gosh golly

It has been so much fun to be back at the pool. Lots of people greet me with whoops of pleasure. All my homies had heard some version of what happened to me. Flattop had emailed me right after the conflict and I told him that the police had told me I was banned from the pool for life. The life banishment turned out to be cop bluster but my homies didn't know that. They organized a petition, to demand that I be allowed to return. Lots of them were willing to vouchsafe for me, even willing to say that if I had a problem with another swimmer, it was unlikely to be my fault. (and it wasn't my fault: that guy who slugged me was a newbie, nobody had ever seen him before).

Kay hugged me twice. Kay kept saying, in her cute, choppy accent, "You no kill somebody, why they no let you swim. Come on. You no kill anybody!" And, over and over she said, "So good to have you back. You swim with me."

Rebecca said "Ms. Pearls is back. I've missed you." Rebecca always notices my pearls. She says she imagines me swimming in them every time she sees me.

Lots of folks who knew nothing about my fracas had just plain old missed me. "Haven't see you in awhile! Nice to see you again!"

Those cops had made me feel like a slug, a worm, a crud. It felt so nice to be warmly greeted back.

Margaret, the head lifeguard, said "Welcome!" when she punched my ticket. Henry, the head recreation guy at the park system, the guy who had to let me back in, told me that as far as he and his entire staff is concerned, nothing ever happened. The slate is clean. Then he said he'd let Margaret know I was coming back so there wouldn't be a problem being admitted and I said "I don't embarass easy, Henry. If I did, I wouldn't be back at all."

Color me happy. It was hard to be banned from the pool but, gosh, I wouldn't feel as loved and popular as I do if it hadn't happened.