The crowd was loud and chatty. iPhones played iTunes. The sun shined and glimmered off the water and onto the sides of the building in cosmic, rippling patterns.
The gate slowly opened. Very slowly. It creaked. A few pool-goers looked up.
From the entry shadows he moved, so all could see. The chatting simmered down to a murmur. That murmur became wispy pronunciations of “It’s him. Look.”
He proceeded straight to the edge of the water as the crowd began to raise it’s voices as one with a chant of “Otter! Otter! Otter!”
Raising a hand, he silence the masses. He pointed at the water.
And then he jumped in, like one of those banana-hammocked, cliff divers in Mexico or somewhere exotic, narrated by a long forgotten voice from Wide World of Sports.
Perhaps Chris Schenkel would have paused to heighten the drama before he resurfaced… perhaps. The pool crowd certainly did on this day.
All that was left to be heard was auto-tuned music discussing the fineness of someone’s girl…most likely her booty and what should be done about it.
Then, he broke the surface and flopped onto his backside, in a perfect float. His hands came up from his sides, meeting in the middle of his chest, where they began to manipulate the air.
The air was a merely a pseudo-mollusk, being shelled. He was Otter Boy.
The pool people arose in another, roaring cheer of “Otter! Otter! Otter!”
It was all very magical.
Very magical.
Pushing himself up from the pool side, water dripping from his swim trunks and animalistic body, he smiled at a group of young vixens who were just returning to their loungers.
“Hey Otter Boy.” one of them cooed.
He wryly looked at her and gave his trademark phrase of “How’s it crackin’, babe?”
She giggled and blew him a kiss.
That’s the way it always was…
…or that’s the way he always imagined it would be.
Today, he was indeed by the pool. It was cloudy and quiet. A mosquito went to bite his nipple. The saggy nipple frightened the mosquito and it went on it’s way, looking for healthier blood.
Otter Boy let out a low belch and took another long sip of his warm beer.
