Cross remembered the swimming pool and she was not about to miss it , for who knows if she would ever get the chance to swim again when the crew would be called back to the ship and leave the station for good .

In her new bikini the female doctor first dipped her toes in the clear water of the pool ,her thoughts went back to her childhood and the little house she lived in with her grandfather and idiotic , capricious mother .The beach was just five minuets away and although rather small, she used to spend hours collecting colorful seashells and swimming in the water .She knew that what looked like sand on the seabed was actually clay ,still the place was special to her .Further away from the sea was a swamp, Cross smiled remembering how many times her grandfather would come looking for her telling her to avoid the swamp especially in the dark. Last but not least was the cliff , as a child she would often look out of her bedroom window at the lighthouse before being tucked in bed by her dear grandfather. Bitter sweet memories.

She eventually dived in the water ,there were other people around but as far as she was concerned she was all alone ....... for the time being blissfully happy while floating idyllically in the pool.

Cross didn’t notice the frail and decrepit old woman, who had been very slowly swimming widths of the pool, near to the diving board, and she almost dived on top of her. It was good for her arthritis and her leg muscle weakness.

“Can ye watch it whaur ye ur jumpin’ in th’ puil!” Morag shouted at the doctor. “Och it ye!”

• Morag McHoan, Ship’s Midwife (retired)