Hairs in the Drains 

by: athenswrigley

Every year, from June to August, the Wellsville Public Pool lives busy days. But that year was one for the books.

Maybe it was global warming with the unbearable humidity making people sweat, maybe it was the overall boredom of a less affluent city placed so far away from any natural body of water during hot scorching afternoons. But the fact is that each day that summer, dozens of cars and pedestrians lined up at 7 am waiting to be admitted inside a world of multiple pleasures.

A tactile ballet with the sun as antagonist: the skin, first greased by the milky sunscreen, then engraved by the sharp-cutting sunlight, and finally relieved by the hot, yet refreshing, pool water. And all the burning and gravely tiptoes between the lounge chairs and the pool, or the shadows harbored by the bathroom and cantina.

A visual feast through colors and shapes: young, dripping wet, tanned fit bodies of lifeguards and a few boys and girls blessed by a teenager's metabolism and good genes. The occasional accidents - never pretty, always aesthetic. The orange and pink sky sunset.

A taste tour through the cheap flavors of public concessions: oily, salty, sometimes dough-based, sometimes meat-based. Always fried, always heavy, always balanced by the sugary, gasified, cancer-inducing, pore and nostrils dilating Pepsi. Or the practical flavors of, brought-from-home, aluminum-wrapped, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

It was 14-year old Harry's first summer working there. It was 14-year old Harry's first time working anywhere.

His position wasn't the most glamorous or interactive, but it was key to the overall Wellsville Public Pool experience: Harry was a pool boy. Supervised by a never present Parks and Recs Superintendent, Harry was solely responsible for applying chlorinate to the water, checking the pressure and temperature, and, most importantly - because people are OK with swimming in a hot still water but not in a visibly dirty water - responsible for cleaning the pool from leaves that fall from the trees and hairs that get sucked and stuck to the drain.

Harry was the right person for that job. Not because he needed the money, or because he didn't have a very active social life - which anyhow were both true - but because he himself had a lot of hair. Because the enemy at work had been his enemy elsewhere ever since he reached puberty. While all other boys his age had sparse thin body hair, Harry, the son of a Lebanese father and a Michigan mother, had plenty. The collar of his T-shirt had always a few strands of hair peeking out, his legs and arms blackened by the amount of body hair.

The thing about the Wellsville Public Pool is that it could equal in misery the amount of pleasure it provided. On his prep speech, a day before the pool opened for summer, the superintendent even went beyond to say that place was cursed, recalling one summer in the '80s when a kid died because his fist got sucked and stuck in the drain and he couldn't get out. Pool was full, no one noticed until after the place closed.

"Don't mind him. He always tells this story to keep everyone on their toes but also to justify why he never comes here to do his job; only texts telling people what to do. Fucking fat prick.", said Jenna, the 19-year old swimming state champion, to a worried Harry. "It's my fourth summer as a lifeguard and nothing that serious has ever happened. Sometimes it can be almost cool to work here."

But with three weeks in, Harry was having a hard time believing what Jenna said.

Besides the pleasure of working alongside that otherwise untouchable nubile goddess - a person he would never organically interact with if it wasn't for the job - working at the pool had been a nightmare on multiple fronts for him. It was a heavy-duty task skimming an 80-feet area by himself so early in the morning, with his feeble arms still asleep. It was even more exhausting checking the water quality during the busy hours while dealing gracefully with the smirk in the face of boys his age and the abuse of cruel younger kids that called him Hairy coordinated by the older ones. The long sleeve UPF shirt covered his chest, back, and arm's hair but didn't protect Harry from teenage cruelty. Moreover, the superintendent was always on Harry's neck:

"Been receiving complaints about the amount of hair in the drains. Check that out."

"Harry, my boss's wife complained to him about the shallow part of the pool. Said there were coins in the bottom, hairs in the drain and cigarette butts in the filter. Come on!"

"Is this acceptable? This is not acceptable, Harry. Do your job!", said one text regarding an attached image of the bottom of the pool, filled with sand, dirt, and, yes, more hair in the drain.

That really bothered Harry because he had no excuse. He would do his job and seemingly take everything out of the pool. Hairs in the drain and all. But a few hours later, it would all come back.

The boss couldn't care less. All he wanted was his own peace of mind: "Do what you have to do. Just don't make me receive another complaint. You are all out of strikes, boy."

It was about 6 am when all pool personnel received a text saying that due to a lightning storm warning, the pool would stay closed that Wednesday. Harry appreciated the needed rest but had a hard time turning his mind off his problems. Spent the whole day thinking of ways to clear the hairs in the drain.

Late at night, the rain had already stopped. The sky was crispy clear, filled with stars. The heat was back like it had never left, because it never did; should someone wake up from a coma that moment, the only thing that would suggest it recently rained was the inebriating smell of ozone - the popular "wet pavement" scent. But Harry felt none of that. He had only one sense working, his eyes, glued to the computer screen, skimming through Reddit, Google and every other possible resource looking for hacks to clear the hairs in the drain. One thing led to the other and soon Harry was researching Wellsville Public Pool's history.

He came across the story of Martin, a 7-year old boy who drowned after being sucked by an opened drain - just like the Superintendent had said. "Holly shit!", he said aloud.

As an eerie feeling started creeping in...

*clack*

*clACK* *CLACK*

The sound of pebbles pitter-pattering on Harry's window, and realizing who was responsible for it, made the boy quickly forget what he had just read on his computer screen: it was Jenna, on a bicycle, wearing a small blue jeans shorts, a white tank top and an unbuttoned red and black flannel shirt, whispering: "Me and some friends are going to the pool! Wanna come?"

