The girl is all curled up in a lounge chair, the smell of chlorine filling her senses and the sounds of half a dozen children screaming and shouting above the splashing into the pool surrounds her.
She is quite oblivious to the rest of the world as she scans the electronic pages of her kindle. Oblivious yes, but with one rather large exception. Her siblings, the happy little shriveled up fish children have made a friend or two and she watches them as they race from one end of the pool to the other ...
I can't help but laugh as Josh waves at me, bracing himself on the tiled edge of the pool. He's squinting through foggy blue goggles, his hawaiian shorts dripping wet. "Hey Bwit, watch me okay?!"
I wave and smile, knowing he's done this three dozen times in the course of almost two hours. His tiny feet leave the floor and he lunges into the air, landing with a great big splash into the water. His new friend, Zane, claps. Its obvious they've made a game of it.
About the time my blonde haired fishy child climbs back out to do it again, big sister sees a middle aged woman heading for the towel bin. Sissy ignores towel-lady, she's of no consequence to fishy child's little antics.
But then, towel-lady walks over to the boy, and big sissy is instantly on her guard. She watches with eyes peeled, ready to pop out of her chair in a seconds notice. She doesn't play games.
She tells him not to splash. And asks where his folks are. Joshy looks uneasy around his dimpled smile, he points at me. And as towel-lady makes a bee line my way, I give her a leveled gaze. I dont like strangers talking to my fish children. After all, they are playing in the opposite side of the pool where no one else is sitting. They're not being extremely loud and I warned them to be respectful of people passing by ...
She looks at me, straight up serious like I should know better than to let them splash. "You do realize its wet over there. You're aware of that, aren't you?"
I offer half a smile over the book I had been reading five minutes ago. "Yes. We've been here for awhile."
She looks unamused, " ... and what are you going to do when they slip and fall? They're going to crack their heads open."
Honestly, fifteen different responses sprang to mind just then. I am quite an imperfect human, I'll admit. Instead, I returned her unamused glare. "Yes, I know. They're fine."
She looked disgusted, I might've laughed if she hadn't been so rude. Without further adoo, she shook her head and began to move past me muttering.
"Thank you." I said. "I'm responsible."
I didn't catch if she looked back or not, I was too busy shushing my sister whose mouth was agape in amused shock. Mckenna shook her head and finally covered her mouth. I swear, people in this world sometimes.
* The girl shakes her head *
But the kids all had a wonderful time at the pool, they're running around now like little tan-white prunes. Whether legit momma or just momma for the day, it is never wise to bother their children. They take their munchkins seriously. The End. * smiles *
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