Tuesday, August 4, 2015

I Want to Guard Your Life!

In general, I have a lot of respect for the kids they get to lifeguard at our pool. Many of them are visiting the US for the summer: hired by contractors, given a bed in a group home and a bike to travel to and from work, they work 5 or 6 ten-hour shifts a week, and then sightsee and practice their English on the off days.

Even so, it seems like kind of a thankless job, at our pool, anyway, involving long hours spent all alone, except when you have to enforce the pool rules on a bunch of entitled residents most of whom are considerably older than you. Even the best and brightest of them can end up surly and slumped in the corner by August.

That is not the case this year, however. Our job is split by two young women, Carmen and Anna, who were as friendly and engaged this week as they were in June. Neither of them hesitates to confront patrons about rule infractions, but both of them are as sweet and helpful as can be, especially when it comes to the kids we have brought to the pool. Carmen gave Richard some pointers when he was trying to spin a "straight up 375" off the board, and Anna was more than happy to let Annabelle have a second chance at the swim test so she could go into the deep end.

So when some thunder rumbled this afternoon when we were at the pool, I wasn't surprised to see Carmen jump right up. "If that was Thunder," she said, "and we hear it again? You have to get out."

"You're the boss!" I agreed. "And if that was thunder and we hear it again? I don't want to stay in!"

She nodded. And smiled.

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