Mildred swam slowly through the 28Β°C water, all the while enjoying the view of the nearby mountain peaks, all heavily laden with snow. Swimming was not her sport and her swimming style was, well not very stylish. She combined the dog paddle and frog stroke -- not elegant but she could keep her head above water and enjoy the view. Mildred's sport was, like that of her husband Harry, skiing.
For the past three weeks, ever since her doctor had told her that the best thing for the backaches that had beset her since slipping while hiking the previous autumn, Mildred had come to the spa every day -- one of a number of swimmers who were not staying in the hotel. The Hotel Grand Panorama spa had indoor and outdoor pools. Inside was a conventional rectangular 25 meter sport pool with 25Β°C water and a gigantic hot tub with air and water jets. She had tried out the hot tub but the 38Β°C jets seemed to hurt more than help so she pretty much stuck to paddling around in the outside pool.
For Mildred, the outside pool was just more esthetic and she liked the fresh air. The pool had been constructed with an irregular shape to give the look of a natural body of water. Some edges had natural rocks embedded in the concrete and on the nearby shore, boulders were strewn about in a random pattern and intermingled with native shrubs and trees. In the middle was a 4 meter high tower made of rocks and boulders mortared and fit so tightly together that to the casual observer, it appeared to be one giant boulder. Out of its top, water gushed out and ran over one side as a waterfall. The lower part of the tower had been left hollow to form a cave over a meter wide and some two meters long. Inside the cave there was an underwater rock bench large enough for two people to sit on. Warm water trickling down the rock face behind the rock bench gave people sitting there the feel of having a fluid back lean. Most people entered the cave by swimming through the entrance on the side opposite the waterfall, however, there was also an opening behind the waterfall so whoever didn't mind getting dumped on by the waterfall could swim in that way as well. Lover couples were often inside cuddling and necking and Mildred suspected probably a lot more.
Mildred was an inveterate people watcher, always trying to imagine what people did for a living, where they lived, how they stood politically, how often they had sex, what kind of sex, etc., etc. Being a weekday most of the swimmers were older, obviously retirees -- some looking pretty feeble, others characterizing the vigorous active senior citizen. She wondered how many still did it.
Today she had been watching a young couple who spent more time necking and kissing and rubbing bodies than swimming. She wondered if the guy had a hard on and then promptly decided that unless he'd already ejaculated, he probably did. As to how often that couple had sex, she knew that if they were staying in the hotel, he'd be putting the old salami to her as soon as they got back to their room.
The warm water moving between her legs reminded her of her own sex life and sharing it with her husband Harry. They were both moving in on 60 and it was a rare week when he failed to mount her 2 or 3 times. When they went somewhere on holidays and stayed in a hotel, Harry would have a hard on by the time they got in bed and in the morning, he'd often be hard again. It was as if being with her in a hotel room gave him the feel of being involved in a passionate love affair. If they went in the pool or in the ocean, he'd be hard as soon as they'd get back to their room -- no sooner was the door closed and his trunks would be on the floor. Water seemed to be Harry's Viagra and Mildred sometimes thought it got him even more turned on than her breasts, which he had never lost his fascination for, even after decades of married life.
Mildred had never in her life said a peep about her sex life to anyone, not even to old friends from high school, who from time to time would talk about their own. From what they let on, she and Harry were easily the more active sexually. Some of the 'girls' let on that for them, it was over, either because they were too dry or because hubby couldn't get it up anymore. Until about 15 years ago, the talk during the girls' informal and irregular reunions would get pretty graphic. A few girls would let out stuff like hubby's size, how hubby forgot to wash behind his foreskin, giving head, tit fucking, etc., etc. Mildred only listened and never said much of anything other than 'oh really', 'wow' and such. As far as she was concerned, what she and her husband did was not for anyone else to know.
In spite of the Viagra effect that water had on him, Harry was no more enthusiastic about swimming than Mildred. Today he was enjoying the powder snow left by some recent storms and wouldn't be home until very late afternoon.
She was again reminded of why Harry was skiing and not working. An electrical engineer, he had until a few years ago been employed by a local electrical equipment manufacturer. In a way more than employed -- he had invented a number of innovative measuring and control devices for the power industry and the patents had delivered some fat profits to the family owned company with nearly a thousand employees. The company had rewarded him more than fairly -- his salary had been nicely into six figures plus bonus and a share of patent rights earnings.
But trouble had interrupted the good life when the founder died and his two sons inherited all the old man's stock. Other than the income it yielded for them to indulge in expensive cars and high living, the two sons had never shown much interest in the company. Wanting the real jet set life, they had sold their stock to an equity investment company, which promptly put in a new board of directors and CEO. The first two years, the new management couldn't spend enough -- new office building, trips to conventions, consultants, bonuses. As a result profits evaporated and the stock price dropped. The board fired the CEO and put in a proven cost cutter. Harry was let go and replaced by a newly graduated engineer whose salary was nicely into five figures instead of the six figure sum that Harry had been getting. Many other key employees suffered similar fates. Through such short term savings and selling off the rights to key patents, profits and dividends returned and the stock price shot past all previous highs. Later, the side effects of the cost cutting and patent sell-offs set in and profits plummeted. Before that, however, the equity company, the board and the CEO had already sold their shares at gigantic profits. The company went into bankruptcy and was dissolved.
Fortunately Harry and Mildred had already paid off their house and had savings. When they had let Harry go, the company wanted it to appear as if his early retirement was a reward for years of valuable service. To achieve that, they had financed a very generous retirement package. Other lesser key employees had been sent off with 3 months severance pay. People working in production were treated even worse. That affair changed Harry and Mildred -- they were no longer believers in laissez-faire economic liberalism.
Several times during her swim sessions, Mildred would lean slightly forward and back up to the waterfall, close her eyes and let the warm water cascade down over her back. That massaging action seemed to be just what she needed to supplement the swimming.
Mildred had often wondered how it would be to swim straight through the waterfall and into the cave. Until now the thought of running into people lounging in the cave had kept her from doing it. Today for some reason, she decided that she really wanted to do it so she swam around to the other side of the rock and not seeing anyone inside, made up her mind that today would be the day. First facing the waterfall and aiming her body directly at the opening, she closed her eyes, dove under and propelled herself through the waterfall and into a heavy object that stopped her forward glide. Standing up and wiping her eyes, she saw that the 'heavy object' was actually the legs of an older man whom she had seen swimming with a much younger woman several days earlier. At the time the pair had caught her attention because it looked like the classic situation of the well-to-do elderly businessman or doctor enjoying a day with his young trophy wife or mistress.
"Oh I'm so sorry. I thought there was no one in here," were the first words she could get out.
"No harm done, no need to be sorry. I saw you lining up to swim in and just didn't react right."
"Really, sir, I swam around and checked. I just don't know how I didn't see you."
"Enough sorry saying. Anyway I'm not a 'sir', I'm Roger. And who might you be?"