“What’s this?” Curiously, Babi dismounted from the motorcycle.
Meanwhile, Step pulled something out of the top box. “Follow me, and you’ll see. Don’t make any noise, that’s important.”
They were on Via Riccardo Zandonai, just above the church. They walked through a narrow gate. They followed a dark path running between bushes.
“Here, go under this.” Step lifted a piece of metal mesh that had been torn away at the bottom of the fence. Babi ducked under, taking care not to get caught in the mesh. A few seconds later, Step was beside her. They walked along in the darkness on newly mown grass. The moon lit up everything around them. They were on the grounds of an apartment complex.
“Wait, where are we going?”
“Shh.” Step put his finger to his lips, urging her to be silent.
Then, after climbing over a low wall, Babi heard some sounds of distant laughter or someone talking. Step smiled at her and took her by the hand. They went around a hedge, and there they saw it. In the light of the moon, light blue, transparent, calm, edged in by the dark of night, a large swimming pool.
In it were a number of young people. They were swimming while taking care not to make too much noise. Little waves lapped at the sides, every once in a while overflowing onto the surrounding grass. A strange breathing sound could be heard, that water coming and going and then vanishing down into the void of a little grate.
“Come on.”
They approached the swimming pool. A number of young people greeted them. Babi recognized their wet faces. They were all of Step’s friends. By now, she’d even learned a few names. The Sicilian, Hook, Bunny. That was easier than the usual rounds of introductions where everyone was named Andrea or Fabio or Marco.
Pollo was there, too, and Pallina also swam over to the side of the pool. “Damn, I was certain you wouldn’t come. I lost my bet.”
Pollo pulled her away from the edge of the pool. “You see, what did I tell you?” They laughed. Pallina tried to push him under the water but couldn’t do it. “Now you have to pay.”
They swam off, splashing each other and kissing. Babi wondered what they’d bet, and a few vague ideas occurred to her. Then she focused on a far more serious problem. “Step, I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“Neither do I. Just my boxer shorts. What do you care? Almost no one does.”
“But it’s cold,” she added, trying to come up with some other excuse.
“I brought towels for afterward, I’ve got one for you too. Come on, quit stalling.”
Step took off his jacket. Before long, all his clothing was lying on the ground. “Look out, or I’ll throw you in fully dressed, and that’s just going to be worse. You know I’ll do it.”
Babi looked at him. This was the first time she’d seen him undressed. Brushstrokes of silvery moonlight highlighted his muscles even more. Perfect abdominals, squared-off, compact pectorals.
Babi stripped down to her bra and panties. A short while later, they were both in the water. They swam along, side by side. Babi started to shiver a bit. “Brrr, it’s cold.”
“You’ll warm up. Just be careful not to go under the surface with your eyes open. There’s a lot of chlorine in the water. It’s the first swimming pool open in the neighborhood this year, you know that? So this is a sort of inauguration. Summer will be here soon. Nice, isn’t it?”
“Beautiful. It reminds me of those films Bruce Weber made with the whole Dillon family, when they went pool-hopping and would go swimming on the grounds of mansions at night.”
“Those films who made?”
“Bruce Weber…”
“Never heard of him…We’ve been doing this for years now. Come over here.”
They swam to the side. Babi noticed that there were bottles all over the sides of the pool. They’d been opened only recently.
Step grabbed one. “Here, have some.”
“But I don’t drink.”
“It’ll warm you up.”
Babi took the bottle and tipped it back. She felt the cool liquid, slightly bitter and sparkling, drain down her throat. It was good. She handed the bottle to Step, smiling at him. “It’s not bad. I like it.”
“I’ll bet you do. It’s champagne.” Step took a long drink.
Babi looked around. There were at least twenty or so people in that swimming pool. They’d all formed into small groups at the edges of the basin, right there where the bottles were. She wondered if that was all champagne. Where had they found it? No doubt it, too, was stolen.
“Here.” Step handed back the bottle. She decided not to give it too much thought and took a drink. But she gauged it wrong and a little too much went down her throat. She practically choked, and the champagne with all its sparkling bubbles went up her nose. She started coughing. Step burst out laughing and waited for her to recover.
Then they swam together toward a corner of the pool across the way. A larger hedge there protected that nook from the rays of the moon. It only let through the occasional glint of silver. Soon those glints were trapped in the tangles of her wet hair. Step looked at her. She was beautiful.
He kissed her cool lips, and they were immediately locked in a clinch. Their nearly nude bodies now pressed against each other completely, head to toe, for the first time. Enveloped by that chilly water, they sought out and found warmth between them, learning each other, feeling the thrill of it, pulling apart occasionally to avoid creating too much awkwardness.
Step broke away from her, took a brief sidestroke across the pool, and soon swam back with a new catch in his hands.
“This one’s still full.” Another bottle. They were surrounded. Babi smiled and drank from it, this time slowly, careful not to choke. It almost tasted good to her.
Then she found his lips. They continued kissing like that, sparkly and bubbly, while she felt herself floating but couldn’t quite understand why. Was that the normal effect of the water or was it the champagne? She gently let her head fall back, resting it in the water, and for a moment, it stopped spinning. She could and, at the same time, couldn’t hear the sounds around her. Her ears, with tiny waves lapping at them, wound up underwater from time to time, and strange and pleasant muted sounds reached her, dazing her even more completely.
Step held her in his arms, swinging her around him, pulling her through the water. She opened her eyes. Brief surges of water caressed her right cheek while small, spiteful splashes reached her mouth now and again. She felt like laughing.
High above, silvery clouds moved slowly across the infinite depth of the dark blue night. She pulled herself up and threw her arms around his powerful shoulders and kissed him passionately.
He looked her in the eyes. He put a hand on her forehead and, stroking her hair back, uncovered her smooth face. Then he moved farther down, along her cheek, down to her chin, along her neck, and then even farther, to her breasts where the water lapped against them, shivering with cold and excitement, and then still farther down, where just that afternoon he’d first dared to graze her with his fingers.
She hugged him tighter still. She put her chin on his shoulder, and with her eyes half-shut, she looked past him. A half-empty bottle was floating in the pool. It was rising and falling in the water. And she imagined the message rolled up inside: Help. But don’t save me.