“breaststroke”
Jess swam breaststroke. She didn’t swim anything else and only under penalty of not being able to swim in the meet. She was barely six when she started, bucktoothed and skinny. During a Daventry Dolphins meet, someone had gone away on vacation and the coach needed someone to swim in the relay. Jess can do it, someone said. She grabbed her cap and pink goggles and strode to the end of the pool. She was on the relay for years after that. Her name is still on the record board and her goggles were always the same hot pink plastic.
