Adonis Diaries

Swimming with Rachel

Note: Re-edit  of “Rachel of Bethesda: Introspection. Written in 2002 and posted in March 18, 2009“

Addendum # 10 of my autobiography 

Rachel’s Sixth Sense (Nov. 2002)

I used to swim at a Navy complex in Bethesda, Montgomery County, from 1993 to 1998.

I patronized this affordable facility at least three times a week, mostly around 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

She was a beauty by any standard. I think she was a cadet in the Navy, following swimming training and evaluation.

I wanted to get to know her, but could not talk to her during her busy swimming schedule.

I wrote her a song and kept a copy with me for the next time I see her.

Here is the song: 

Beautiful girls sense me.  They know for sure,

Exactly, what I’m up to.

They sense me in a split-second and get busy.

She swims with energy, non-stop.

She swims fine, back strokes, crawl, in laps.

I do all that too, leisurely.

She swims constantly and does not breathe.

  I have strong senses too:

She is not taking a break.  Not Today.

I decide for a note, dropped on her towel.

It should say: “I think you are beautiful”.

Everything I see in you is beautiful”.

I feel more at ease and then, hope takes the extra step.

She must take a short break, any second now.

My brain is boiling and I am editing.

My sentence should be reduced to the bare essentials.

“I think you are beautiful, everything I see in you is beautiful” is too long:

No time for her to hear me out.

Just “Beautiful!” will not do: I know that by now.

“You are beautiful!” is about right.

I am swimming leisurely.  There is no movement around me.

There is no towel.  She vanished.

Hang it all.  I’ll write about that swim.

The next time I saw her in the swimming pool I made sure that she saw me drop a piece of paper on her towel.  And I left.

A week later, I asked her: “What’s your name?”  She simply said: “It’s Rachel and I’m dating”.

That was all that was said between us.  Not even a thank you or an allusion to the note.

History repeats its cycle. All I can ever get is the first name.

Rachel’s girl friends in the swimming team started to notice me intently, every time I was there, swimming, and swimming.

A personal poem is a big deal, no matter how you denigrate it publicly.