February 2020 Flash Lit #4 - Alone in the Hot Tub

“Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,

Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop?

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!”

            Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 10

“What do you call a guy with no arms and no legs in a pool?” Matthew asked from the middle of the inner tube.

Roddy, floating on a pool noodle near the steps, said, “What?”

“Bob!”  Matthew dissolved into stomach-hurting laughter in the way of ten-year-olds. 

Robby, puzzled, tried to laugh along, but he didn’t get it.  Maybe it was because he was only six.

Matthew gasped for air and asked another one:  “What do you call a guy with no arms and no legs in a hot tub?”

“Hot Bob?” Robby guessed.  Matthew snorted, but Libby, listening from her supervisory spot in the hot tub, tried not to giggle at Robby’s logic.

“Stew!” she called out.

“Mom!” Matthew protested.  “I was asking Robby.”

“Sorry,” she said.  She probably should scold Matthew for telling insensitive jokes.  Maybe it was splitting hairs, but the joke was a lot more about word play than about people with disabilities.  Matthew would never dream of making fun of Mr. Nielsen next door with his walker or Amy, his teacher’s daughter with Down’s Syndrome.  Libby sighed.  There was always so much to worry about.  She’d probably say something to him later about how she knew he didn’t mean anything bad by it, but that it could hurt someone’s feelings.  He’d shrug her and hug her and go back to drawing pictures of clockwork creatures.

The sliding door opened.  Dean popped his head out and called, “Boys!  Time for bed!”

There was grumbling and splashing and vigorous rubbing with towels.  “All well over there?” Dean asked.  Libby nodded, realized it was probably too dark to see her, and replied, “Lovely.”

The boys trooped inside, the humped shapes of damp towels on the deck left behind like shedded cocoons once the butterflies have flown.  In the sudden quiet, Libby could hear the gurgle of the water around her.  She let the bubbles buoy up her arms, which floated like noodles in soup.