“I don’t swim,” Frank told Lily.
“Ridiculous. How can you have that beautiful pool in your backyard and not swim? It would be the best thing for you.”
“I said I don’t swim,” he repeated emphatically.
“Why?” Lily persisted.
“None of your darn business.”
Lily dropped it for the day. She would talk to Tom or Claudia and get them to tag team Frank until he agreed to get his sorry old joints into the pool. It would be the best physical therapy imaginable, one that was not feasible for most folks, and he was refusing.
“Is your dad afraid of the water or something?”
“No.” Tom laughed at the idea that his father would be afraid of anything, especially water. “No. He was a great swimmer. Champion swimmer back in the day.”
“Why won’t he swim now?”
“I don’t know. He just sort of stopped. Got busy with other things. Kind of like people who buy a treadmill and never get on it.”
“No, Tom. When I suggested that he swim for PT, he reacted very strongly. Not like a man who just doesn’t get around to it. Like a man who refuses to even discuss it.”
“Hmm.” Tom looked pensive for moment then grabbed a pencil and began sketching furiously. Lily knew that Tom was now useless to her until this creative jag had passed.
“Do you want the flag up?”
He gave her a thumbs-up without looking up from his pad. In the morning, there was a paper airplane on the kitchen counter that said, “Off to Chi. Will call later. T.”
“Claudia, why won’t Frank swim?” Lily asked as they prepared lunch together one afternoon.
“I expect you’ll have to ask him,” Claudia said.
“I have asked him. He refuses to discuss it. It would be so good for his joints. Yours too, if I may say so.”
“I never learned how to swim. I guess I’m too old now.”
“Don’t be silly, I could teach you. I used to teach swimming lessons at the YMCA. I could help you do some water therapy. It would do you a world of good.”
“Do you think so?”
“I know so. Maybe if Frank sees how much fun we’re having without him, he’ll want to join us.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t count on that, dear.”
“Why not?”
“Is there any more of that wonderful spice cake you make?”
That crash you just heard was a subject being dropped, Lily thought.