We stood in silence for a moment, looking at each other. “How much do I owe you for the tire?” I finally asked him.
“What?” He looked confused, then a little offended. “Nothing. Don’t be silly.”
“No, I can pay you—”
“Emily, please. I can spot you a bike tire.”
We looked at each other again. “Anyway,” he continued, “I wanted to let you know that I had taken the wheel home with me, but I didn’t have your number.” He pulled out his phone and looked at me, waiting.
“Oh, sure!” I rattled off the number.
He tapped on his phone, then said, “I just texted you, so you have mine too now. Ok?”
I nodded. “I better get back inside. I don’t really have a break now. Thank you again, for everything.”
He nodded too, and I felt all eyes on me again as I re-entered the NGS.
“Um, honey?” Martha asked me as I replaced her at the register. “Did you know that you have a price tag stuck to your cheek?”
∞
It was my day to drive Charlie and Darby over to the pool. Thank goodness they were now in the same swim group—Tara and I could get each other’s backs and carpool. I picked them up a little late, and after driving a maximum three MPH in the school parking lot as I scanned for errant children, I had to gun the Bronco to get to the pool on time.
Charlie couldn’t change with Darby in the car, so he scurried off to the locker room (“Slow down! No running!”) while I looked around the pool deck for Coach Sean.
He was talking to a group of swimmers about their weekends when I hesitantly tapped him on the shoulder. “Uh, Coach Sean? Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure,” he said. “Scram, you little monkeys.” The swimmers scattered. “What’s up, Emily? Are the boys bothering Charlie again?”
“No, no, he’s doing great. Thanks for asking.” I bunched my hands into fists inside my sweatshirt pocket. “I wanted to talk to you about the team monthly dues.”
“Sure,” he said again. “Did you want to switch to an automatic payment on your card or something?”
No, I didn’t want to do that, and he didn’t either if he actually wanted money from me. My plastic was no good anymore.
“No, no thank you. Um, I actually wanted to see if you guys ever offer scholarships. Or fee reductions, or anything like that.” I could feel my face getting red. Why was money so hard?
Coach Sean nodded slowly. “Well, what I can do is bring your request to the Board of Directors. They make all the money decisions for the team. They meet next week. Wouldthat work for you?”
“Yes. Yes, that would be great. I don’t know if you’re aware of the family…situation that we have going on right now, but things are really tight, and I would do just about anything to keep Charlie swimming because it means so much to him.” The last part of the sentence came out in huge rush, like it was a single gigantic word.
Sean nodded again. “I can’t make any promises, but they’re reasonable people on the board. Let’s see what they say.”
I felt a little relief. “Ok, thank you again.”
“Sure.”
It had been my Nana who had gotten Charlie into swimming, first for lessons so he would be water safe when she took him to the beach, then when she saw how much he loved it, signed up for the team that practiced at the Athletic Complex. Nana, who had never watched a swimming race in her life, not even the Olympics, would call me to report his times and splits, his progress in butterfly and problems with his dive (he was a flopper). I searched around the internet to find good deals on suits and goggles (Nana was not a computer person) and had them shipped right to her. When she had died, so had his swimming for a while. Neither Mike nor Cassie had taken any interest. But now that I was there, and he was back in the pool, I wasn’t going to let anything keep him out of it.
Charlie joined the rest of the swimmers, swim cap strangely puffy like a latex chef’s hat. I saw that he hadn’t pulled it down over his ears. Luckily Ysabel with a Y was taking care of it.
I opened my phone to go through emails—the WIFI at the Athletic Complex was free and awesome.
∞
To:
From:Sharks Aquatics
