Story A Day #27 The Swim

This story is inspired by this painting by Alex Coville.

 

Louise walked slowly up the ramp from the beach, feeling sad and alone. She had been excited to hear that the beach had reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic which had closed just about everything.    She had missed her daily swim in the ocean and had been looking forward to getting in the water again.   There were still a lot of restrictions and she was still not allowed to see her family and friends, but she hoped that time would come soon. 

Earlier, she had looked out the large front window of her beach house.   While she had a great view of the ocean she couldn’t see the beach itself because of the large rocks at the front of her property.   It was hard to tell if there were any people down there, but she hoped there weren’t.   And she hoped the ones that were there were being respectful of the pandemic protocols.    She put on her bathing suit, grabbed her face mask and towel and headed down the ramp.   When she had broken her hip last year her son had built the ramp for her to make it easier for her to get down to the beach.  She really appreciated that ramp.  

Thinking of her son made her heartache.   She had not seen him or Karen and the kids for three months.  Other than video chat at least.   While she appreciated the video calls, nothing replaced the real-life visits full of laughter and hugs from little arms.  She missed those two little girls with every fibre of her being.   The way they giggled, the way they wanted to show her every single thing they owned, the way they smelled in the summer when they came for a day at the beach.    Louise feared she would never see them again with this virus refusing to go away. 

When she got to the bottom of the ramp she stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the beach in horror.   It was jam-packed!   There were people covering every single inch of sand.   Louise had never seen it so busy.   People must have flocked here at the first sign of the beach reopening.  It seemed every person in her small town was there.   As she scanned the shore she noticed it was mostly young people and none of them was obeying the safe distance guidelines and none of them was wearing masks.  The air was filled with the cacophony of various boom boxes.  Louise was shocked.  What was wrong with these people?  Did they not realize the pandemic was still going on and the only reason they were allowed on the beach was if they followed the protocols?   Looking up and down the beach she didn’t see anyone who was enforcing the rules.  Then she spotted a couple of police officers on bicycles but they weren’t doing anything at all.

Louise’s heart sank and she walked along the sand looking for a place to put her towel so she could go for a swim.  Usually, it was very quiet down at her end of the beach and even on the busiest days she could enjoy a peaceful dip.   But today there wasn’t an inch of space to be found.  People were everywhere and so was the garbage.   Louise felt anger burning deep inside her as she looked at all the food containers and wrappers littering the beach and the water’s edge.   Were people really so selfish and irresponsible?  It seemed that way. 

She had only walked a few yards when she realized she was putting herself in danger by walking so close to people even with her mask on.   It had been her intention to walk over to the police officers and demand to know why they were doing nothing about this crowd.   But she had health conditions that would make it devastating if she caught COVID-19.   She couldn’t risk it.

So here she was walking up the ramp to her home.   Her heart was heavy despite the warm sun shining down on her and a fresh salty breeze in the air.   What was going to become of this world?   People were acting as though the virus was over which was so dangerous.    It wasn’t even close to being over, the numbers were not going down, people were still dying and now they were finding out more about the virus and how it presented in different ways in different people.   There was going to be a second more virulent wave if people didn’t follow the protocols set out on the advice of health officials.    There was so much disrespect for authority these days!

A few minutes later Louise sat on the deck with an ice-cold drink and looked out at the ocean.  She was grateful for the rock barrier that blocked her view.   She could pretend she was the only one in the world and it calmed her.  Sitting in the warm sun, enjoying her drink and the peace and quiet, she was startled when her phone announced a video call.

“Nana!  Look at us!”  her oldest granddaughter yelled.  “We’re swimming!”

 She laughed as she watched the two little girls splashing around in the pond their father had built.   How she wished she could be there with them. Watching the lights of her life, she prayed for their safety and for the day when they could be together again.