Elizabeth Doyle Carey - Summer Lifeguards

Jenna

Tuesday

I initially heard about the storm as I packed my backpack at my locker at the end of the first day of school. I was distracted, thinking about an assignment my friends and I had all just received in English class. Our new teacher wanted us to write a paper about what matters to us in life. ( Duh! Swim team! ) It had to be two pages long and was due next week. No problem. My paper about the swim team would practically write itself.

But something else caught my attention: a sixth grader named Allie was saying, My mom said it might be a Category Five by the time it hits us.

What are you doing to get ready for it? asked her friend, who was also in the grade below me.

I dont know. Last time we got hit by a big one, our chimney got blown off the house and it scattered bricks all over our neighbors yard. And my grandmas basement got filled with five feet of water. She didnt have power for two weeks after.

My sisters a lifeguard and she said the last one we had caused the biggest waves shes ever seen here, and it created riptides that lasted for three whole weeks! said Allie.

I slammed my locker shut and turned. Is there a noreaster coming? I asked, hefting my backpack over one shoulder. I was bringing home all of my textbooks so I could do some prereading and map out some chapter study guides while we still had a light homework load. I pulled my blond braid out from under the shoulder strap of my backpack and looked down at Allie. Im always taller than everyone, especially sixth graders.

Allie shook her head. Hurricane. Shaping up to be a biggie too. Hitting the Caribbean tomorrow, then the southern U.S. coast, working its way up the Eastern Seaboard.

Wow! My eyes grew wide. With a fisherman for a dad and farmers on my moms side, I was pretty tied to the weather, and even though I hadnt heard anything about this storm yet, I knew enough to take hurricanes seriously. Wed had some doozies over the years. Whens it due here? I asked.

Saturday, said Allie.

What?

Saturday! But it cant come Saturday! That doesnt work at all! I sputtered. A huge storm would interfere with the regional swim meet I was supposed to attend up on the North Shore on Saturday. A storm could make me late, or even keep some competitors home, competitors I needed to face in order to climb the state rankings. All my training over the summer, for what?

Allie looked at me strangely. I dont think we have a choice.

I took a deep breath. Right. Right. I shook my head and took out my phone to look at the weather report as I walked away. I was sure Allie and her friend were exchanging glances behind my back, but I didnt care. I needed the facts.

Sure enough, Hurricane Trina was gathering strength in the Caribbean and heading to make landfall in the Bahamas tonight. I offered up a silent prayer for the people there, that the hurricane would spend all its power somewhere out on the open sea and never make landfall, and then just melt into a rainy day by the time it reached us. That was what usually happened up here, and that wouldnt make me miss my meet. That, I could stand.

I took a minute to visualize the storm, then correct the image for a win. This is one of the mindfulness things that our swim coach taught us to do when were nervous about something. In my own mind, I call it a vaccination because it feels like it protects me: I imagine the worst possible outcome of a situation, then correct it to be the best possible outcome.

I closed my eyes and pictured dark clouds moving into Westham. I pictured heavy rain and strong winds bending trees, maybe snapping some limbs, scattering leaves everywhere. I pictured the ocean whipped up into a white froth, people walking on the beach with their hair blowing back and their clothing stretched tight against them from the wind. I pictured my dad telling me the meet was canceled. Then, I corrected it all for the win. I pictured Saturday as a bright sunny day, maybe a little windy, with some afternoon showers. I pictured my hand slapping the touchpad of the pool in Salem, time after time, for a win. Thats all. Perfect. I opened my eyes and smiled in relief. I was using these new mindfulness techniques pretty much every day, and I liked them.

Outside school, I stowed my phone, snapped on my helmet, and hopped on my bike to ride to swim team practice. It was a beautiful, sunny, late-summer day, and there wasnt a cloud in the sky. There was no way a hurricane was about to hit here. I was sure it would veer away from the coast. I was sure Id make my meet on Saturday. There was nothing to worry about. After all the practice and training Id done all summer, there was no way Id miss that meet.

Especially if my teammate and direct competitor, Franny Barnes, was going.

* * *

As I rode to the YMCA, I reviewed the summer in my mind. It had been hard work, but I was pretty sure it had been worth it. And it hadnt been all work and no play. If I looked back, I knew Id done a few fun things with my besties, Selena, Piper, and Ziggy. Like, I think we went to mini-golf up the Cape once (or was that last summer?), and I knew my dad had taken us out on his boat one timethough we didnt make it all the way to Nantucket for nachos as planned. I knew Piper had slept over twice and Id slept at Selenas once. Oh! And Id gone to a Chatham Anglers Cape Cod Baseball League game with my cousins for three innings after a swim meet once. (My town, Westham, is too small to have its own team.) That was fun! I had also made some money working mornings at my moms familys farm stand whenever possible. Four hundred twenty-seven dollars to be exact. That was time well spent.