Excerpt

“The Child”

After the child had been taken from the water. After someone had said it that the pool that the pool cover should be taken completely off to see whether he might have slipped through he was so small and the cover was removed and there he was in that strange element. There was a question of shock and something like discretion that could not let them use one of the long poles with the nets on the end to reach into the water and manipulate the small body toward waiting hands at the poolside. That expedience was so possible. The poles were right there but. The owner jumped into the pool fully clothed and gathered the dead child to himself as if he hoped to save it back into life. As if it still might be that he would be in time. And the awkward moment was passed. It had been dealt with humanly with an implication of hope and salvaging against the grief that was now all that could happen seeing the child’s blue tinted face.