Writing from the Body week 4 Homework


Writing from the Body 


INVISIBLE WOMEN


She loved swimming up and down the pool, the ritual of the programme, 6 lengths of breaststroke, 6 of crawl, the rhythm of it was comforting and satisfying. She felt virtuous, the throbbing of her heart and lungs after a length in one breath satisfyingly complete. It was a solo activity, really, but occasionally a friend joined her for it, but both did the same tasks, firing each other up to greater speeds. She began to understand the concept of the pace-maker. They worked well together, each with strengths in different strokes.

It was lunchtime so often the pool was virtually empty. Maybe a couple of business man chatting in the Jacuzzi, or a guy who’d told her friend he was learning to swim via the internet, and ploughed up and down the lanes with an odd stroke.  Not a social time; people who were in this pool were here to swim.

This day, the pool was empty when they arrived and they experienced the  gorgeous feeling of breaking the surface tension of the water as they slipt in and began. They’d done about 8 lengths, when a large man ambled down the side of the pool and into the water at the far end and then placed himself exactly opposite where they were. They looked at each other and sighed; people, especially the men in this club, were so selfish. The whole pool to stand around in and he picked the point they were aiming it. Her friend said, let’s just carry on, he’ll move as we get near. He didn’t. She nearly hit him as she turned at the end of the length. So annoying and distracting from her beautiful swim. As they turned again her friend said, he’ll realise this time and move, he has the whole pool to stand in. Through her goggles she watched as she approached him, and he widened his stance so that his body covered a huge area of the end of the pool. She was forced to brush against him as she turned. On the way back up she ruminated on his motives. Standing n front of one of the vents into the pool did give you a nice massage, but there were plenty of other vents to stand in front of. She and her friend were pushing 60, this can’t be a sexual thing, he’s in his 40s and really not hot at all. Is this just men, any man, taking up space in the way they spread their legs open on the train or plane, and leave you pushed up against the window? And usually she knew they were invisible to the younger men in the pool. ‘What woman?’ they would say later if questioned about who was swimming when they were.


It felt like a lifetime she had been feeling like this. As they came down the fourth time, the two women looked at each other and then launched at him, using their superior skills in the water to grab his legs from underneath and force his head under. They watched patiently as the bubble stream from his mouth became slower and the struggling ceased. His body floated in the shallow end, like he was having a relaxing time. They got out the pool, slowly showered, dressed, and left. No-one would remember they had been there.

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