Unfortunately, after a while Vivienne came along to watch us, and she began to taunt my friend. She mocked the way Alan swam, saying he could only do ‘doggie paddles’. She told Alan his trunks were ‘babyish’ because they had pictures on them. “Anyway,” she added, “they’re too small and I can most of your baby’s bottom.”
I could see Alan was getting upset by this teasing and his eyes were welling up. Vivienne noticed that too and came to the edge of pool, She leaned over and said: “Aw! Is baby going to cry?”
That was Alan’s breaking point. “Fucking shut up!” he yelled at the girl. In retrospect, of course, that was precisely what Vivienne wanted. She said nothing but turned around, went inside and emerged a few moments with her very angry looking mother.