I.O.U. Karma
I have been a lifeguard for the last few years and this past summer started working at a new pool. Now you can ask any lifeguard and they will almost always have some favorite families that come to the pool (and families they hate) and one of my favorites was a family of four.
The dad would come sometimes but most of the time it was the mom (who was incredibly beautiful) her 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter.
Both kids have bright blond hair and are always smiling. They never talk back and always listed which is pretty unusual for kids all hyped up at the pool.
Sometimes the mother would bring one of the large tubs that people have to store things in and she would fill it up with a little bit of water and let her 2 year old stand in it while she taught her son to swim.
Made it a lot easier for everyone since the 2 year old would just stand there and play with her toys and not wander all over the pool and possibly get into trouble.
However, one day the mom had her 2 year old out to change her diaper and her son walks over to grab a toy out of the tub and basically falls in face first.
Now he wasn’t in too much danger from drowning but I’m sure it was scary for him. He started yelling and crying pretty quick.
So I ran over to him and picked him up and “saved him.” Now the karma comes in when the a few days later they come back and he walks over to me when his thank you card. It’s two notecards that he had attached together with a ring.
Mostly it’s just colorful scribbles but on one side it’s a poorly written thank you and on the other side is I.O.U. I have always thought it was adorable he thought that he thought he owed me for doing my job.
Still have my thank you card in a box at home along with some other notes that swimmers wrote me when I was their summer league coach. It’s a good memory box. Permalink