Lane Four

Lane Four

1On the morning of her first swim meet, Nadia Haddad's stomach was a knot of rope. She sat on the bleachers with a towel around her shoulders and watched the older swimmers warm up. They sliced through the water like knives, leaving barely a ripple behind them.

2The pool looked enormous. Under the bright lights, the water was a sheet of blue glass, perfectly still except at the edges. Nadia's coach, Ms. Ferreira, sat down beside her. "You look as pale as a ghost," she said gently. "Are you all right?"

3"What if I come in last?" Nadia asked. "Everyone here is a shark, and I'm just a guppy."

4Ms. Ferreira smiled. "Every shark started out small," she said. "You don't have to beat anyone today. Just swim your own race."

5When the announcer called the fifty-yard freestyle, Nadia walked to lane four. Her legs felt like wet noodles. The other swimmers shook out their arms and pulled on their goggles. The crowd was a wall of noise, cheering and stomping until the bleachers rumbled like distant thunder.

6"Swimmers, take your mark." Suddenly the room went quiet. Nadia curled her toes over the edge of the starting block and held her breath. Then the horn blared, and she sprang forward.

7The cold water swallowed her whole. For a moment, she forgot everything she had practiced. Then her arms began to remember, and she found her rhythm: reach, pull, breathe; reach, pull, breathe. Her kicks churned the water into foam. She was an engine now, steady and strong.

8At the wall, she flipped and pushed off. Her lungs were on fire, and her shoulders ached, but she could hear her teammates shouting her name. The last few yards stretched out like a mile. Nadia put her head down and pulled with everything she had left.

9When her hand slapped the wall, she popped up and looked at the scoreboard. She had finished fifth out of six swimmers, but her time was four seconds faster than her best practice swim. Ms. Ferreira was waiting at the end of the lane, and her grin was as wide as the pool.

10Nadia climbed out, dripping and breathless. The knot in her stomach had melted away. Maybe she was still a guppy, she thought, but guppies could grow.