Still Waters

'I hadn't,' she said, focusing doggedly on the off-center dimple in his chin. 'I wouldn't even know whom to ask. Look-' She stood up abruptly, gathering the blanket around her. 'I've taken up enough of your time. You have a class to teach, and I've already upset the children, and anyway, it's not that important. I can learn to swim any time. Maybe next time they decide to offer an adult-beginners' class…'

She was moving past him, making for the women's shower room, trailing the blanket behind her like a queen's robes. Zack planted one foot firmly on the end of the blanket and said, 'Whoa.'

It was either stop or make her exit in nothing but her bathing suit. Maddy stopped.

'It's important,' he said. 'It was important enough that you signed up for lessons and showed up for the class. You said that took courage, and I believe you. It was important enough that you stuck it out when you found yourself in a class full of babies, and important enough that you put your face in the water even though you were scared to death to do it. So what's changed? Not a damn thing. You know what I think? I think you need to learn to swim.' He tapped his head. 'Psychologically. Not just because it might save your own life or somebody else's someday. Right?'

She stared resentfully at him and didn't answer. Who did he think he was, anyway, a psychologist or something? And why was he so determined to make a crusade out of her inability to swim? Why should he care? She would have thought that after the mess she'd made of his swimming class he'd be more than glad to be rid of her. And she couldn't understand the way he was looking at her, with his brows drawn together and his eyes that smoke color she found so unsettling.

'Well, look,' he said abruptly, as if he'd just come to the same conclusion she had about wanting her out of his hair. He turned to scribble on a message pad. 'Here's a couple of phone numbers. These are lifeguards here at the pool who give private lessons during the summer. Right now they're still in school, but as soon as school's out they'll be available during off hours. Why don't you give one of these guys a call? They'll be glad to take you on, and I think they'd be pretty reasonable, too.' He strolled toward her and tucked the paper inside the overlapping edge of the blanket. 'And,' he added, his voice unexpectedly gentle. 'Promise me you'll do it, okay? It really is important.' He smiled at her, the same warm, reassuring smile he'd used to break the ice with Theresa.

Theresa, Maddy thought. She'd almost forgotten. There was something she needed to tell him about Theresa.

With a sizable effort she pulled herself together, took a deep breath, and said, 'Okay, I'll look into it. I promise. Zack… um…' She cleared her throat and focused on him, steeling herself against the distraction of his charisma. If anything was important, this was. 'I think there's something you should be aware of. It's about that little girl-the one you thought-'

'Theresa.' He was suddenly alert. 'Yes, what about her?'

She hesitated. It wasn't as difficult to talk to him now that she was on familiar footing-her home territory, so to speak-but this kind of thing was never easy. 'I'd like to ask you a question,' she said carefully.

'Shoot.'

'Why did you let Theresa wear her T-shirt in the pool? The pool rules state specifically, 'No T-shirts or cut-offs.' '

Zack's eyes narrowed slightly. 'I noticed the way she was hanging on to it, and it didn't seem like a good time to make an issue of it. Why?'

'Because I think there's at least a possibility she may have had a good reason for wanting to keep it on.'

'I see.' He straightened, looking thoughtful. 'Marks, you mean. Something she's embarrassed about.'

'More likely afraid,' Maddy said, lowering her voice. 'I may be wrong. I hope so. But… there are signs. Certain things you learn to look for.'

He was silent for a moment, looking gravely at her. 'You sound like you know what you're talking about,' he said finally. 'Are you a psychologist, or a cop?'

'No, but I often work with both. I work for a county social-services agency called the Family Crisis Center.' She took a deep breath. 'I work with abused children.'

'Oh, boy.' Zack exhaled slowly and rubbed a hand over his face. 'Okay. So what do you want me to do?'

It warmed her, that unquestioning acceptance. Nearly everything about him either warmed her or unnerved her. 'Just keep an eye on her. And if you do notice anything… suggestive, please give me a call, okay?'

