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
