Zipping by the Loser

Competitive female swimmers dive into a pool at the start of a race.

Yesterday, the Complete and Total Loser went to the college pool he swims in three times a week at his usual hour, 6:00 a.m. This time, besides the other aging men and women who participate in community use during limited hours, there were two women in, he'd guess, their early twenties. They shared the lane next to the Loser. 
They were fast! The Loser is used to being lapped by nearly everyone else in the pool except for women his age, but these women swam like serious competitors, churning the water as they zipped by. At one point, while doing his tired breast stroke, the Loser's left hand accidentally came within a few

An underwater view of a woman swimming freestyle.

inches of one of the women's hands and he felt a powerful eddy from it, like you'd expect from a blender. One altered her strokes, one of which was a butterfly stroke that skimmed her across the surface like a thrown flat rock.
The Loser knows that he's just an aging, slow, idiot who swims with no skill and he's happy to see young people in robust physical condition using their bodies but still ... he has an ego.

Swimming pool

Today, the Complete and Total Loser went to the swimming pool where he spent many happy childhood summer days with friends and family. The pool, he sees now, is tiny. It can't be more than fifteen yards long. But it was on a nice college campus and there was a large pond nearby with a small waterfall, geese, ducks, turtles and fish. The Loser and one of his two older brothers would put towels around their necks and pretend they were superheros wearing capes.
A memory the Loser has is of seeing a girl, older, with short hair, walking toward the Loser to talk to his oldest brother, who was 14. The girl is singing the song Reach Out of the Darkness, by Friend & Lover. "I think it's so groovy now, that people are trying to get together, think it's wonderful to know that people are finally getting together." The song was current then, meaning that the year was 1968. The Loser never spoke to the girl and he misheard the song and for decades would think it's, "It's the one who buys the house, where people are finally getting together," which of course makes no sense. 

The small, outdoor swimming pool on Eastern University's campus.