Harry had heard the older kids would hang out at the pool late at night to drink beer, smoke and skinny dip. But he thought it was all a myth.

"It isn't. Well, the skinny dipping is. Probably a horny nerd's wet dream.", laughed Jenna. "We come out here because-- well, because it's so pretty, right? And for us, for me and you, it's refreshing to be out here without that whole tension of dozens of kids running around, teenagers doing stupid shit and parents... being parents."

Harry couldn't think of a better time than the one he was having. Ever. There he was, on a hot summer night, feet on the water, drinking booze with a woman (not a girl!) so incredible and out of reach he wouldn't even consider her to be a crush. Tipsy, he was smiling of the fact that they were sharing the same bottle, his lips were touching the same bottleneck her mouth was, so, in a way, they were kissing.

"Speaking about that...you know, I don't want you to feel weird or embarrassed or anything. You're my dude, we're buddies. I got you.", said Jenna to an even happier Harry - "But I've been noticing how the guys your age are like picking on you because of how much hair you have..."

Seeing how Harry's body language quickly contracted into an uncomfortable posture, Jenna, wiser and freer due to her age, quickly placed her hand in his arm, gently caressing the hair in his arm:

"No dude, for real. Relax. I know it might seem like a horrible thing right now, but pretty soon a lot of them will be just like you. If anything you're ahead of the curve. My boyfriend is pretty hairy, and I like it. Well, I can't even say I like it. It just... it doesn't matter, you know?"

Harry wasn't even sad to hear about a boyfriend. He was hopeful with what she was saying, happy for having been touched that way by her, and just overall grateful for the moment he was living.

Jenna's phone screen lit up with a text from someone.

"Listen, I have to go. Do you need a ride?"

"No, I think I'm going to stay. It's nice out here."

"Ok, but walk. Don't get a ride with those guys, because they're not responsible."

High with alcohol, Harry gave a wide-eyed smile to Jenna. She smiled back at his innocence.

"You're the cutest", said Jenna right before popping a kiss in his lips and getting up to leave.

It wasn't his first, but it could've been his last for all that Harry cared.

As she said goodbye to the other 4 or 5 people that were still there, Harry laid down on the trampoline and victoriously looked to the stars, finally understanding the mystics of the Wellsville Public Pool.

Five minutes later or so, it was Harry's phone screen that lit. With a text from Jenna:

"Left and never said what I wanted... so, go to the locker room. My code is 0-0-0. I left something there that you might find it useful :peach emoji :tongue emoji"

Harry's relaxed body suddenly felt alert. His heart started beating fast. What could it be this useful thing?

It was dark in the locker room. And being high didn't make it any easier for Harry to open the wheel-shaped combination lock but, after a few tries, he did.

What is this she left me?, Harry thought to himself.

Was it the spare bra and panties she left there for emergencies? Maybe it wasn't and she would think he was a creep if he were to take with him - so he just smelled it with passion, fishing for her intimate scent in the fabric.

Was it a box with body wax patches for him to wax off his body hair? It seemed more likely, but he wasn't able to do that right there without help and the thought of asking her help sober was ludicrous.

When he grabbed his phone to text back asking what was he supposed to search for, he heard a voice from behind him, coming from outside of the locker room:

"Harry..."

It was a soft voice. Giggly and seductive.

"Jenna? Is that you?"

Suddenly, it was all very clear to Harry. The thing Jenna wanted to give him was herself. She wanted him to have his first time with her. That explained the peach and the tongue emojis.

He ran towards the door, horny and elated, and once he opened it... the setting seemed very different.

The rest of the guys had left. A mist covered the pool and muddled the air.

"J-Jenna?"

A sexy laugh coming from the lifeguard's post attracts Harry's attention. He sees, through the fog, lighted by the moonlight, the beautiful naked body of Jenna. He can barely focus due to the haze and how fast Jenna runs and dives into the pool.

"S-so, the skinny dipping wasn't a myth after all..." said Harry buying some time.

"Just come to the pool!", the water whispered. "Come be naked with me"

Juggling fear, excitement and intoxication, Harry stumbled towards the pool, taking his clothes off without ease, shedding strands of hair in the process. Clumsy, he tripped while he dove headfirst into the pool to be with Jenna.

But she wasn't there.

"Where are you? Playing hide-and-seek?"

Harry proceeded to dive with his eyes open, trying to find Jenna. He thought she was probably playing with him, using her swimmer lungs to stay underwater for a long time and give him a scare. But soon it stopped being funny.

"Ok. That's not-- Is this a game? Are you all playing a prank on me?"

But no one replied. He seemed to be alone in the pool. But he wasn't.

Once the water calmed, he looked to the drain:

"Oh, shit-- Somebody heeeelp!"

It was Jenna, stuck in the drain, trying to release herself.

Harry swam as fast as he could, only to arrive at the drain and... find no one there.

As he looked to the side to see if Jenna was close by,

*SSCHLLP!*

The drain sucked his body.

Harry tried to fight, but the amount of hair made him an easy prey for the drain. In a matter of minutes, all the air in his lungs gave way to water.

It was only in the next morning his body was discovered. Jenna was charged with manslaughter after a post-mortem toxicology screen test showed Harry had a lot of alcohol in his blood. The Wellsville Public Pool remained closed for the rest of the summer.

Autumn and winter came and went. Brought brand new different dramas to the city and its residents. The next summer, hurricane season made the mayor keep all parks closed. Two years later, when spring came and Wellsville decided to finally re-open the pool, the memory of Harry's tragedy was long gone.

The only thing still there were his hairs in the drain.