Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Thanks for driving us, Mom!”
Hailey smiled at her mother, who had just turned to look at her in the back seat as she reached for the door handle with her right hand. Her left hand rested on the mesh bag of swimming supplies in the center seat; a few towels, two pairs of goggles, and some diving sticks were visible, and a small pile of coins jingled at the bottom.
“No problem,” answered Sue, turning her gaze to Hailey’s left arm. “You should probably take off that watch before swimming, though; I don’t know if it’s waterproof.”
Hailey and Erin both looked at the watch that the younger had given to the older for her birthday. Hailey didn’t really want to take it off when she wasn’t home; after all, the last time she’d done that, she’d left it behind at the restaurant. But the gift meant too much to her to risk damaging it; she’d have to take it off. And she couldn’t just put it in their mesh bag; anybody could just walk off with it while they were swimming!
“Could you hold on to it while we swim, mom?” she asked, beginning to unfasten it from her wrist.
“Of course,” her mother replied, taking the watch and putting it in her own purse when Hailey offered it. “Anyway, I’ll be back at four to pick you two up, okay?”
The dashboard clock read 1:10 PM, giving the girls just under three hours at the pool. They both nodded their approval, and Erin offered her aunt another round of thanks for her driving services as the girls exited the car.
“You really do wear that watch all the time, don’t you?” asked Erin, a twinge of pride in her voice. She’d apparently done a good job by picking that as a birthday present.
Hailey saw that Erin was staring at her now-bare wrist; the tan line where the watch normally sat was very pronounced. “I pretty much only take it off when I sleep. I really like it; you picked a good gift.”
Of course, Hailey realized, she probably would have liked anything Erin gave her, but a watch was especially good; it performed a useful function, and she could have it with her at all times.
Hailey handed two laminated cards to the teen behind the front counter, and they proceeded through a hallway to the main pool deck. As she exited the hallway, Erin could see that the entrances to the locker rooms faced the pool on the same wall as the door she’d just walked through; the boys’ room was to her right, and her own room was to the left. A little beyond the door to the girls’ locker room, she could see what looked like the edge of a metal counter jutting out at about her belly height. A snack shop, perhaps?
The hot concrete she was now standing on stretched straight to the pool. The main section of the pool was rectangular, about three times as wide as it was long, and ran parallel to the entry and locker building she’d just stepped out of. On the right side of the rectangle, jutting away from the building, was a square section with diving boards; obviously, it was the deep end. Pointing towards the building on the left side of the pool was a much shallower section, full of children much younger than her. The entire setup reminded her of a very sharp letter S.
The other three sides of the pool were surrounded by grass and a chain link fence, with plenty of reclining pool chairs. There was significantly more grass between the fence and the edge of the concrete pool deck on the left side than any other side, and Erin was surprised to see a swing set and a simple jungle gym adorning the space, both closer to the fence than the pool. It was in this direction that they began to head, allowing Erin to confirm that the counter she’d seen did, in fact, belong to the pool’s snack shop. Hailey led her to a pair of empty deck chairs, walking as close to the edge of the pool as she could in order to keep her bare feet on the cooler, wet concrete surface. Each girl pulled a towel out of the swimming bag and blanketed her chair with it in order to stake her claim on the seat.
“So, are you ready to swim?” asked Hailey, donning her goggles.
The pool was more crowded than Erin would have preferred, full of children who, like them, were undoubtedly here to enjoy their last day of summer vacation. Still, the cold water looked very inviting as the sun beat down on her shoulders. She’d be okay.
“Sure,” she said, pulling her own recently-bought pair of goggles out of the bag. “Let’s go.”
Hailey grinned, and jumped into the middle section of the pool, just across from their chairs.
Erin was more subtle with her entry into the pool; she climbed in gracefully, nearly shivering as the water enveloped her body from the legs up, eventually stopping a little above her belly. The edge between dry and wet skin always felt the coldest to her, so to alleviate that, she elected to do as Hailey had done and immerse her whole body. She resurfaced quickly and shook her head to get the excess water off her face, then looked around for Hailey, who was now a few yards away from her.
The two girls spent the better part of twenty minutes chasing each other around in the middle section of the pool, playing with each other what seemed to be an improvised game of tag. After a little while, though, Erin began to slow down a little bit. Hailey noticed and swam back to her, and Erin leaned over to her ear to offer an explanation.
“I think I’d better visit the toilet,” Erin whispered.
“Would you like me to come with you?” asked Hailey.
“No, that’s okay,” admitted Erin. “I might be a while.”
“Oh, did you just now get the need to…”
“Yeah. I’d better take care of it now.”
“Well, hurry, then! Don’t let me hold you up!”
Truthfully, Erin decided, she could probably hold it a bit longer. But, as little as she liked having accidents in general, she really didn’t want to have an accident in these circumstances. A hundred people would be able to see an accident that her swimsuit would stand no chance of hiding the bulge from. She also knew this one would likely be particularly messy; although she’d quickly gotten over her sickness, there’d apparently been a lingering effect on her stool; she hadn’t had any more accidents, but it was still generally more difficult to wipe up after than she cared for. But even without those reasons, she simply couldn’t bear the thought of making her swimsuit messy again. She knew that it was irrational, since there was no way she’d receive that type of punishment from her Uncle Martin or Aunt Sue, but it still made her shudder just to even consider having an accident now.
The locker room was significantly darker than her eyes were used to; it took a moment before she could see. She didn’t care for the room at all; the cinder block walls, concrete floor, and exposed piping in the ceiling overhead all combined with the relatively poor lighting to create a dungeon-like effect.
Surprisingly, with as crowded as the pool was, the locker room was relatively empty. There was a woman with a small girl in one corner of the room, apparently a mother and daughter; the girl was still fully clothed and apparently watching her mother get changed while waiting to be helped into her own swimsuit. Another woman, a bit younger than the first, was changing a little ways away from them.
“Locker room” was a misnomer, Erin decided, as there was only one small bank of lockers in the room; all with identical padlocks hanging from them; she supposed that the lockers were either for the staff of the pool or some sort of swim team. The rest of the room simply had a bench running along the wall, with the exception of the back section, which housed the showers, sinks, and toilet stalls.
The toilets weren’t any dirtier than usual for a public restroom, but the dim lighting made them appear worse than they actually were, and for a brief moment, Erin considered waiting until she got home. She quickly returned to her senses, though; considering how successful she’d been in avoiding accidents this summer, there was no way she could justify waiting over two more hours to go. It had to be now.
The middle of the three toilets looked the cleanest, so it was into that stall that Erin went. She shut the door, pulled down her swimsuit, and sat on the seat, grimacing as the pool water that had been clinging to her skin lubricated the seat, making it feel like she could slide around at any minute if she wasn’t careful. It was the same feeling as when she tried to use the toilet immediately after taking a shower — no matter how carefully she dried her bottom off before sitting, there always seemed to be a little water left on it to make the seat slippery. She wasn’t looking forward to having to handle the toilet paper with clammy hands.
Her body relaxed, bringing forth both urine and a burst of loud flatulence that echoed mightily off of the smooth walls. Erin heard a giggle from the young girl, and blushed as she heard the girl’s mother shush her.
By the time Erin finished her bowel movement, the locker room had become significantly more crowded; she could hear many voices now, and several people successively had used the toilet on either side of her. She was mildly embarrassed that she was apparently unable to remain silent while performing her business, but there wasn’t a whole lot she could do about it; all she could do was hope the people in the locker room were polite enough to not stare at her when she finally left the stall. Sighing silently to herself, she began the arduous task of wiping up the sticky mess from her rear.
