A pool boy with extra perks of benefits – 02

“A year ago the pool guy wanted $250 to clean those pipes.”

“Didn’t cost you a penny. I already had the fish-tape and bladder. Lucky you.”

“You’re a miracle worker, Sam. Have I mentioned that? You are really piling up the brownie points.” She gave me a huge grin. “So which bathing suit do you want me to not wear today?”

“Boots, sweat pants, a long sleeve shirt and rubber gloves. And as much as I hate to say it, you’re going to have to actually wear them.”

“Really?”

“Really. We’re going to scrub down the inside of the pool. And we’re using muriatic acid, which we are NOT letting touch a single inch of that heavenly body.”

She sighed loudly, then turned away from me. For my part, I was still scooping leaves out of the bottom of the pool with a shovel. The water level was down to the point where it was only a few inches deep in the shallow end. I got out of the pool and started prepping the acid wash.

I wanted to laugh when Railey made her appearance, but I valued my life too much so I stifled it. “You look hot,” I teased.

“I AM hot.”

“Shouldn’t be too long,” I told her. “Your job is pretty easy. While I wash down the sides with acid, you’re going to follow behind and use the scrubber on the wall from the side. When we’ve finished an area, you’ll rinse it with a hose, while I scrub from the inside. We’re using a strong acid and the fumes are really bad for you, so you’ll have to wear this respirator.” I handed her the gas-mask looking device, watching her eyes bulge.

“Are you serious?”

“100%. We’ll be done in an hour, and your lungs will thank me for the precautions.”

“How come you get to wear shorts and a t-shirt?”

“My skin doesn’t matter. Hell, a few nice chemical scars might give me some character. Plus I’ve done this before and I’ll be careful. Notice I’m wearing boots and a respirator too. And I’ll be wearing goggles, which you don’t have to worry about, if you’ll wear your sunglasses.”

“Are we ready?” she asked.

“Not quite. I want to get as much of this old water out first.” The pump was still draining the bottom of the pool. I was pushing all the debris down to the bottom. “You can spray the sides and bottom to clean them as much as possible,” I told her.

We worked at it, and she made sure to hit me with the hose a few times. “Hey!” I barked at her, when she hosed me down pretty thoroughly from just a few feet away.

“Just wanted to make sure there was still a beefcake pool-boy somewhere under that slime-man exterior.”

It was only a few minutes until the water at the bottom was only a couple of inches deep. “Get ready to shut off the filter,” I told her.

“How?”

“On the panel. Press the button that says ‘filter’.”

She stood beside the pool panel, and when the water started gurgling at the bottom I told her to kill it.

A few last minutes shoveling out all the old leaves, grime and dirt, and we were ready to go.

“Time to start cleaning. We’ll work from the deep end to the shallow, so I don’t end up standing in a pool of acid at the end.” I had a standard sprayer filled with a 1 to 1 dilution of the acid. I sprayed a swath about 5 feet wide from the top to the bottom, starting in the deep end. The yellow liquid started bubbling immediately, and while she brushed the area, I watched for any stains that needed a second treatment. “Looks good, now the rinse.”

While she rinsed the section, I took a long-handled scrub brush to it. A few seconds later we had a bright and shiny section of clean wall.

“That’s amazing,” she said through her muffled respirator.

“Yep,” I was already onto the next section.

The walls only took about 20 minutes, but I was already getting overheated. I imagine she was doing worse.

“Five minute water break, and then we finish this up.”

She stumbled over to the porch, removing her respirator, and peeling her shirt off, exposing a pink bikini top. She was definitely red in the face, and sweating profusely. “I’m burning up,” she said.

“I know, me too.”

“Is all this really necessary?”

“If you want you can leave the shirt off for the next part. Just stay above the acid line and spray toward me. The long pants and respirator have to stay.”