"We were at the town pool."

"Yes Mom."

"A hot day. Might have been August."

"I know Mom."

"Maggie was a newborn."

"Uh huh."

"You had had swim lessons, but only the kind where your father went in the pool with you."

"We sang: I had a little turtle, his name was tiny Tim."

"It's not like you could swim on your own."

"That would be something at two years old."

"We met Sarah Jane from down the road. It was hot. So hot. Your father wasn't at home. I think he was away that weekend."

"The city?"

"I forget where or what he was doing exactly."

"Board of governors' stuff?"

"Oh. I remember now, he was at his first board of governors meeting for the university. Anyway, I thought a nice trip to the town pool would be a perfect way to cool-off. I called Sarah Jane and packed our things. You ran ahead and pressed their doorbell button before I was halfway there. I had to hurry, baby in my arms, bag swinging on my shoulder, and even then Marnie opened the door to just you."

"Good ole Marnie."

"How's your foot anyway?"

"I'm fine. Really."

"You grabbed Marnie by the arm and pulled her out the door."

"I wanted to get to the pool."
"Even then you were impatient. Marnie nearly fell. She didn't have her swimsuit on anyway."

"Well, I didn't know that."

"You started to cry when I told you we had to wait for them to get ready."

"I did not. I played with their puppy."

"That was after, dear. First, I had to explain that they still had some packing up to do and their swimsuits to put on. Then you went and played with... Mitzie?"

"Motzo. Like the dumplings."

"Motzo! Right. Is Motzo still around?"

"You see Marnie walk him by our house every morning before school."
"That's the same dog? Wow. Anyway, after they got their things together and swimsuits on, you and Marnie headed off down the sidewalk together holding hands."

"Marnie loves it when you remind her of that, especially when you mention it in front of other 12-year-olds."

"Oh, pish. She doesn't mind. It's you who turns red."

"Really. She doesn't like it."

"You were so cute. The two of you holding hands, towels slung over your shoulders and down your back, dragging on the sidewalk behind you. Neither Sarah Jane nor I had the heart to scold you. We just watched and smiled at each other, thinking—"

"Don't."

"What?"

"Please don't say how nice we were together and how you both wondered if maybe when we were grown up..."

"But we did think that. We even joked about it. It could still happ—"

"We were two years old! Marnie and I are friends. Can we just—"

"Okay, okay. I don't know why so touchy, it was lovely."

"Listen, I'm supposed to try to wash around the cast, so maybe you could leave now and let me... ?"

"I'm not finished."

"But I know the story."

"Just let your mother reminisce for a little while, okay? Soon enough I won't have you around to talk to."

"Where am I going?"

"When you go to university."

"Six years from now?"

"When we got to the pool, I put the baby down in her basket and pulled the shade over her. Then we laid our towels on the grass. You and Marnie found stones to put on all the corners. I started getting lunch out. You liked bologna and ketchup sandwiches then."

"Yuck!"

"You did. You kept pestering me to go swimming. I said that after the sandwiches you could go swimming. That was a mistake."

"Was it?"

"Even then, you had a way of interpreting things to your personal benefit."

"What?"

"So you could do what you wanted."

"Oh."

"I finished making the last egg salad sandwich."

"Tuna. You usually say tuna salad."

"It might've been tuna. I remember egg, but that's not the point."

"My leg is a little bit itchy."

"Use a Q-tip. Don't damage the skin. I started to open the containers of fruit and potato salad when Marnie tapped me on the shoulder and asked ‘Can I go too?' I looked where she was pointing and saw you, sprinting towards the water, with a half-look back at me."

"I winked, right?"

"I didn't know you could wink, but that's what I saw. A wink and a jump and you were gone. Splash!"

"Where were the lifeguards?"

"Don't get me started. But I do remember leaping up, potato salad spewing out from my lap, running faster than I ever have in my life and jumping in the water after you."

"I was fine."

"Shoes on, hat on, sunglasses on, watch on—not waterproof, dress on and me in the pool."

"And where was I?"

"Hanging on the side of the pool. Laughing."

"Were you mad?"

"Livid. The whole county knew it too. A two-year-old jumping into the pool by himself."

"I probably wanted to swim."

"You weren't able to swim."

"I was two."

"It seems like just yesterday."

"I did wait for you to finish the sandwiches."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. But, technically, I did what you said."

"I did not tell a two-year-old that he could jump into a pool by himself—the deep end no less!"

"You finished the sandwiches."

"I meant finish eating the sandwiches"

"You should be more precise. Like today. You said I could jump in the leaves if I raked them up. "

"You could've broken your neck."

"The doctor said I'll be fine. It's just a fracture."

"Still, you're twelve, what were you thinking?"

"That it'd be fun to jump into a big pile of leaves."

"From the roof of the house?"