Float Your Cares Away
At the end of a long shift, a lifeguard tries to take his boss's advice and relax a little with the assistance of some old memories.
This story was written for Catprog as part of my Patreon request days for April. It contains transformation and pool-toy based fun. :3
Float Your Cares Away
That's what my boss told me to do.
To take some times for myself for once, to chill out and to float my cares away.
But, it's hard, y'know? My whole job is based around being constantly alert, constantly aware and ready so that I can help out at the very first moment it's needed. Even now, alone in the pool after hours, I feel like I'm meant to be keeping guard of the place. I feel like at any moment some kids could hop the fence and take advantage of the nice weather, and I'm meant to stay around so I can ward them off. Being a lifeguard might be my day job, but it feels like I just can't let go of it. I can't risk taking a day, an evening, even a minute off from it, because what happens if the minute I choose to not be a lifeguard is the minute when someone really needs me to be one? Who's to blame then? Because, if you tell someone that a lifeguard was present, but did nothing to even try and help, I know who I'd feel like blaming.
Ugh. Fuck. This isn't helping at all. Maybe I should just shower and head home.
No. No, I won't. I used to love the pool so much. Swimming, even just floating here like I am right now. Hell, my love of swimming was what made me try out for lifeguarding classes in the first place. I wanted to make sure that everyone could enjoy the water as much as I did, and feel safe and secure doing so. I just need to find a way to re-capture that feeling. That love of just being in the water, just chilling out and...
Oh god.
Oh god, am I really gonna start thinking about that again?
It was the dumbest thing. It wasn't even some horny teenage fantasy, I was just an innocent kid. My older brother, he had one of those inflatable mattresses. The kind you're meant to lie on next to the pool, the kind we wouldn't dare let someone try to go to sleep on while floating in the water even on one of our summer fun days where inflatables and pool toys are allowed. Only, rather than just being a plain colour or having a pattern on it, there was this tigress. It was printed like she was lying on the inflatable herself, arms folded behind her back, dressed in the skimpiest bikini ever with her black and white stripes looking so fine. At the time I was just a kid of course, so I didn't get it. I didn't understand why you'd want some lady with no clothes on stuck on the front of your inflatable. But, I still played on it. Still paddled myself across the pool back and forth all day long when my brother was out, until I got so tired I just lay out on the inflatable itself and napped with my fingers and toes dangling in the water.
God knows why my parents let my brother have that inflatable, and god only knew what he did to it when he took it out of the pool and back to his room... yikes, there's a thought for the mental incinerator. But, I loved relaxing on it. I loved just floating and closing my eyes, and imagining that the strong white tigress was just wrapping me up in her arms and letting me float with her. I didn't know if she was my mom in the fantasy, my friend, or just my protector. All that mattered was that she let me float. She never said a word. Never asked me for anything, never judged, never once disturbed me while I chilled out with her. God, there's probably some really intense stuff there about my relationships with women that a therapist could have a field day with, and all based on a pool toy.
If I think about that though, about her... then maybe, maybe I can recapture that feeling of peace. Of calm and restful relaxation.
I'm lying on her again. Floating my cares away with my fingers and toes dipping into the water. My eyes are closed. My breathing is slow and gentle. It's warm, but dark. A summer night. No breeze, no sounds but the rustling of trees and the chirping of insects. I can almost feel her arms, not flesh and blood but smooth and damp like the wet, inflated rubber of a pool toy that's just bobbed up from under the surface, all around me. Hugging me. Holding me close. If I turn my head, and press it down against the surface of the inflatable, I can almost imagine I can hear her voice whispering to me like lapping waves reverberating through the air held within. Whispers of comfort. Of kindness, and yet still silent, wordless, not saying or doing anything to disturb my rest.
It's working. Oh, I feel so calm. This is amazing. I... I don't even need to pretend I'm floating on the inflatable itself any more. It's just us. The two of us floating in the water together. Tiger and tigress, my rich orange against her pale white, our stripes touching, intermingling. We're so at peace. So comfortable. I wish I had the words to describe it aloud. It's like... like I'm becoming what I imagined she was. This perfect, floating embodiment of peace. So soothing. So restful. I can barely move. Barely think. But, I guess I don't need to. All I need to do is float, light as a feather and calm as the water on which I'm resting.
So calm.
So peaceful.
Just floating.
Floating.
Floating, and...
***********
I wonder if Jason took my advice last night.
He always looks so stressed out after a shift, even one where nothing whatsoever went wrong. It's not healthy for him, and I want him to be able to stay here with us. He's good at his job. No, he's great at it. He just needs to be able to chill out a little more and... oh, oh shit, what the fuck?! Who the fuck is...
Oh, goddammit. What the fuck, is that some sort of sick joke?!
Who the fuck put an inflatable toy in the pool overnight? Jason was the only one here when I left. Was it him? It doesn't seem like his sense of humour, and... to be honest, he doesn't seem like the type to a have a pool toy like that. A white tigress, wearing a blue two-piece that barely covers anything. It's like something out of a guy's teenage fantasy. And, she looks so realistic, I thought for a moment that there was actually someone floating in the water. But, it's just an inflatable toy. Nothing more.
Toy or not, she's cute though, I've gotta admit. I've never seen a pool toy that looks so... not just real, but... yeah, it's the expression on her face. That look of complete calm and relaxation, like she wants nothing more in all the world than to be left to float on the water forever. Kudos to the artist. I feel more relaxed just looking at her. More safe, and secure, like I just want her to wrap my arms around her in the water... and float with her.
I have work to do. Paperwork to fill out before the rest of the staff get here and we open for the day.
I can't.
I shouldn't.
But... well, maybe just a quick dip. I told Jason to take the time to unwind yesterday, I'd be a terrible boss if I didn't take the same advice for myself that I give to my employees.
Just a quick dip in the pool, and... maybe I'll cuddle up with the tigress for just a moment or two before I pull her out of the water and take her somewhere to be stored until we find out who she belongs to.
Just a quick little cuddle in her arms, floating, resting with her. I think that'd be nice.
I think that'd be so, so nice... just to hold her, and to be held by her, and... to just float my cares away.
By Jeeves
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