“I know. The nearest house is actually a few hundred yards in any direction. I built the house in the middle of the property so I could have the peace and quiet I couldn’t have in the old place. Now that I have it, I feel more isolated in more ways than one. But it is home and I do love to keep up with the yard work. I inherited a lot you know. I’m the only living kin she had and I wanted to do something nice without going overboard for myself.”
I looked down at the ground and a few memories of Grandma’s old place flashed through my mind. “Yeah. I never knew how well off she was until you and I talked about it. And instead of going crazy with the money, you built your dream home where you wanted and can live peacefully without guilt. Anyone who can be that responsible with that much inheritance deserves a little something for themselves. Another reason to celebrate!” I said hoisting the bottles in the air.
She smiled, giggled and clapped her hands bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet like an excited little girl. “Let’s start now!” she exclaimed. She bent down, pulled off her high heels and with them in hand, ran through the grass toward the pool. I ran after her. It was wonderful to see her so happy and bubbly again.
We climbed the stone stair steps cut into the side of the slope leading up to the pool from the back yard. The pool was a pretty good sized one and on the same level as the first floor of the house. The back of the house was built into a slope so the lowest level was a semi-basement. This was the game/media/great room with two bedrooms and a full common bath. It’s intention was clearly for guests and recreation.
The slope lead down into a level area with the large trees, bushes and such hence the stone stairway. Upon reaching the pool area, the motion sensor lights came on and flooded the area with a harsh bluish white light. Jean went to a panel next to the large sliding glass doors and turned them off. The effect was the total loss of night vision and spots remained for a couple of minutes while my eyes adjusted again to the dark. The low accent lighting turned on around the pool as did the underwater lights. I saw her running toward the pool and with a leap as graceful as a deer, dove into the pool. In that instant, I realized she wasn’t wearing her dress. The low lighting kept her pretty well hidden as did my still recovering night vision. The splash sound she made was small as she swam daily and enjoyed diving that started in high school. She won a few championships both at the county and state levels but declined invitations to try out for Olympic competition. Then it occurred to me that she wasn’t wearing her dress again. I stopped and looked. She was swimming back toward me and in the soft glow of the pool lights, I couldn’t see that she was wearing anything. My heart started pounding in my chest and my breathing was changing as my own passion rose. She got to the edge of the pool and rose up to lay her arms over the edge to prop her up while keeping everything in the water.