Only a drill

“Attention please. Attention please. There is a fire emergency in the building. Please leave the building at once. Do not use the elevator.”


This is what I think right now is a fire drill, but could be a real fire. If it's a drill, they're not going to tell us, obviously, because then it wouldn’t be a very effective drill. In fact, even when we’re not sure if it’s real or not, even when as far as we know the building could be engulfed in flames, we still take a moment to gather our stuff before we vacate the premises. I mean, no one wants to be caught in a fire, but also no one wants to be stuck on the base without our car keys and our handbags.

*****

That was Thursday, 2:30 PM or so. I normally leave at about 4:15 (or 1615 depending on who I’m talking to) and so I also grabbed my computer and my notebooks and pens on my way out because I telework on Fridays and didn’t want to be without my computer.


It was just a drill, thankfully. It was a nice day, and everyone on campus gathered outside, congregating on the field and around the walking track and in the shady pavilion. I sat on the pavilion steps, writing and talking to people. At 2:55 or so, the all-clear sounded so I returned to my office, and hammered out a pile of work, thanks to a burst of productive energy driven by the unexpected interruption. It was great, actually. We should have fire drills all the time.


*****

Now it’s Saturday morning. It’s gray and heavily overcast. I swam every night this week, including last night, when the pool was chilly and dank. My heart wasn’t in it. But today’s forecast is promising - it should be hot and sunny this afternoon, and I am planning to make up for last night’s half-hearted swim with 30 minutes of brisk laps (brisk being a relative term).


*****

It’s Sunday morning now. We had a few hours of sunshine early in the afternoon, and after I did whatever I did (it’s 24 hours later, barely, and I don’t even remember although I know that there was a grocery run and some other random errands as well as the usual housekeeping and laundry), I went to the pool at 4:30. The thunder started at about 4:37, just as I was about to step into the water. So I came home. I didn’t change my clothes - I cooked dinner and cleaned up, still in my suit and an oversized t-shirt that serves as a pool cover-up. The pool, I reasoned, would be open until 8:45, and I could try again after the storm passed. And the storm did pass. It looked apocalyptic for a few minutes, nearly dark at 5 PM, with a few minutes of very heavy rain, and then lingering lighting and thunder with light showers for another hour or so. I finally returned to the pool at 7:45, but the parking lot was empty save for one car that belongs to the brother and sister who were the lifeguards on duty. I hate being the only person in the pool, and so I returned home and sulked. I only sulked for a few minutes, but I did sulk.


*****

My son goes back to school in a week, and it feels like summer is over. Beach week seems ages ago, and even that bright and sunny fire drill two days ago seems like a distant memory.


But the second year of sending a child away to college is much much easier than the first, I’ll admit. He’ll come home on some weekends, and swim season starts in October, so we’ll get to go to Marymount swim meets, and I love Marymount swim meets. And it’s been a pretty good summer, so I don’t have any reason to feel sad. I’ll admit that I’ve even started to like fall a little bit, except for the football and the school traffic and the pumpkin fucking spice. Fall is sweaters and jackets and college swim meets and Capitals hockey. Even winter has started to grow on me a little bit. I like all of the seasons now, but summer will always be my favorite. And meteorologically, summer still has a month to go, but I send a kid back to school in one week and then the pool will close a week after that, and that’s the end of summer, no matter what the calendar says. I kind of miss it already.