They've been friends for years, snowbirds, except for Madeline, who long ago just stayed in Florida and ended those tedious trips back up north to New Jersey. She and Bob finally said to heck with it, and just stayed down at Sunshine Village, even though Florida in July took some getting used to.
Audrey and her husband just rolled in again, and the two old friends were happy to reunite in the pool, where they exercised together late mornings, as they had for years.
Bob was gone for a decade maybe--Audrey couldn't remember exactly how many years. He'd died one summer, when Audrey and her husband were in Michigan. But the story she heard from Madeline that very first morning was that Madeline--who's 92 years old--was, once again "in a relationship," as the young folks like to say. That's right, she'd taken to hiking over to this new guy's trailer three nights a week or so; after which they just switched love nests, and she put him up at her place for the next three. Kind of a rotation thing.
The two of them, Audrey and Madeline, are swimming, right? That's when the big sleepover news comes out. Now Audrey's been around, and she's never been much of a prude anyway. So when Madeline's story is told, she's quite taken, but she doesn't quit exercising. "No kidding," Audrey says. "That is so sweet." And then, "what's his name?"
"Bob," Madeline says, matter-of-factly, a whispery smile over her face.
Audrey stops dead in the water. "You got to be kidding," she says. Bob was her long-time husband's name. "This one's a Bob too?"
Madeline jerks her bathing cap down a bit to cover her hair. "Yup," she says, "another Bob."
"My word," Audrey says. "You're making life difficult. How do you keep them separate?"
Madeline doesn't miss a beat. "One of them doesn't say much," she says.
And so it goes at Sunshine Village.
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