I chose this story as a complement to Kieron Pim’s choice last week of ‘The Swimmer’ by John Cheever. Here, Gail takes her estranged son Anthony out on a custody visit to the swimming pool, under the scrutiny of their social worker. The water givest hem a place to learn about each other, find freedom and a hint of shared joy.
Unlike Neddy Merrell’s liberated trip across the cracked tiles of American suburbia in ‘The Swimmer’, Gail is obliged to be poolside due to the choice of a higher power in the Australian social care system. Her visit is about being observed and tied down by her past choices. Neddy’s inner Narcissist has fallen in love with his own reflection in the water and forgotten about his friends and distant family. Gail’s downfall has been narcotics, and the swimming pool exposes her vulnerabilities. We encounter the floating sticking plaster of reality underneath the surface of Neddy’s pool, yet it offers us a glimmer of sunlight through Anthony’s innocent truth and the promise of a future bond together.
Pools are fab locations as they contrast the calming internal act of swimming with a place which (unless you live in the Hamptons) is usually a disagreeable municipal leisure centre, making it a great leveller and source of endless fun with a foam noodle.
First published in Prospect, January 2005, and available to read online here. Collected in The Fahrenheit Twins, Canongate, 2005. Picked by Hannah Piekarz. Hannah is a writer and researcher, also an occasional pharmacist
A Personal Anthology 