The Pool of Summers Past

Margaret sat on her porch swing, watching her grandson struggle with the old garden hose, trying to fill the inflatable pool on her lawn. The same rubber pool she'd bought thirty years ago, when her own children were small, its sides now cracked and faded like a well-loved quilt.

"Grandma, why's it called a 'bull' session anyway?" the boy asked, wiping sweat from his forehead. "At family dinners, Grandpa always says 'let's have a bull session.'"

Margaret smiled, the memory washing over her like the first cool wave on a hot July day. "Oh, that comes from your great-grandfather's time. He was a stubborn man—old Jasper the neighbors called him. Ran a bull out back, huge thing, thought it was a person more than livestock. Used to hold court by the irrigation pool while the bull drank, and any neighbor who stopped by had to listen to Jasper hold forth about farming, politics, the weather, whatever came to mind. Thus: bull sessions."

She pointed to the orange tabby cat curled on the porch rail, its golden eyes half-closed against the afternoon sun. "Cleo there reminds me of your great-aunt's cat, who used to sit by that same old pool, watching over the bull like it was his personal responsibility. The animals had an understanding—cat, bull, and the cool water that kept them both alive through Missouri summers."

The boy nodded thoughtfully, finally succeeding in filling the pool. He splashed water onto his face, and Margaret felt the decades dissolve. In that moment, she was eight again, the smell of chlorine and cut grass filling her nose, her father's voice rumbling like distant thunder as he held court by the pool, the family bull snorting nearby, the barn cat watching from the fence.

"Come on in," she said, kicking off her sandals. "Your grandmother may be old, but she's not too old for a pool party. And I've got some stories to tell you about that bull and that cat."

As they splashed together in the waning afternoon light, three generations circled in the same cool water, the pool of memory deep and ever-filling.