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freshman year. Even worse, two Tallahassee swimmers had beat him.
    Leo hung his head, pulled himself out of the pool, and zoomed straight to the locker room. He sat in silence for several minutes, trying to collect himself. What had gone wrong? He had no answers, but he felt a little calmer after a while, so he emerged and went to talk to Matt. As he crossed the deck, Leo noticed his father was gone.
    Wonderful. Apparently his swim sucked so bad his dad couldn’t take watching the meet any more.
    Matt studied him. “What’s up with you?” Leo felt a flash of panic zip through him. “What do you mean, sir?”
    “You’re dogging it at practice, then you stink up the pool with that fifty. I’ve never seen your turnover so slow, and my grandma could’ve gotten off the block faster than your start.”
    “I — I don’t know. I felt like I was in a fog or something.”
    “Well, go cool down, and get yourself ready for your hundred.”
    “Yes, sir.” Leo walked down to the part of the pool not used for the meet and tried to catch Audrey’s attention. She wouldn’t look at him.
    “Join the club,” he muttered as he slid into the cold water. I’m disappointed in me too.

8. Cartwheels though the Puddles
    Winter in northern Florida was Denny Rose’s favorite season, and he drank in the warm sun as he walked the perimeter of the courtyard.
    At first the MPs had forced their listless inmate to walk during recreation time, but he’d now grown to enjoy the thirty-minute hustles. They seemed to lighten his mood.
    He’d been thinking about Audrey’s swim meet all day long, but his mind wandered as he walked. He recalled the summer Audrey had started swimming. Their neighbor’s daughter, Elaine, had been on the officer’s club swim team, and she’d convinced Audrey to give it a try.
    Denny grinned, remembering how little he and JoAnne had known about the sport at that first meet. Audrey’s saggy, bright blue swimsuit had been totally wrong for competition, but she’d still won all her events that evening.
    Denny had overheard another father talking to his daughter about the final relay of the evening. The girl had been completely confident their team would win. When her father had asked why, she’d answered , “Because Audrey’s on it.” Denny had swelled with pride and been hooked ever since. He’d kept track of the time and place of each of Audrey’s races for her entire career.
    That first meet, years ago, had been blanketed by angry storm clouds as it ended, and the skies poured down sheets of rain. Swimmers and their parents had raced through the parking lot, screaming with laughter and soaking wet. As Denny and JoAnne threw open their car doors to scramble inside, Denny cried, “Where’s Audrey?” JoAnne gasped. “I thought she was with you!” They frantically peered out the windshield and saw their daughter dancing toward them, wearing only her swimsuit and an enormous smile. Her hair cascaded over her shoulders as she threw her arms out wide, spinning in the teeming rain in front of her family’s car.
    Denny had stared in amazement at the carefree joy of his only child. She didn’t need a pool to enjoy the water. She didn’t need a pool to swim.
    Feeling the cool breeze in the courtyard, his smile faded. He’d never watch his daughter swim again. Denny saw the MP signal the end of yard time, and he joined the other prisoners forming a line to head to the showers.
    The majority of cons at the military prison were young enlisted men who’d earned short sentences for drunk and disorderly, insubordination, or theft. They kept their distance from the forty-three-year-old convicted murderer, but it didn’t matter. Denny knew he’d eventually be transferred to Leavenworth.
    As he scrubbed cheap shampoo into what remained of his buzzed hair, his stomach twisted. Audrey wouldn’t have much time to visit him once he moved to federal prison in Kansas, and JoAnne barely made it to see him as it was.