2003-02-27 9:50 pm

Waterboys

Showering after swimming I am suddenly surrounded by shouting schoolboys. They are tiny - they barely come up to my waist. Their arms and legs are like sticks.

They dash in and out of the showers, screaming at each other, and shivering delightedly in the cold.

Their arms and legs are very amusing. They seem to be able to point in all directions, like the hands of a clock.

I like watching them when they swim, and I give ghostly underwater smiles when I see them treading water. Their arms and legs make the same ungainly movement - a sort of spindly writhing. When they leave the pool is silent, and I glide up and down until I am exhausted. Then I leave.

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