The sequel to BLUE will be published in April '09. Part of it takes place at Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. And the cover includes a vintage photo from the campus pool.
Here's one of Ann Fay's moments in the therapeutic water there.
The first thing she did was start moving my legs to loosen them up. She was so gentle it reminded me of what the attendant had said: “Just relax and let us take care of you.”
And I have to tell you it felt so good after all the bearing up I’d done with my family, and going back to school, and even working for Ruth Whitener. I couldn’t hold on anymore. The tears started slipping out of the corners of my eyes.
Janice was turning my leg in a circular motion, but she stopped. “Did that hurt?”
I shook my head. I kept my eyes shut, but they still leaked and the tears ran off my face and into the Warm Springs pool. It seemed to me like that clean sparkly pool was a good place to let go of my sorrows.
Janice explained everything she was doing to me. She bent my legs in different positions. She rotated them. She rested my feet on her shoulders and massaged my leg muscles with her fingers. I don’t think she missed a single muscle from my belly to my toes. And she worked on my left arm because it had been affected by polio too. “You still have some weakness in your shoulder,” she said.
I think I must have cried the whole time. Not out loud or anything, just to myself. It was like Janice was working loose all the sadness and worry in me. I hoped it would go down the drain without clogging the pool filters.
