Bliss, Remembered Read Online Free PDF Page A

me.
    So I just started swimming, Teddy. As fast as I could. Like I told you, I was in the last lane over, and when I breathed I was looking away from all the other swimmers, and so when I got to the end of the lap I had no idea where anybody was. I was amazed to see that I was way ahead. I didn’t really know how to turn around properly, so I lost some of my lead there, but then, that second lap, I just aired it out and won goin’ away. The four country-club girls all came in after me, second, third, fourth and fifth, and you could tell they were really PO’ed. The best one was named Edna, and she was downright furious.
    I hopped out of the pool and was standing there in my cream bathing suit with the faded roses when Edna and this man who I suppose was her father went over to the table and carried on some. After a while, the man behind the table called me over and said, “How old are you, young lady?”
    I said, “I’m sixteen.”
    And Edna, who was fuming, said, “Well, can you prove it?” I mean, the whole thing was ridiculous, Teddy. The senior division was fifteen through eighteen, and there was no way in the world I looked nineteen, but I said, “As a matter of fact, I can,” because I had passed my drivers test a few weeks before, and my mother had my wallet, so she showed them the license.
    The man behind the table examined it and said, “Earl, she’s fine. She’s only just sixteen.”
    But Edna and her father still weren’t mollified. He said, “It’s like a ringer, someone comin’ down here all the way from Chestertown.”
    But the man behind the table, who was sort of getting annoyed at all this nonsense even though he was obviously from Talbot County himself, said, “Earl, there aint no geographical limits here. We had that boy come up from Salisbury two years ago.”
    Earl just shook his head. “Well, it just doesn’t seem right,” he said. But there wasn’t anything he could do. I was perfectly legit, and so the starter called out, “The winner is Trixie Stringfellow, all the way from Chestertown.”
    That did not endear me to the crowd, Teddy. That is, the part about “all the way from Chestertown.” I would say I got only scattered applause when he gave me the blue ribbon. Extremely scattered.
    But you know, I didn’t give a hoot. I was so excited to win that blue ribbon. I’d never gotten anything like that before, and I was downright exhilarated. It was the first time I’d really felt good about things since Daddy got killed. Plus, I was pretty irritated, let me tell you, about Edna and her father trying to get me disqualified. So, by the time my next race came, which was the breaststroke, I had developed what you might call a killer instinct, as well.
    “And you whipped their asses again,” I said.
    Destroyed them, kiddo. Left them in my wake. Watch my smoke. I won from here to yesterday. I’d watched the senior boys race to see how you made a turn, so I was better at that. Poor old Edna didn’t know what hit her.
    Even better, when I climbed out of the pool, the senior boys were coming over for their race, and the cutest one, who I’d certainly taken note of—he made a point of going over to me and saying, “Nice race, Trixie.” And I could see that PO’ed Edna even more.
    And trust me, Teddy, I could tell he wasn’t just interested in my athletic prowess. I wasn’t bad to look at then, Teddy. You know, girls grow up fast, and I was full grown, and if I must say so myself, I had developed a very nice pair of bosoms inside that cream bathing suit with the faded red roses. Boys called them “bazooms” in those days.
    “They called your bosoms ‘bazooms’?”
    No, smarty pants, they called everybody’s bosoms “bazooms” then. Boobs didn’t come in until later. A boob then was just a dopey person. Whaddya call ’em now?
    “Whaddya call what?”
    Boobs.
    “We call ’em boobs.”
    Nothing new? You men usually have a new one.
    I gave it some thought.