Swimming became our thing after that. It seems strange to go to the water after it took her, but Ben wanted to. He said it was where he could still hear her voice telling him to breathe.
I wasn’t going to argue with that.
I just held him.
***
That Saturday, we headed toward the men’s changing room, still dripping, Ben chattering about how he was gonna eat “at least 24 fries by himself.”
“Twenty-four? Big talk.”
“Thirty!”
I noticed the man in the corner as we walked in. He was maybe in his mid-50s, always by the same locker in the back. I’d seen him around for a few months now, and he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. He’d nod at me sometimes but never spoke.
I noticed the man in the corner.
I nodded. The man nodded back and looked down at his bag.
I dropped our stuff on the bench, unzipped our swim bag, and started digging for dry clothes.
