Swim Until You Can't See Land by Catriona Child Page B

letter.
    Should she go back and get it?
    No, keep going. She could get it on the way out. Not that she needed it. She had memorised the little information it contained.
    25, 26.
    This was it. Door 26.
    Behind this door she would finally get some answers. She knocked twice, hard. Didn’t hesitate, didn’t want to give herself time to chicken out. She knocked once more, harder, scraped the skin on her knuckles. A final practise in case she had to put George’s advice into action.
    She heard footsteps on the other side of the door, then the lock turned. A man in a suit and tie stood facing her.
    Mr Thompson.
    An interview for what?

July 2005
    Going in the Wright Direction
    GB call up for Scottish swimmer
    Hannah Wright (16) has been named in the Great Britain team for the World Swimming Championships in Montreal. Hannah is one of the youngest competitors to be selected and is relishing the opportunity to make her mark on the world stage.
    ‘I’m so excited to be included in the squad,’ said Hannah. ‘My swimming’s been going really well and this is the reward for all the hard work I’ve been putting in.’
    Hannah knows that she’ll be less experienced than others in the team, however she insists she’s not just going to make up the numbers.
    ‘My aim is to get a new PB for the 100m Butterfly and if I do that then I’ve got a good chance of making the final.’

7
    I COUNT AS I swim, add the metres in my head.
    (the only way I know how to count)
    25 m
    50 m
    100 m
    I swear I would have done better in Higher Maths if they’d asked me questions about swimming.
    Pete’s coach tells him to do 1,000m warm-up then 8 x 200 IM followed by 200m swim down. How many lengths will Pete swim?
    Susan swims 100m freestyle in 1.02.33. What time should she be doing for 400m freestyle?
    I’m tired, can’t get a speed up. My arms are heavy and my legs slip through the water instead of propelling me forward.
    150 m
    200 m
    Yesterday’s taken it right out of me. What a strange fucking day.
    I keep going for 800 m then stop, lean against the tiled wall, out of breath. I give my steamed up goggles a wipe and rest them on my forehead. The days are gone when I could swim 70, 80,000 metres a week. Sprint 100 m in less than a minute. How far have I swum in my lifetime? I’ve gone round the world a few times.
    Where does your fitness go when it leaves you?
    I glance at the clock. I should really be getting out if I want to make work on time. I can’t face it though. Can’t face work, can’t face going back there after what happened yesterday. I pull my goggles down over my eyes, push off from the wall. Just a few more lengths, then I’ll get out.
    I cycle round the block twice before I finally stop outside the shop. I didn’t realise it would be so hard coming back here.
    ‘Hey, Hannah,’ Calum nods at me from behind the counter.
    He’s reading a magazine, moves it to one side as I join him.
    The crack’s still there.
    ‘Mum says it’ll take a couple of days before someone can come to replace it,’ Calum says, tracking my gaze. ‘She’s raging about how much it’s going to cost.’
    The glass is the only giveaway that something’s happened here.
    Something bad.
    Everything else is back to normal.
    It’s kind of scary how back to normal the shop is.
    Life carries on.
    That old woman could be dead or alive for all I know, but the universe doesn’t care, sweeps up the false teeth and keeps going.
    ‘Where’s Shirley anyway?’ I ask.
    ‘That’s nice – aren’t you pleased to see me?’
    ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.’
    ‘I’m only joking. She wasn’t feeling great this morning, didn’t get in till late. She was pretty upset about what happened. Don’t think it really hit her till after, eh?’
    I’m about to say that Dad saw her in the pub last night but I stop myself.
    I’m not sure how Calum feels about Dad. I’m not sure Dad treated Shirley all that well in their on/off/on/off/on/off.
    It’s