Saturday Afternoon Swim Meet in Lafayette

Drove over to Lafayette for the swim meet. The whole ready area was rows of black folding chairs under an awning, girls scooting forward one chair at a time as heats got called, every cap a different team — gold ones, pink-strapped goggles, the SH Legends caps everywhere.

Ours sat near the front of the line in her yellow SSC cap, green goggles already parked on her forehead, name printed right on the cap. She turned around and waved through the orange fence netting while she waited. Didn't look nervous. Mostly looked like she wanted us to stop hovering.

Once her heat moved up we lost her in the crowd on the far side of the pool — tents and pennant flags and a hundred people packed along the deck, one lifeguard chair with crutches leaning against it, which I hope belonged to a spectator. Hot out there in the open. The lane lines just sat there empty for what felt like a long time between events.