I look into Mia’s bloodshot eyes for the challenge.
And off we go.
Stroke for stroke.
Lap after lap.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Keeping an even pace.
No sign of the other’s weakness.
Forty.
Fifty.
Sixty.
Tiring, but single-minded.
Who’ll be first to surrender?
Seventy.
Eighty.
Ninety.
I can hear, in my non-submerged ear,
Mom calling.
But grumbling stomachs
and dinner be damned.
Closing in on a hundred laps,
Mom calls out again.
“Okay,” Mia gasps,
“let’s stop at a hundred and four.”
Rejecting her offer,
I push off once more.
And she follows.
Hundred and four.
Hundred and five.
Hundred and six.
Mark’s now standing poolside.
Tiny hands on tiny hips.
Dinner is getting cold
and Dad is getting mad.
I call an immediate draw.
My opponent responds with a nod.
I climb out, expecting her to follow.
Instead, Mia slowly sinks
back in the water.
And with an enormous grin,
pushes off the shallow end.
Author: Anne Celano Frohna
I have been writing for as long as I could hold a pencil in hand and would not feel complete without it.
And I actually made a meager living at it (and as an editor) for 25 years.
I worked for newspapers and magazines, in graphic arts and advertising, and wrote several local history books.
But I have also taught English in Japan, been a Nanny/family chef in Italy, worked in and for museums, was an Airbnb Superhost for four years, as well as an Etsy shop owner, where I sold vintage items I found over the years at thrift stores and yard sales.
After moving to Arizona with my family in 2010, I completed a series of different writing projects, including two books of creative non-fiction:
Just West of the Midwest: a comedy (Based on journals I kept during my two years as an English teacher in rural Japan.)
Within Close Range: short stories of an American Childhood (Short stories and poems about growing up as the middle of five children in suburban Chicago.)
But in the past few years, I have found my voice in poetry.
I am a mother of two wonderful girls, Eva (26) and Sophia (24) and wife to one wonderful husband, Kurt.
In 2023, with our girls grown and off on their own, my husband and I packed up our things and moved to the tip of Italy’s heel, to the Salento region, where I continue to work on my poetry, as well as a new fiction project, and indulge in my passion for mosaics - all of which you can view on my Instagram page @ acfrohna.
View all posts by Anne Celano Frohna
Dog-eared Stories by anne celano frohna 