Swimming, Early Spring

The wonderful thing about this part of the Chicago area is that sometimes people will just come up and start talking to you as you stand looking out at the still water early on a Saturday morning. And that was the beginning of this flash fiction draft.

The orange buoy and the orange swim cap, marking the front and back of her as she swims a straight line just beyond the marked off area at Lee Street Beach. I say “her,” I assume her because I am a her and I identify. With her. The water can't be more than 50 degrees, not now. Not when the white blossoms are just now out on the Bradford Pears and the red-winged blackbirds are still leaving everyone alone. It was 27 dollars a time to swim at the Intercontinental, and the parking, but what else could I do during the pandemic and the lake water still so cold? We finally got wetsuits, and they were so hard to get on. She must be so cold out there, swimming in this water.