Pool Decks

(Sorry this isn’t a continuation of my previous post, I know many wanted to hear about how I thought adults could mind read. Maybe another time.)

They instill a deep, irrational fear in me, that whenever I step foot on one, I will fall and crack my head open…and die. Even if it’s not slippery, even if I’m not barefoot or in flip flops, I fear that I will fall and be embraced by both the cold deck and death.

This fear started when I was a kid, and for a good reason.

I was at my friend’s birthday party. We were in the new, state-of-the-art CRCE pool. It had a tall, glorious water slide. It had a volcano that bubbled up water like lava. It had a volleyball net and a basketball hoop. It was every kid’s dream for an aquatic center. It was definitely my dream aquatic center.

It was also every kid’s dream to go down that beautiful waterslide. But it was closed when the party started, so we had to patiently wait for what seemed like hours. Its two twists taunted me with the fun I knew I was going to have. It felt forever until we were allowed on. But my mom says it was only fifteen minutes. But as soon as it opened, all the kids at the birthday party ran over and got in line.

When I say all of the kids ran, I really mean just me. I full out sprinted to that slide. It was only a distance of about ten meters from where I got out of the pool to the slide entrance. And within the first three meters I stepped in a small puddle. And slipped. And fell. Backwards. Head first into the ground. If I was testing gravity, I could conclude it worked.

The fall happened in slow motion. I felt my foot not stick its landing, I saw the ceiling instead of the slide in front of me, and I felt the floor collide with my head, full impact. My mom says I got knocked out. I just remember the headache, and the anger I felt towards the floor. I wanted to kick it for being slippery and letting me fall. How dare it?

The lifeguards gave me an icepack and didn’t let me swim for a while. But when I got the all clear, I calmly strolled, not ran, towards the slide…and proceeded to fall again. In the exact same spot. Surprise. But instead of falling backwards, I managed to fall on my side and bruise my knee.

This pool deck did not like me. And I did not like it. I was no longer just angry at the floor, I was enraged, furious, so deeply annoyed at it that I wanted it to feel my pain. So what did I do? I kicked it. Because that makes sense. That stupid slippery pool deck ruined that nice new pool for me. And it made me fear pool decks. How dare it?

Comments

  1. LawrenceOctober 11, 2017 at 7:00 PM

    Haha I love this post. Your voice stays very true to yourself throughout the post, and I enjoyed the snarky comments. I blacked out once too, but it was after I got hit in the head with a soccer ball, not at the pool. I had a similar experience where I didn't remember much, just the headache. After reading this post I will be sure to obey the lifeguards and walk, not run, next to the pool. You never know what can happen.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MayaOctober 13, 2017 at 5:49 PM

    That's really scary and you kind of made me afraid of pool decks. From now on I'm definitely going to take seriously the rules to walk and never run on the pool decks. At least hopefully you learned your lesson so you won't get hurt again. This was a good blog post and engaging to read.

    ReplyDelete

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