My physical therapist is a hippo

My physical therapist is a hippo. We do our sessions by the river. I let her know that I’m there by writing my name onto a river rock with a crayon and then throwing it into the water. Then she surfaces. I have a lower back injury that I got from climbing, which she can relate to because she is also a climber, and she works the tissue with her huge hooves. She barely needs to apply any pressure for it to be effective, but she could apply more if she wanted to. Hippos are very strong.

She is well-practiced at small talk. While she was working my back, I learned that many of her clients have already gotten their COVID vaccines (she doesn’t need one because hippos can’t get COVID). The table upon which I lay is made out of reeds and cattails from the river, and it smells like earth and hand sanitizer.

After she works my back, we go through the exercises. She is unrelenting in her demands for good form, as a good hippo physical therapist should be, and I resist the urge to cheat and tell her I did fewer reps than were called for. She may get angry if she found out, and then she would be an angry hippo.

I’m going to see her for several weeks and see if my back gets any better. If it doesn’t, I may try seeing a rhino chiropractor.