Summary

In “The Underground Pool,” the residents of a city visit their underground pool daily. Some use the pool “to heal” and others “to escape” their lives above ground (3). One swimmer, Alice, is “a retired lab technician” and suffering from “the early stages of dementia” (3). She has visited the pool for years. Though her memory is fading, everything becomes clear once “she slips into the water” (4).

The pool lets the swimmers “leave [their] troubles on land behind” (4). Worries disappear and grief ceases. Meanwhile, disaster and chaos define the world above. In the underground pool, there is order. Everyone knows the rules.

The swimmers’ “real lives” are challenging (7). Their difficulties disappear at the pool, where there are three types of people: “fast-lane people, medium-lane people or the slow” (8). Each group has a different persona. Above ground, the same people are awkward, old, worried, overweight...