Love story (another, but just the same)

    Weather in that coastal place is always deceiving. It may be cooler and overcast, with a sun still burning. Drew looked a few times at her sun hat on a shelf in the closet, and was pondering if throwing it  or not in her travel bag, but eventually she completely forgot about it.

    When they went to the amusement park, it was a bit cold, so sun hats did not seem necessary anyway, she thought, so Drew was instinctively drawn to unshaded occasional seating. In the evening, when she saw herself in the mirror, her face was red as a lobster, especially forehead and nose, and her whole head felt kind of funny. But she was fine, and continued to enjoy everything else the family trip offered.

    However, a few days later the woman developed some unusual neck pains, accompanied when turning her head by pinching sensations in the back of the ears. They would not go away. Some affected nerves, maybe...? Drew looked into anatomy and there you go... occipital nerves were right where she felt sharp pain every time she was turning her head. There was nothing she could do other than some gentle exercises, massage, non-inflammatory nutrition... An MD would just put her on drugs, and she would not have that.

    Such pains were the last thing she needed before her long flight overseas. She ordered a travel neck pillow, hoping it would come on time. Then, she remembered the older physician who taught her some extraordinary exercises in the water a while ago, during a summer program at school.

    "Those exercises would help me... I am sure of it... let's go to the pools...",  she told Jay, as if she had figured out the ultimate solution to her problem.

    Jay, who was as fond as her of mineral waters, agreed right away.

    The season was pretty much off, as huge flys that would draw blood in an instant, were already hovering around the pools since warm season kicked in. Some strange guardians of the mineral water pools-- some may say-- as everybody was weary of them and no longer bathing... But the couple went anyway.

    The unchlorinated mineral water of the private pool was so inviting. Drew went in and felt like embracing it with zest... Jay was just behind her and the velvety skin to skin touch felt conforting... 

    "Do you know how Achilles was held by his mother in the river...? That's how... kind of... you need to hold my neck, so I can hung like that in the water..."

    But Jay seemed quite familiar with the exercise and held Drew's neck like a skilled potter his pot on a wheel, turning it, and flexing it gently. Drew lifted her feet from the bottom of the pool and let herself go  with the movement of Jay's palms. It was exactly the right pressure for her affected neck.

    The repeated exercises did miracles, and her disconfort diminished already. It mattered less when one of the nasty bugs landed on her shoulder and left her bloody in a second...