Except for his nod he was very still. 'All right. I'll do that.'

She murmured, 'Thanks,' and after a moment's hesitation, turned to continue on her way to the showers. Halfway there she looked back. He hadn't moved a muscle, but was still watching her with eyes that were dark and unreadable, like smoke.

Maddy was still thinking about those odd, enigmatic eyes as she drove down the dark, leafy tunnel of avocado trees to her house. Her house was what the rental agent had called 'a rare find.' It was in the part of town known as the Heights, a hilly area that had retained most of its rural character in spite of the fact that its avocado orchards and citrus groves had been converted to well-designed and marginally expensive housing tracts. Still, a few small groves remained, and some of the homes were the original ranch houses or converted outbuildings, where people kept goats and chickens and indulged eccentricities that wouldn't have been tolerated in the city's limits.

Maddy's house had been a storage barn for farm machinery, which someone had turned into a guesthouse, or maybe a studio. It had no windows, except for one over the sink in the tiny afterthought of a kitchen. Sunshine poured like gold dust through five skylights that could be raised and lowered with ropes, letting in fresh air. At night Maddy could lie in bed and look up at the stars.

As she let herself in the front door, a huge blue Persian cat seemed to grow out of a shelf above the sofa, extending first horizontally, then vertically, and then in several directions at once. His stretch completed, the cat dropped disdainfully to the back of the sofa, then to the seat cushions, and finally to the floor. Carrying his tail aloft like a potentate's plumes, he paced regally toward the kitchen.

Maddy, watching him go, muttered fondly, 'Incorrigible cat,' and shook her head as she dropped her keys beside her answering machine. She flipped the switch to rewind the message tape and, settling herself on the arm of a chair, slipped her hand into the body of a fat pink dragon.

'Hi, Bosley,' she murmured as the dragon's triangular head rose before her, mounted on a slender, blue-ridged neck. 'Anybody call?'

The dragon stared at her with quizzical green eyes, wrinkled its nose, and croaked, 'Don't try to wiggle out of it by changing the subject. You really made a fool of yourself today, didn't you?'

'I'd really rather not talk about it, thank you,' Maddy retorted briskly, and plunked the dragon back on its stand as the message machine beeped and clicked. With its head askew, the dragon seemed to be listening to the recording along with her.

'… Hello… Maddy? Um… I just called to see if you're free for lunch, but… um… I guess you aren't, are you? So… um. Okay, well, just call when you get a chance. 'Bye.'

Maddy smiled. That was her best friend, Jody. She hated talking to the answering machine.

The machine beeped imperiously, signaling another message.

'… Maddy-Larry here. I hate to do this to you, but we need you. Can you meet me at Juvenile Hall at… make it two o'clock? And bring your puppets, honey-it looks like a bad one. Deputies went in on a domestic-disturbance call. Found three kids in a locked room-you know the scene. Couple mattresses on the floor, nothing else but filth. Kids won't-or can't-talk. Sorry, babe… It's a lousy world…'

There was a sustained beep and then silence. Both Bosley, the dragon, and Maddy, its creator, slumped disconsolately, staring at the answering machine.

'Well, I don't believe that,' Maddy said firmly as she rewound the tape and reset the machine. She picked up the puppet, which immediately took on life and personality. It nudged Maddy under the chin, then peered at her with sad eyes. 'Neither do I,' it croaked staunchly.

'Boz,' Maddy said in her own voice, smiling at the dragon, 'it just can't be a lousy world when someone like me gets to meet Aquaman!' She stood up, supporting the puppet's pear-shaped body and long tail with her free arm. 'But enough of fantasy-we have to go to work. Are you up to a real heartbreaker, Boz?'

'Have I ever failed you?' the dragon asked gently as Maddy gave its head a soulful tilt.

'Never,' she answered as she carefully hung the dragon back on its stand. 'Good old Bosley.' She gave the dragon's blue-crested pink head an affectionate pat and went into the kitchen.