swimmies

I want her to make me take a hot shower to warm up, like that’ll keep me from getting sick; I want a fluffy robe and bad TV with my mom, who will forgive me when she sees me happy and healthy and wearing that much-too-big robe with the sleeves rolled over four times, like white terry-cloth swimmies.

Among the few surviving photographs Watts has of this era, there’s one in which she and her parents are on a beach in St Tropez with Pink Floyd, all wild hair and skimpy swimmies.

Our final interval was “swimmies,” lying on our bellies and moving our arms in circles, focusing on engaging our shoulder blades.

By the swimmies, I decided deep breathing was the only path forward.

I began with inflatable swimmies on my arms, which Mrs. Hagen deflated a little at a time.