We lay still. The moon was exposed, the clouds drifting farther away. The water was warm and lapped against the pool edges, and for a few minutes I forgot about Ellen, Wilson, Barbie Man, and Pottstown. We started an unspoken game, diving down to the bottom of the deep end where the drain was and pushing off. On my third turn I went down and started counting. I gave myself a minimum of one minute. I could make out the moon’s light glancing off the surface of the water as it moved, the shadows of legs and bodies above me. Almost sixty seconds in, when I thought my lungs would explode, I crouched low and pushed off, my arms straight up. Before I broke the water’s surface, I could hear commotion, muffled and distant. I gasped in air and heard the shouting.

“Cops, cops! The fuzz!”

Everyone was running to the fence by the woods. Some were already halfway up. I panicked, looking for the ladder, trying to orient myself. Then I realized that the surface of the pool was shimmering with red and blue light. The police had pulled the car up across the lawn to the gate. They had another amplified light angled at the pool. The long side of the pool’s L shape was completely lit, and lawn chairs floated upside down. I was between the deep end and the main section.

I’m dead, I thought. Mom’s going to kill me. I’d put my head down to swim to the side and turn myself in when someone grabbed me and pulled me farther into the deep end, outside the light beams. I kicked and looked back. Jack’s face broke the surface of the water. He brought his fingers to his lips and motioned me toward the ladder.

“Who’s there?” a voice shouted. “This is the Schuylkill Township Police. Come out now.” Two policemen were running toward the woods as the shouts of all the other kids went down through the trees. How had they got out so fast? Another policeman began to walk the perimeter, shining the flashlight on the water, the deck chairs, and the decorative shrubs around the building where the office and changing rooms were. Battle cries echoed from the woods.