Sump Stories: Guilt by Association

"What ya' doin', Mister?" said the little boy.

The pool operator looked up from his kneeling position over a test kit there at the edge of the pool to see a boy about 6 years old. It was a typical long, hot day at the crowded city plunge. The operator just then lacked the patience that was needed to explain testing for pH to a little boy he knew was only innocently curious.

"Well, sonny, I’m checking to see if anyone did something they weren’t supposed to in the pool" answered the operator.

"You mean went potty?" asked the little boy.

"That’s right."

At that moment the operator was about to dose the sample vial with five drops of phenol red to complete his regular afternoon pH test.

"Now you see, if the pool water in this little test tube turns red when I put in these drops, that will mean somebody did it" said the operator with an accusing look toward the child.

He added the five drops as he always did and held the now bright pink tube up for the little boy to see. The coloration would have looked like 7.6 or so in the comparator.

The operator then looked from the sample vial over to the youngster, whose eyes were cast down, chagrined.

"I’m sorry Mister," said the boy with a shuffling of feet. "it, it was me."

~(Harry Simmon/POOLFAX, Stranco)