Sharing a Lane

It was a second and telling. I could join her lane. I wouldn’t be sitting like a grump in a vinyl chair, passive, while others swam, some hogging a lane, lifeguards not doubling us up. Her gesture was generous, unrequested, and fit a character I respected.

I barely knew her, just a thing or two. A few years ago she’d swum 75 laps ─ freestyle! ─ to celebrate that birthday. She once mentioned she’d gone to Saigon alone during the Vietnam War, simply to visit. I was impressed by her spunk.

We’d first talked in the pool on a break from laps. A lawyer who spoke in city high schools, she was planning a trip to Israel to bring restorative justice, a practice that considers a criminal act a violation of relationships, not just lawbreaking, and tries to repair the harm by having victim and perpetrator talk and together come up with actions to fix the damage, facilitator on hand. She’d be meeting with both Israelis and Palestinians, and with a low budget, staying in an Old City hostel. I listened in doubt, having watched The Godfather and Part II, countless times.

We didn’t engage much after, just a quick recap of trip highlights ─ she’d gone with a participant from Bethlehem to Yad Vashem, history all new to him ─ or a nod if she looked my way. There’s no small talk with this woman. She swims, changes and exits.

But she was in a state the morning of the Hamas attacks. All she got out was “poor Israel” while other locker room regulars dressed, undressed and looked elsewhere.

Nothing has changed in a year. The ones minding their business still do but chatter on, Israel not said. With the occasional Jewish patron encountered there’s the sigh, anger, still shock, then talk.

I ran into the lane sharer, not Jewish, in the lobby of the facility the day the six hostages were found. I didn’t need an opener. I was relieved to see her. I knew she’d get it. She was stunned.

The building can be a desolate place with few people speaking to what’s happening. Although I’ve never seen her mingle she’s there for the big things. I appreciate too her kind offer to come in her lane.