“All Fun, No Joy” by Eric Rampson (fiction, ’16)

An excerpt from “All Fun, No Joy” by Eric Rampson (fiction, ’16) published at Leaf Land:

 

All Fun, No Joy

Dave looked forward to seeing Kendra in her bathing suit. She was the only WaterWigglers mom that wore a two-piece. Kendra was in shape but not a supermodel or anything. Her butt was substantial, the backs of her thighs a bit dimpled, her belly slightly rounded between the top and bottom of her suit. Dave thought she looked damn sexy, though, with her dark hair in a bun—probably, he figured, to keep it dry—and her glasses on even in the water. There was something of the naughty schoolmarm about her: the severity of those cat’s eyes frames and the tightness of the bun contrasted with her ample cleavage and the way the seat of her suit rode up just a little when she got out of the pool. Dave had become adept at exiting the pool just far enough behind her to watch unnoticed. She’d hook a thumb under one edge of her bottom and pull it lower, shift her daughter to her other arm and do the same on the other side. Sometimes, depending on the angle, Dave would get a quick glimpse further up her suit as she pulled on it.

Kendra’s daughter was Penelope. Dave knew this because the other mothers said, “Hello, Penelope,” while waving the chubby arms of their own children. He knew the names of all the babies in WaterWigglers—Penelope, Smythe, Jaiden, Janessa, Tom, Dinah, Mary, Paulo, Ricky. Dave said hello to each of them, too, waving his son Declan’s chubby arm. He made a point of learning the babies’ names day one of a new session since there was so much turn over, a mostly new crop every nine weeks. This session the only holdovers were himself, Kendra, and a strange Ukrainian woman who always wore curlers in her hair during class. He knew all the kids’ names but not a single one of the mothers’. Even Kendra’s. Kendra was just what he called her. He had settled on it because he had never heard the name in real life. It gave her the aspect of a dream, made her strange. Dave liked that.

Dave was the only father in the WaterWigglers class. The only man in a pool full of women. Well, aside from Jamieson, the instructor. Jamieson had obviously been a competitive swimmer, maybe still was. When he lifted his arms, his lats looked like tiny, washboard wings. Dave knew he, too, had lats. He must have. Even so, when he lifted his arms in front of the huge mirror in his master bathroom, all he saw was flesh puddling above his waist.

[…continue reading here]