Safe Arrival

She was always a good runner, even if swimming was her forte. She still swam laps at least a few times a week, but she wasn't particularly competitive after her "good genes" decided to bless her chest and legs with curves. She just did it for fun and exercise. Averaging an 8 minute mile pace, and only a few lights and distraction from her campus to the nearby country club, she managed to make the journey in a little over half an hour. Checking her phone she noted that it was 1:45 PM. Just enough time to stretch, and rest before work. Typically, she would work on scheduling, tasking out details, testing water, and doing a checklist of the post in the first hour. At 3, David would be officially relieved, and I'd take over. There was usually a 20 minute "swim at your own risk" period where we could talk about any issues, safety concerns, or hash out the weekly counseling paper I was expected to write. Usually he'd then take a quick shower and head home to his girlfriend, and I'd resume my post until 8PM. Juan and I basically only met when something went wrong, he needed to file a rescue report, or to pick up his check. We generally swapped him coming in on my day, and me going in on his. I had a car, I just didn't use it on running days.

After my stretch, I entered the gate and went into the staff entrance. Me and David exchanged waves. For the last hour of Davids shift I sat at my desk in a small office set up for the purpose and copy pasted together the same Counseling Statements I always used. "Hey, doing great! Keep it up!" Just a little bit of encouragement, and unless an unruly patron intervened, this ship sailed on glass. I hadn't even realized it had been an hour when I heard the door to the staff locker room close and the water start. "Shit", I said. I was still in my running clothes, and I'd have to wait for him to finish before going to my locker and changing into my red lifeguard suit. If I wasn't up on that block in 20 minutes, some asshole tenant would report me. They basically set clocks to lifeguard switches here.