The Girl in the Pool

Ripples spread across the surface of the pool, fracturing the reflection that he was trying to photograph, and Joe shook his head in annoyance. There was no wind, so he guessed that the disturbance was caused some small aquatic animal, a beaver or an otter or even a large rat. The ripples had spoiled his plan to take photographs of the sunset reflected in the pool, but maybe he could get a wildlife shot.

The pool was isolated, hidden in a small corner of a wild area. There was a small jetty which had seen better days, but still seemed to be serviceable. Dark willows shadowed one side of the pool, and on the other side, there was a marshy area, dense with various types of reeds. Earlier Joe had noticed bulrushes among them, and had wondered about taking some photos of them.

He trained his camera on the patch of reeds which hid whatever it was that was causing the ripples, and stepped back, holding the remote control for the shutter in his hand. He suddenly remembered that the camera was setup to take photos of the sunset, so it would produce a very dark image. What a stupid novice mistake to make!

Joe was about to move back to the camera to adjust the settings when the source of the disturbance appeared from behind the patch of reeds. It wasn’t an otter or other small creature. It was a girl.

She was cruising through the water with only her head showing, and her swimming strokes did not break the surface. Joe pressed the shutter button and the camera clicked. At the sound, the girl’s eyes went wide, she spun in water, revealing a pale shoulder, and disappeared behind the weeds again. The ripples died away.

Joe looked after her for a while, bemused by the whole incident, then he started to pack up his camera kit. He removed the camera from the tripod and stowed the tripod in his bag, then he looked at the last photo that he had taken. On the small screen of the camera, it was impossible to tell that the dark object in the water was a girl, and he didn’t think that he could enhance it much on his computer, back home. He sighed.

“Hello?” It was the girl, wrapped in a very large blue and white towel. “Excuse me, did you take a photo of me? If so, can you please delete it? I didn’t give you my permission!”

“Yes, sure. It wasn’t any good anyway. See?” He held out his camera.

Her hair was long and slicked back behind her ears. Because it was wet, it was hard to tell the colour, but it was light. Her eyes were blue, very pale blue, and her mouth was, at the moment, a thin line. She looked at the image on his camera.

“Please delete it anyway,” she requested, and sighed in relief when he pressed the button.

“Thank you,” she said, smiling, and her smile lit up her face. “You weren’t waiting to take a photo of me, were you? So what were you photographing?”

“Oh, I didn’t know that there was anyone else here. I came out here to take some photographs of the sunset over the pool. I wanted the water to be still so that I could get a good reflection, but you caused some ripples. I turned the camera towards them because I though that the ripples were caused by an otter or something. When you came into view, I just reflexively pressed the button.”

“Oh, no! I ruined your photograph of the sunset?”

“That doesn’t matter. I’m not sure that the light was right anyway. Do you want to see the photographs that I did take?”

“Yes, please. Let’s sit on the jetty.”

They dangled their feet over the dark water which lapped quietly at the wooden piles. Her legs and arms were long and pale, and her shoulders were still dotted with droplets of water. He suspected that she was wearing nothing beneath the towel. Skinny dipping. Why else would she swim alone at this time of day?

“Isn’t it cold? The water?” Joe asked.

She laughed. “No, not really. I’m used to it.”

“Oh, you swim here a lot?”

“All the time.”

As she turned towards him, the last of the sunlight turned her skin a soft pink, the colour of the sunset. She smiled at him. It was getting darker and soon the sun would be gone and when the moon set in an hour or two, it would be a clear dark night. The stars would dust the heavens from horizon to horizon.

“Let’s see your pictures, then,” she said.

He showed her the pictures on the screen on the back of his camera, and she lent on his arm to see them properly. She smelled fresh and felt cool, reminding him of the pool that surrounded them. Joe looked at the willows trailing in the water on one side and the reeds in the marshy area on the other. Apart from the lapping of the water, it was silent, and there was only a faint hum from the distant motorway.

She admired his pictures of the pool and its surroundings, but lost interest when he came to his photos of further afield.

“Can I please take one of you?” he asked.

“Please, no,” she answered, obviously distressed. “I have a fear, a phobia, really, about being photographed. Please don’t!”

“That’s OK. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She smiled, and placed a cool kiss on his lips.

“Thank you, I’m going to finish my swim.”

She stood up and dropped her towel and he gasped. His suspicion was confirmed. No swimming costume, her pale figure gleamed in the moonlight. Dark shadows and light highlights. She was beauty in chiaroscuro, thought Joe. Stunning. The girl moved like an athlete, all power and grace. She ran to the end of the jetty, limbs flowing freely, and dived in with barely a splash. Joe walked to the end of the jetty and watched her swim away, low in the water, only her head visible.

At first Joe thought that she was going to swim back into the reeds or the willows, to disappear as suddenly she had first appeared, but she stopped and swam back to him.

Joe knelt down.

“Isn’t it dangerous, swimming in the dark? With all the reeds and trees.”

She trod water and laughed. “No, I know what I’m doing,” she said. “Why don’t you join me?”

“What, in the pool?”

It was a silly response, but suddenly he wanted very much to join her. He put his camera down and stripped off all his clothes. His dive was nowhere as elegant as hers, and the shock of the cold water made him gasp.

“It’s cold!” he protested.

“You’ll soon get used to it,” she laughed, and he did.

He swam out towards her, and she swam beside him towards the middle of the pool. She trod water and so he did too. He could see her long pale body shimmering in the water.

“This is the deepest part of the pool, right here,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

He put his hands on her waist and pulled her towards him. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him, pressing herself against him, her legs wrapped around him. He didn’t realise that they were sinking. He didn’t notice the roots wrapping around his legs, and didn’t even notice when he ran out of air.

***

A day later, the police pulled his body from the pool. The police chief sighed.

“I don’t know why they do it,” he said. “It’s so dangerous.”

He stayed there on the jetty after the body had been taken away. A deep calm had settled on the pool, but the surface was disturbed by ripples spreading from behind the reeds. The police chief didn’t notice. He sighed again and walked back to his car.

***