The Weight of Wet Things

Mara stood at the edge of the hotel pool at 3 AM, wearing her dead mother's gardening **hat**. It was ridiculous—straw and frayed ribbon, smelling faintly of lavender and earth—but she couldn't make herself take it off. The chlorine stung her nose, sharp and chemical, like something that could strip a person down to nothing.

Below the surface, someone was **swimming** laps. Silent, methodical strokes cutting through black **water**. She watched the body move—arms reaching, legs kicking, mouth breaking the surface only to slip under again. How long could a person hold their breath before they had to choose between air and drowning? She'd forgotten.

"You're going to miss your flight," said a voice behind her.

She didn't turn. She knew who it was. Could smell his cologne, could picture the way his graying **hair** caught the moonlight. Richard. Her boss. The man she'd been sleeping with for eight months, the one whose wife had called yesterday to ask if Mara enjoyed the promotion she'd received the same week Richard started mentoring her.

"I know," she said.

"This doesn't have to mean anything." He stepped closer, his hand hovering near her elbow. "We're both adults."

Something inside her cracked open, vast and hollow. "I had a dog once," she said, the words spilling out like water from a broken glass. "When I was twelve. He got old, couldn't walk anymore. My father made me hold him while the vet—"

She stopped. The swimmer surfaced with a splash, breaking the rhythm.

"Mara—"

"Don't." She pulled the hat down lower, hiding her eyes. "Just go, Richard."

She listened to his footsteps retreat, the soft click of the sliding door, the silence rushing back in to fill the space he'd occupied. Below her, the water kept moving. She thought about how heavy wet clothes became, how they pulled you down when you tried to stand. How some things soaked through to your skin and stayed there forever, staining you from the inside out.

Mara took off the hat and placed it carefully on a lounge chair. Then she dove into the pool.