of me just aches….”

I think how she must have some pretty severe pain to be wheelchair bound. Plus, she’s well over 300 lbs., I’m guessing. Carrying around all the weight must be painful.

            “I know what you mean,” I agree, though any of my aches must be nonexistent compared to hers. Yet who knows? Today, my knee hurts to walk. I’m looking forward to getting in the water to take the weight off it.

            “I get in the water though,” Roxanne continues, “and all those aches just go away. I was talkin’ to some other ladies here and they were saying the same thing.”

            “Yes,” I’m slamming the locker shut now after undressing and cramming my clothes into it. I glance up at the clock. 11:05. The pool closes in 55 minutes and I need to get out there if I’m going to get my swim in. Yet, there’s something about Roxanne today that slows me, pulls me toward her.

            “I need me a water bubble!” she announces, giggling. “I need to have that water around me everywhere I go. I need a water bubble for my life!”

            Delighted, I share her laughter. “A water bubble? Wow! What a great image! I wonder why I haven’t thought of that before.”

            She shrugs. “If I could just keep that water bubble around me all day then I wouldn’t be feeling no aches and pains, you know?”

            “Yes!” I agree. “The water takes them all away.”

            “Exactly!” she exclaims.

            I picture her motoring around the locker room in her wheelchair, the water bubble encasing her in round healing energy. How would this work, I wonder? Would we be able to breathe inside the water bubble or would we have to have a hole for our heads? Maybe we could wear a snorkel inside the water bubble and breathe out that way.

            And the bubble itself. How would it stay round and formed? How could we get it to not burst and flood wherever we are? That would be a mess if you walked into your house in your water bubble and then once you got inside, it burst, flooding the living room with huge gushing waves. Like pregnant women with their water breaking. Though a water bubble would be by its very nature bigger than a pregnant woman’s water.

            I so want a water bubble for my life! I would feel so much better all the time. Just floating inside the bubble would be so magical.

            But for now, I need to get into the pool before it closes. Roxanne has steered her wheelchair into the shower to collect her suit and shampoo. Our conversation done as we each go about our respective business.

            Yet, as I march out of the locker room down the long hallway to the Natatorium, I can help but feel my water bubble starting to form before I’m even on deck.
            My knee stops hurting. I’m feeling less rushed, stressed. The water bubble is working! 

            I wonder if Roxanne’s water bubble is working now too, taking away all of her pain.

            I think the water bubble must be working for her, too, as I float over to the pool, sit down on the deck and slip my fins onto my little watery feet.