III.


It was very important to my dad to be able to calculate energy he would put into setting up the pool plus the cost and energy on maintaining the pool in relation to what would be the ultimate use of the pool – that which would have to rely solely on my sisters, my stepmother, and I, as my father had no actual interest in swimming. My father called me every day with a litany of questions: How many months a year could we use the pool? Could we extend my sisters’ summer visit for two weeks? How often would I drive out to the pool? Was I sure that I wanted the pool? So on and so forth.

Much like Joan Didion, [see previous] my father liked the idea of having a pool, rather than the actual pool. The pool as a conceptual idea. The scandal of having a pool in the desert. Though, at this time, we did not live in California.