The Summer Swim
The pool looked larger than it really was. It sat behind the community center, beneath a sky so blue it seemed painted there on purpose. The water flashed in the sunlight, throwing pieces of brightness onto the concrete deck. The boy stood at the edge in swim trunks that still felt strange against his skin. Around him, older children leaped and splashed and disappeared beneath the surface as though water were simply another kind of air. He wished he understood how they did it. The deep end seemed as distant and mysterious as another country. His mother sat beneath a striped umbrella reading a book she rarely turned the pages of, watching him over the top of it with the quiet attention mothers carry everywhere. "You'll get there," she said when he looked back at her. The words drifted across the water and settled somewhere inside him. The swimming instructor was patient. He wore a whistle and sun-faded sunglasses and spoke as if there were no hurry at all. First came float...