32 Maple Street

                       how sweet

Prairie

Cherry

Chester

Buena Vista

              he didnt know thendoesnt know now Spanish  Mexican as his father would say  he didnt know it meant Good View

Ohoh  ohmy yes

                 he walked down a paved alleyway behind behind his house the alley was dumped coal ash walked behind a long modern sepiacoloured brick apartment complex  three storeys  on his way to the Y for Friday Swim Night

Free swim

indoors

          swimming inside was so cool

he usually swam in the Lake rivers ponds outdoor public pools  also hopped fences skinnydipped in private pools until homeowners rousted him

                            certainly surprised them

if he were ever caught he would have fingered Cheevers short story The Swimmer fingered the film by the same title starring Burt Lancaster

he was impressionable

literature

film

how sweet

coming home after swimming walking the same alleyway   dark  winter  cross street Buena Vista  behind one of the modern apartments he heard a rap on glass to his left

none of the apartments were lighted

                                               then another 

he backpedaled to the far side of the alley

                                                                               rap

raprap  he couldnt place it

                                was Gawdawful curious

   then

            a weak flashlight lit an apartment ceiling on the second floor

it traced around  brushed the overhead lighting fixture its crystal baubles threw sudden rainbows on the textured ceiling

slowly traced back from the picture window to the far wall

                                                                        went out 

                                             then

not three feet from the window

the flashlight appeared  stared out

                                      did a oneeighty  rapidlywashed across a naked woman

and again

                          again                                                                                                                    again 

and

again

went on  always rapidbrushes  but he did puzzles  he reconstituted her nice body across his mind  high thighs crotch belly breasts underlit chin

                             though never

never her face

twenties

                 then OFF

he stood in the cold in the alley another halfhour at least before he could bring himself to accept the show was over

how sweet

that winter

             leaving the Ys Friday Free Swim he suffered her repeat performances

 

she did not reveal her face

1725,  Thursday,  5  9. 24

1031,  day-between-2-Ts,  11  9. 24 USA twisted now for 23 years

Y – Young Men’s Christian Association

Cheever  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/07/18/the-swimmer

The Swimmer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EgXRCGSabY