She Fears Gate Nazis

My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, doesn't get a lot of "downtime" to just sit and relax with her writing. So last weekend when she had returned from what she kept calling "the deepfreeze" of Colorado from a business trip, she took the latest printout of Book II in the Choices Meant for Gods trilogy and went to lay by the pool here in the condominium community where she lives.

It takes a key to get into the fenced-off pool area. You must be a resident of this community to use the pool. I guess that makes sense because the people who live here don't want random people from without the community coming in to use their pool. I'm not sure why they won't share, but they won't. It seems to me that people would use their own community's pool... (Oh, she just told me this is pretty standard in your society and not to overthink it.)

Anyway, what she found bizarre was the two different mindsets concerning the locking of the gate while the pool was in use. See, when she arrived, there were several senior citizens in the pool already, and the gate was slightly ajar so it remained unlocked and she could pass through without taking out her key to get in. Convenient. She left it that way. No one complained.

When one of the gentlemen left the pool, he closed the gate completely, clicking the lock into place, and the ladies in the pool spoke up, shouting to him to re-open it. They wanted it open and unlocked so they wouldn't have to get out their keys to get out of the pool area.

This seemed logical to Sandy. The ladies were making life easier for themselves.

When the ladies left, they also left the gate slightly ajar. Sandy had the entire pool area to herself and proceeded to fall asleep instead of editing. (I complained but she wouldn't listen.)

Pretty soon, she was awakened by a senior couple coming in, demanding to know if she was expecting someone to join her. She said no. "Well, this gate is open," the man said. "Are you expecting someone?"

"No, the ladies who left a few minutes ago must have left it open. They may be coming back."

The couple looked distressed. "Well, this is supposed to be locked. I'm going to close this." The man was rather adamant. His wife nagged at him, "just close it." "It should be closed," he told her. "Just close it," she snapped at him. When the naggy couple left later, they not only closed the gate behind them, but shook it to make sure it latched.

Sandy was amused, and told me that if she lives to get old, and if I'm still around, I am to run her through with a sword if pool gates become an obsessive reason for her to snap at people she's hanging out with.

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, pool, obsessive