A Public Swimming Pool at Night

The public pool is empty. The water is blue, and the floor slopes up to a high ledge on which a photograph rests. I stand there. A small dog comes and rests against my leg. It has the weight of a much larger animal. I do not look for an exit. The blue water laps against me in quiet waves.

A man comes through the door, looking around, looking concerned. He stops by the photograph on the ledge and looks down at it, his hands moving slowly over its surface. His face is blank. He has forgotten what he was looking for. He looks up. I look at him. The clock above the entrance is stopped at an hour I do not recognise. He steps into the pool and begins swimming laps in the blue water.

The man is the manager, but I do not know that yet. He has forgotten who he is too. His strokes are slow, precise, calm. The water lifts his body out of my hands.