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Bernadine didn’t have too much time for dreams and that type of thing, but she knew that Agathe missed her homeland and longed to go back to visit.
She couldn’t, however, leave her husband in his condition while she flew all over the globe, not only because it wouldn’t look good, but because Agathe was as loyal as a French bulldog and wouldn’t dream of leaving the love of her life behind.
It had to be terrible watching him fade away slowly, day by day. It made Bernadine appreciate the fact that her husband had gone quickly. Although it had been a shock and very difficult to get over, she couldn’t imagine watching him as he slowly became someone different than the man she fell in love with. When he looked at her and didn’t recognize her, when he didn’t know the people that they knew, and when carrying on a conversation was impossible. All things that Agathe was almost sure to go through with her husband.
“You know, I heard yesterday that Ellen gave her baby to Travis to raise. I didn’t even know she was pregnant,” Rhoda said as she struggled into her swimsuit and folded her clothes neatly into a pile.
“Ellen was pregnant?” Agathe said, sounding just as shocked as Bernadine had been.
“You know, with some women, you just can’t tell.”
“Ladies. We are not going to gossip about Ellen. Ellen has been very good to us, she’s never late, she shows up every morning, and she does her very best. Where would we be without her?”
The other two ladies looked at her, thinking about what she said. She knew she was right. Who else wanted to teach a bunch of over-the-hill women water aerobics at five o’clock in the morning?
No one. That’s who.
Ellen was one of a kind.
“I think we ought to do something nice for her,” Bernadine stated, used to commanding classrooms, except...she had this thought, but she had no idea of what something nice might be.
“What do you suggest?” Rhoda said, willing to go along.
“I don’t know. I’m going to need to think about that.” She looked at the two of them. “Unless you two have ideas?”
“She loves her dog,” Agathe said.
“True that. She also loves her cows. Shaggy, monstrous-looking beasts.”
The talk drifted to other things as the other ladies in the class came in, and Bernadine simply announced that she was the teacher that day.
She quashed any hint of anyone trying to mention Ellen and a baby, although it was rather hard. Especially since she didn’t know exactly what was going on.
She wished she did, but she wasn’t sure who to go to. Regardless, once they got in the water, things eased up and they focused on the various exercises that Ellen always led them through. She did vary them from time to time, and Bernadine simply did a class based on their favorites.
By the time the class was over, she decided that she was going to gather everyone together and discuss it.
At five ’til six, she announced the class was over, but then she said, “If those of you who wouldn’t mind listening to an idea I have would stay after class, I’d appreciate it.”
“Can we stay in the pool?” Rhoda asked.
“Sure.” Bernadine looked around. Typically when they left their class between six fifteen and six thirty, the building was still deserted. Every once in a while, a few athletes who were in training would be showing up about that time, but normally they had things to themselves.
The ladies arranged themselves in a group, some of them moving around in the water and others just swishing their arms back and forth.
There was something very relaxing about water, and she was glad that she had stepped out of her comfort zone and put on a swimming suit for the first time in thirty years; she hadn’t regretted it.
Whether or not it made her healthier, as the doctor said it would, she wasn’t sure.
“All right, ladies, I’ve been thinking about something. Periodically in our town, there are people who need help. Now, it’s a small town, and everyone’s always willing to lend a hand, but the eight of us have been together for years, always coming to class and doing our exercises and leaving. What do you say, instead of just coming to class and doing water aerobics, we could...form a group?”
“What kind of group?” Agathe asked, and if she suspected this had anything to do with Ellen, she didn’t say.
Agathe would actually be one of the people that Bernadine thought would need help.
After all, she was going through a hard time, and she shouldn’t have to go through it by herself.
“The kind of group who helps people,” Bernadine said, and she wanted it to be that simple.
