JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

pictures and stories from the water’s edge

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Floating part 2

September 14th, 2003 · No Comments

Yesterday I took Abigail to the pool again for another practice session. The place was crowded: a swim meet earlier in the afternoon and a birthday party too. Ropes and people limited us to using the shallow end.

Abigail was wearing her new blue suit for the first time. I bought it for her on Thursday since she had outgrown her old one. I noticed how it is a cool deep blue, like the shade of a Carribbean sea.

I noticed how tan her arms were, dark from summer sun. Her hair was tied up in two pony tails, one with green elastic and the other fastened with blue. That’s what she likes now, two ponytails on the sides. Ted calls them “handles”.

I put her swim pack on her, a stack of foam boards with a belt to help her float, and we walked into the water. Her face has seemed older to me this fall, at age five, and she smiled up at me from the pool, looking fully at me with a big grin. Excited and happy to be with Mommy.

Abigail found a noodle, a long piece of foam, bright tropical yellow, like a big banana. She wrapped the noodle around her chest, hugging it tight to herself. Then she leaned on her back and floated. She floated all by herself, her body bobbing in the water, relaxed as the waves flowed over her.

In my mind I can still go back to that moment: the yellow noodle, the blue suit, Abigail, my girl, floating and smiling in the water.

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