Sunday Week 1 of Lent Year B
Jesus came to Rainhill, message in hand: “It’s time”, he said, “Things are changing. So change your outlook. The news is good.”
I remember my first trip to the swimming baths from school, all excited, heart racing, aged maybe 5 or 6. The sharp stink of chlorine and disinfectant and wet changing rooms. Actually I’m lying about that because all I remember is a single image. A snapshot, a frozen frame, of a girl, a classmate—name erased by years—drowning that morning. I think she missed her step climbing down into the shallow end. She’s etched sharply against the black and white tile … floating underwater, her hair spread out all around her like a mane, a halo, eyes open, mouth gaping. I’m standing there on the pool side in wonder … here is something new, something astonishing, here is time frozen, here is death working, here is life all suddenly dangerous. Fear and wonder and chlorine all tasted together.
Add comment March 5th, 2006