31st
Yesterday…
Riding my bike home from the coffee shop, I decided to see if I could find a different route, one that didn’t take me for two miles along one of the busier streets in the area. I ended up cycling through a neighborhood, past houses and churches, the typical stuff. Rounding a curve in the road, I saw ahead of me, a local swimming pool. The deck area behind the clubhouse was cluttered with stacked chairs, tables, things left outdoors during the closed months. As I rode closer and closer, I saw the pool itself, drained, empty, a lonely vessel deprived of purpose.
Then I noticed three old men sitting in chairs around the cement deck surrounding the pool. They were conversing, hanging out, as casual as though the pool were filled with cool, clear water, and hordes of rambunctious kids were running around like mad. It was like they were keeping the empty pool company until the day it once more had purpose.
