Oliver did not move. There was no blood. I held him against my shirt and I could feel his small breaths. His eyes were half open but looked at nothing. The taxi was gone, and no one for me to shout at. I stood on the corner looking at the Jardin du Luxembourg across the street with its green grass, then turned to look at the shops, trying to think where was an animal doctor. I thought of going back to the Polo, where they would have a horse doctor. The beautiful Mia could still be there, and she knew death and would know what to do. But it was a foolish thought, and I began to walk down the street, looking at the names on the buildings for a doctor. The orange strap hit my ankles at each step. Then I remembered taxis as a help and I waved to one, holding the dog tightly in one arm. The taxi stopped, but by the time I was in, the breathing and the heartbeat were gone.

I let the taxi drive me home, though it was a short way, because I didn’t think I could stand to walk. In the car my thoughts were mixed up between the dog, and the taxi’s tire, and Mia swinging her legs, and my friend drowning under the waves, and then I felt my lungs like ice and told the driver to take me to Aqua Boulevard. I had to see my children in front of me. I had sent them with only Tati to that ridiculous pool.

The taxi let me out at Aqua Boulevard with the dog in my arms. They would not let me take a dead dog, but I walked past the security smiling, holding Oliver’s head up. Women carry their dogs in their arms all the time, and the gendarme looked at my face strangely, but said nothing. Past the security there is a glass wall to watch the slides and the pool, and I stood there with the dog. The room is enormous, full of people in bathing suits, fat ones and thin ones, all colors but all greenish through the water-spotted window, with the plastic tubes snaking around overhead and a glass roof to let in the sun. The horn blew that says the waves will start, and all the people ran into the water. I looked for my children but didn’t see them there. I wanted to run in and find them, but I had no bathing suit and could not let them see their dog.