[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Sunday turned out to be a textbook weather day of hazy, hot and humid. The swim team only had a short practice on Sunday, timed to not interfere with early church services. They started at 10 AM, advanced team only, with some of the swimmers excused to 10:30 due to church services that ended after 10. Sunday practice was light, fun and often they played games. It was as much a team building event as it was a practice. Today was inner-tube polo, which was really nothing like the real water polo game, but the swimmers all loved it. It was guys versus girls. Greg was on the advanced team, a collection of guys and girls who were the strongest swimmers in the program. All of them would swim in college if they wanted to, and they all wanted to. In the game, if you watched them playing, they looked nothing like the strong swimmers they were, arms and feet flailing as they tried to maneuver the tubes and catch and pass the ball. Mostly, the object became flipping each other over and then stealing their tubes. A few cheap grabs in the right places on either gender were thrown in for good measure. All in good fun. Even the coaches got in on the mix, the rare time Frank put on his own Speedo brand swim brief. By the time noon came, the temps were well into the low 90’s, a sweltering day.

Jimmy was soaked in sweat by the time he reached the pool. He had stripped off his white T-shirt somewhere along the way and tossed it behind a tree, he’d grab it on his way home. His shorts were soaked in sweat. He was practically dehydrated from the bike ride over. When he got to the gate, Molly was not there, and neither were her usual back ups, Ron or Melanie. They all had the day off.

“Hey kid, it’s $2 to get in,” the older guy yelled to Jimmy as he entered and walked past.

“Um, gosh, I don’t have any money,” Jimmy replied sheepishly.

“Sorry kid, no money, no swimming, them’s the rules,” replied the attendant. Jimmy never realized that he was being given a free ticket by Molly or the rest of the crew. He actually never gave any thought to there being a fee.

“You mean I can’t swim today,” Jimmy replied. “I haven’t missed in a month, I gotta swim.”

“Sorry kid, want to call someone or something?” He replied, trying to be nice.

“No, we don’t have much money. we can’t afford that.” Jimmy answered, rejected. It was tough being poor, and this hot Summer wasn’t helping, the crops drying up in the field. Dad had said they might lose the farm if the year didn’t turn around. Jimmy turned to walk away.

A young lady was right behind Jimmy. She overheard the whole conversation. She was a regular, but only on weekends. Jimmy had seen her before. She was maybe 25, and only swam when her husband could watch the two young kids. She smiled at Jimmy as he step aside. “Wait one second,” she said to Jimmy, seeing the tears welling in his eyes.

“How much for this young swimmer?” she asked.

“Two bucks,” the guy replied.

“I mean for the rest of the year,” she asked. “Indoor pool, too”

“Fifty bucks for the whole year,” he replied.

“Done,” she said, opening her checkbook. “Hey, go swimming,” she turned and said to Jimmy.

“Oh wow, thank you so much,” Jimmy replied. He started in, then stopped. He turned and ran back and wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you…”

Jimmy watched as the swimmers finished up their last game. It was about five minutes before noon, and the team cleared out right on time. The guys and girls mostly hopped up onto the side of the pool, Jimmy marveled at how incredibly muscular the guys were, with big broad shoulders, powerful pecs and deltoids, tight abs that showed how muscled the guys were, and powerful legs. They looked really strong in their racing style swimsuits, just like the Olympic swimmers on television. The swimsuits the guys were wearing looked pretty small, Jimmy thought, but he liked how they made the guys look like Olympians. He wondered what it would be like to wear a swimsuit like they had on with all the cute girls around. “The girls sure are cute,” Jimmy thought as he watched them walk by in their form fitting one piece suits. It seemed weird to Jimmy that the girls swimsuits covered so much and the guys covered so little. He smiled at the thought. Jimmy wanted to be one of the swimmer guys so badly.

Jimmy jumped in the pool and put on his goggles. He began swimming. He was now up to a solid half mile without stopping and his breathing and arm strokes looked so much better. He had practiced what Greg told him and he even checked out a book on swimming at the library. There was so much he wanted to learn, like flip turns, all the different strokes, and maybe how to jump off the starting blocks. He even started coming a few days a week at the night lap swim from 6-7PM to get more practice in. It showed in how much his technique had improved. The only downside was the toll the chlorine was taking on his swim shorts, the dark navy blue had faded to more of a medium blue and the elastic in the net liner was starting to wear out. One day he’s get one of those swimsuit’s the book recommended, the kind the swim team wore.

“Hey Jimmy,” a voice called as Jimmy finished up the first half mile of the day. Greg was standing at the top of his lane. “You look great, someone’s been working hard. Your breathing looks really good and you are pulling all the way through.

“Thanks, Greg,” Jimmy replied. “That looked like a fun game you guys were playing.”

“Yeah, on Sunday coach lets us have fun.” Greg smiled. Greg had brought over a bunch of stuff, a kick board, some pull buoys and some hand paddles. “Mind if I jump in?” Greg asked, not waiting for an answer. “Let’s try some new things today.”

“That would be great,” said Jimmy. “You really think I am doing good?”

“Yeah, actually you aren’t doing good, you are doing really great,” Greg responded, wrapping his arm around Jimmy’s shoulder. The contrast between the two was bigger than just age and swimming ability. Greg came from an affluent household on the Connecticut suburbs west of Hartford, where his family had big insurance ties. Money was never a worry for Greg, who really wanted for nothing. He had been swimming since he was a really little guy. Jimmy felt rich if he had three dollars in his pocket, most days he had nothing. Jimmy had never been to Connecticut, Greg was living with a host swimming family four hours from home. Jimmy had one swimsuit, the fading one he had on, Greg had a drawer jammed full of swim team suits and another drawer full of board shorts and such.

“So, what is all this stuff?” Jimmy asked.

“We’ll get to that, but first some more tips. I wasn’t to show you how to flip turn so you don’t have to hang on the wall,” Greg explained.

“Awesome,” Jimmy replied. “I watch you guys do them and I really like them,” Jimmy added.

“Well, they are cool, and they help you swim better.” Greg took jimmy out into the middle of the pool. “First, do a somersault in the water for me.” Jimmy did and came up coughing the water that shot up his nose.

“First lesson, as you do your flip, you need to breath out through your nose,” Greg explained. They stayed out there quite a while until Greg was sure Jimmy had the flip down.

“Okay, now we need to add the strokes and the wall,” Greg said leading Jimmy back toward the end of the lane. “Here, watch me,” Greg instructed. He pushed off, the loose string of his untied swimsuit hung down in the water, as he reached the wall both arms were at his side and Greg flipped in a perfect somersault, ending up head first off the wall. He pushed off and rotated, swimming back to Jimmy. Greg stood, and pulled his swimsuit back up onto his hips, it had not come off, but it slipped down off his hips. “Okay, always make sure your swimsuit is tied up,” Greg smirked as he tied his strings.