algarve moon girl
I'm standing on the balcony, lost in thought. The sun is low in the sky but the air is still warm. Everyone else is showering and slapping on the after-sun, preparing for the obligatory stroll along the sea-front promenade before the evening meal in one of fifty identical restaurants. The outdoor pool is empty, save for several inflatable objects - a crocodile, a bright pink lilo, a big black rubber ring like a gigantic doughnut - marooned on the surface. A pretty girl, presumably another guest in the hotel, appears at the poolside below me. She's wearing a black and white polka-dot bikini and her blonde hair is braided. She pauses for a moment then leaps into the air and plunges feet first into the water, holding her nose. She surfaces and swims a few strokes towards the inflatable crocodile, tries to climb onto it and fails, splashing wildly as she topples back into the water. As she surfaces she notices me looking down at her from four floors above. She waves. Why? I have no idea. I don't respond. Then she does an unexpected thing. She suddenly pulls her bikini down at the back so that I can see her naked bottom, leaps face down onto the big rubber ring and paddles with her arms across the pool. She stops, slides off it, and dives to the bottom of the pool. She surfaces, having pulled her bikini up again, looks straight at me and grins a broad grin. Bemused and slightly embarrassed I look around the other balconies. No-one else is watching this strange scenario unfold. Why did she do it? Just another of life's little mysteries I suppose. Anyway, it made me smile.