One morning the year he turned thirteen, Rory got to the pool super early. None of his friends would be there, he knew—Bobby and Tommy were on a Boy Scout camping trip, Matt had vacation Bible school, and Joel was preparing for his bar mitzvah. Rory didn’t care; his goal for the day would be bettering his speed by sprinting the length of the pool. For his birthday, his parents had given him a very expensive diving watch with a stop watch feature he planned to use to improve his time. Without the distractions of his friends, he hoped to maybe even beat the world record. It was a long shot, he knew, but at least he could give it a go.
Usually when he arrived at the pool, he was so early, he had to wait for the lifeguard on duty to open up. But this day, though, the gate already stood open,
