Before I knew it, we were standing on the stairs for the waterslide. The lines were long on Saturday. I’d looked around and my favorite lifeguard, Troy, who had almost saved my life, was not there.

Instead it was the lady who blew her whistle at Berkeley for hanging on the rope one time, which she was just barely barely not even really touching.

Berkeley was chatting with two other kids in front of us and I stared at the lazy river, which had tons of people.

I saw a dad running in the river with two kids hanging off him, laughing their faces off and there was a lady sitting on the side and she was laughing, too, and I didn’t know for sure but that was the mom and they were going to go get ice cream after and maybe even fancy hamburgers and then they’d all go home and watch America’s Funniest Home Videos together or something.

I felt tears start to come so I stopped staring at the dumb-bum lazy river.

Across the way, through a glass wall, was the competition pool where people who really knew how to swim did laps and where the swim team went for practice and swim meets.

I wished I was good at swimming and that I could go and do laps back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and forget about everything.

Right now, the play pools and waterslides were packed. But the competition pool was quiet. It looked like a whole other world over there.

One where not everyone got to go.

Only certain people.

A group was forming on the side of the pool.

It was a water aerobics class.

There were a bunch of ladies. Big ladies. Old ladies. Mom ladies. One even looked like Mrs. Sydney Gunnerson. Was that Mrs. Sydney Gunnerson?

I squinted to see better but it didn’t help. It looked a lot like her. She wasn’t the type of person I would think would do water aerobics. The clock said it was almost twelve so she would be way done selling dolls by now.

~

Then, just as the waterslide line started to move, I saw something I was not expecting.

I saw something that almost made me gasp out loud.

~

I saw a boy.

Getting into the water and starting to do water aerobics with all the old people.

I saw someone I thought I was starting to love and who I watched get in trouble.

I saw Bart.