“No,” Zora said. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Whatever you are,” Coralie said, “you’re good. And whatever I am to you—with you—it’s real.”
They walked on, past families straggling across the path, older women in hiking boots with dogs, and sunburned young people limping home from the night before. “When you were little,” Coralie said, “you used to call this Hampstead Heap.”
“I heard Dad crying last night, you know. A grown man, sobbing.”
“Sorry. Sorry you had to hear that.”
“I’ve heard it before,” Zora said. “Tom cries all the time.”
Coralie stopped, shocked. “Really?”
“Not all the time. But they’ve been fightingsomuch too. Marina lost her shit in lockdown and made Tom live in Eastbourne. That’s what I heard him crying about—that Eastbourne and the flat were so gross.”
“God! Don’t tell Anne.”
They both laughed.
After a bit, Coralie waved her arm around at the Heath. “You know, I’ve never swum here.”
“What? At the Ladies’ Pond?”
“I’m not a cool born-Londoner like you, Zor. I just live my little life in Hackney.”
She’d been aiming for something light, but Zora’s cry was desperate. “Why do you talk like you’re basicallydead?”
“I’m nearly forty,” Coralie said reasonably.
“God, get afuckinggrip.”
“Zor!”
“Honestly!”
“Okay, since you’re the one giving grown-up speeches now and dealing out reality checks—what’syournews? What’s going on at school?”
“That question’s too boring to respond to.”
“Okay!”
WOMEN ONLY
MEN NOT ALLOWED
BEYOND THIS POINT
She’d seen the sign on Instagram so many times.
In the changing rooms lined in wood like a sauna or cabin, hardy, confident, and clearly self-actualized women of all ages were in various stages of undress, chatting, drying, or sharing shampoo in the shower. She handed Zora the tote with her things. Shyly, they diverged into separate cubicles.
When they met out on the deck, she saw something that amused her. Zora was wearing the same style of plain black Speedo that she was. “What was all that about being boring?”
“It’spractical.”
“Okay!”
The water was warm, which was spooky. “Oh, yuck,” Coralie said. “I just put my foot into a different layer. The water’s gone all cold. How can it be different temperatures? Why isn’t it all the same? What’s on the bottom of this, anyway? And how deep is it?”
