pool // hemmings

two

The first day of summer holidays started off bright and early for Amelia. She had a session of therapy early in the morning for an hour, and then she was supposed to be meeting Ashley for breakfast.

She rolled out of bed in a rather graceless manner, and went about her morning routine. She styled her hair, which was still damp from having washed it the night before, and applied a light layer of makeup. Donning a sweet, twirly dress and some flats, she grabbed her belongings and left the house.

Dr. Anne Delvy had been working with Amelia for the last five years, hoping to help rid the girl of her fear. Every Saturday they met at 8:00 sharp. Dr. Delvy would play the same old soundtrack of ocean sounds, and talk to Amelia about the water, hoping to reach a deeper part of her subconscious in order to relieve her fear. The sessions hadn't seemed to help Amelia, however she continued, not only to give her parents some peace of mind, but also herself.

She pushed open the large wooden door of Delvy's office, smiling at the receptionist and then the woman herself, who was discussing some final details with a departing patient. They soon left, and Anne's full attention was directed towards Amelia.

"Good morning, Amelia", the young doctor smiled, striding towards her office in a very graceful manner with the teenager in tow, "how are you today?"

"I'm well, thank you", the girl replied quietly, taking her usual spot on the plush couch and waiting for Dr. Delvy to start up the same old track of ocean sounds on the CD player. The woman then sat down in a comfortable arm chair across from Amelia, offering her the comforting smile she always seemed to have plastered on her face.

Dr. Delvy was quite young, and had been working as a therapist for almost four years. She was heading towards her thirties now, yet her skin showed no signs of ageing. Aside from the occasional grey hair that sprung from her scalp, Delvy still looked like she was fresh out of university. Dr. Delvy always looked nice, with sleek chocolate hair that bounced at her shoulders and professional attire. Amelia wasn't sure if the woman had ever even worn a pair of track pants in her lifetime.

Sessions always started off the same –a quick, brief discussion about each other's week (more so Amelia's, with the occasional input from Delvy), and a cup of tea and biscuits. Today they skipped the tea, just as they did for most of their Summer sessions. Amelia grabbed a cookie and settled back into her seat while Delvy filled in a few things in her notebook.

"So how was your week, Amelia?", the doctor asked, "have you made any further progress?"

Amelia took a second to think before replying, "my week was okay, we h-had a school trip to the water p-park."

"And?", Delvy pressed, sounding hopeful.

"The furthest I got to the water was d-dipping my feet into the p-pool", she said. She expected Delvy to sound somewhat disappointed, considering it wasn't much at all, however the woman joyfully beamed at her.

"Amelia that's wonderful", she praised, "that is quite some progress considering how severe your fear is."

She scribbled some frantic notes down onto her paper, looking back up at Amelia expectantly.

"I guess. But it r-really wasn't much", she shrugged, grabbing herself another cookie, "my b-brother was pretty annoyed about it."

"That's because he's protective of you. And you need to consider this -how many other times have you even gone near a pool, let alone gone in it?", Delvy reasoned.

Amelia did as Delvy asked, and thought about her encounters with water. Her list of experiences ended at merely drinking a glass of water and showering. The last time she'd stepped foot in the pool area of her house was a little while after the accident, when she was trying to learn to swim again. Since then, she hadn't even been able to go beyond the gate that separated the pool from the rest of the backyard. So dipping her feet in the pool at the waterpark was, indeed, a pretty big deal.