The Commercial Hotel by John Summers

Author:John Summers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Victoria University Press
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Boatermaster

My mother worried about me drowning, and so arranged for me to spend time with a man named Boatermaster. Surely I’m spelling that wrong, but that’s how we pronounced it. He was Dutch I believe, and taught children to swim in an indoor pool built for that purpose in his backyard, a steamy, chloriney lodge. There, persistence was his method. He dunked me like a witch, holding my head below, his palm sticking painfully to my wet hair. Submerged so, I twisted beneath his hand, holding my eyes open against the chlorine for a glimpse of his waterproof watch in action. Still he failed: I never became a strong swimmer, and I never learned to fear the water.

I have returned to pools, to beaches, to weightlessness and floating and bareness. The surf is like champagne, an old lady told me once in Australia, and it was true; at least, it was there. Here, ours is a scouring surf, a brine wash. A real baptism.

I live far from it now, landlocked but still surrounded by water. The lake is ruined – cow shit and damming have taken their toll – and so are most of the rivers.

There is one we have yet to kill. It flows clean from a national park, the water numbing cold.

I stay in as long as I can, and in winter I go to a public pool. I run a bath. Alisa and I make plans for our child to be born underwater.

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