Since last spring

I have not been to Barton Springs since last spring. The place seems the same since then, except the water looks lower and feels warmer. I dry off fast and have to go in frequently. In the down time, I am part of the audience watching a non-stop line-up of people jump of the diving board. Some participants take running leaps, while others cautiously walk to the end, plug their noses and simply walk off the plank. Belly flops, canon balls, double twists, back flips, pencil dives, sleek dolphin dives hardly causing a splash, 3 somersalts in the air before hitting the surface head first. Cart wheels. Wistle blows. "Hey, no cart-wheeling off the diving board."

People clapping for the little ones. And for the older ones who do a risky trick. Noisy surges of water quickly gone to bubbles. Sometimes, the board reverberates forcefully. So many voices layer together that I can only distinguish those conversations nearest me - and, then, only if I want to. Un-focusing comes easily.