linxy - part XV
The predicted three days of rain start that night with a dreary, warm sprinkle like Nature letting loose and pissing on all of us. I shut the windows and turn on the central air for the first time this season. It smells musty when it kicks on. Thunderstorms are predicted for the morning, but I can't take the humidity of 'real air'.
"I can smell the rain," Olivia says. I give her one of Josie's sundresses. She dropped it off on her way to the spa.
"Yep, it's pouring outside. Will be for a few days. So rest easy puddin', you ain't missing anything." I throw the dress in her direction and she pulls it up to her nose.
"It smells beautiful."
Josie always smells beautiful, she doesn't smell like sour milk and peas like you'd think a new mother would. Olivia stands up and holds it against her skin. The dress is a bit too long, flowing white cotton with a bit of embroidery across the front in bright blue and green. It's sleeveless and laces up the back.
"Come on, I'll help you with it."
I hobble over to the bed and she looks at my hunched posture.
"What's wrong with you?"
"My back.
She furrows her brow. "What's wrong with it?"
"Herniated disks. A real bitch."
She pulls the nightgown over her head in a smooth motion and takes the sundress from me. My eyes are fixed to the hollow of her throat, her collarbone.
"What do you do for them? Therapy? Surgery?"
"I don't do a damn thing Florence. I get hooked on Celebrex and Vicodin, get advice from every loudmouth I meet and lift with my legs. My favorite theory thus far is that I'm suffering from pent up rage."
She doesn't laugh, just turns around for me to lace up the dress, and I hear her sigh. There's one freckle between her shoulder blades.
"You should swim. Swimming's the best thing for it. It works the abs and the back so you can strengthen it from both sides. The muscles are almost like an immobilizer, you know?"
"Oh yeah?" I turn her around and she crosses her arms across her chest.
"Yeah, try it sometime." She walks over to the armchair and flops down into it, pulling her chain out straight and tucking it under her feet. I sit on the edge of the bed and rest back on my palms.
"You're a swimmer?" She nods. "A real one? Like competition?" She nods again, picking at the hem of her dress.
"I broke the national record for women's 100 meter freestyle in college."
"Yeah? If you're such a great swimmer, why didn't I see you at the Olympics?" I say it as sort of a weak-ass joke, but she just keeps nodding and smiles a sad, fake smile...it doesn't radiate through her eyes.
"I don't know, I was sitting four rows up from the pool." The corner of her mouth turns up a little further with sarcasm, then she laughs weakly at her own joke. "I made it to the Olympic trials. I was actually favored, almost guaranteed to go, for individual events, relays...a couple of things. In my first heat I got too close to the wall, had to cramp my turn, and I tore an abdominal. I sunk like a fucking stone." She shifts in her chair, crosses her arms over her waist, and looks past me. "I had to leave immediately, have an operation."
"The scar," I say, realizing finally what it was, the pale white line beneath her rib cage. She looks back at me and puts a flat hand on her stomach.
"It's still that obvious?"
I shrug at her obvious despair. Henry will exploit it. I hope he never hears the story.
"Do you think you would have won?"
She nods instantly. "I know I would have." She looks different, her face is set different, eyes brighter, lips set rigid and pale.
"Would you win a race today?"
"Yes." She thinks about it further. "I could beat you."
"Well good Christ, I hope so. I"m a red meat eating smoker.
And now, in a moment I hadn't realized I'd been waiting for, Olivia laughs. Really laughs. Her eyes crinkle up in the corners and her mouth opens wide and she laughs deeply from her belly. After a few minutes she catches herself and stops, wiping her eyes.
"I swim every day, for an hour at least." The fact that she hasn't in almost a week makes her get up and go back to bed. "I can feel my muscles deteriorating," she says, and turns her back to me.
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