For now, he was happy to simply be in the water, and we tried to foster that as much as we could. The group was great, always coming to cheer him on. Kit was his biggest supporter and was always making signs and things for him, and yelling encouragement to him from the stands. The rest of us laughed at how over the top she was sometimes, but it was cute, and Charlie obviously liked it.

So much so, in fact, that he looked sad at one meet when he was in third grade. Kit was always early to these things and would give him the thumbs up from the stands before he got in the water, but today, she wasn’t sitting with us. Alice and I were both there, along with Bette, Jenny, and Helena, but Kit was nowhere to be found. Shane was at a photo shoot and Tina was at the studio, but Kit had nothing going that day and had allocated most of her duties at the Planet to her staff by this time, so we were all a little concerned.

“I wonder if she had an accident or something,” Bette muttered after again receiving no answer on her phone. “Unless she just left her phone at home.”

“She might not be picking up since she’s driving. I’m sure it’s fine, probably traffic,” I tried to reassure her, but I was getting worried myself. Charlie looked pretty dejected after checking the stands yet again for Kit’s support and finding her still absent. Those of us present cheered a little extra to encourage him, but it didn’t seem to help. He got into the pool still looking sad.

After coming in third in two heats, Charlie looked like he wanted to pack it all in and go home, and I was tempted to let him. Not that third place was bad by any means, but even at that young age he was winning pretty much every race he entered by leaps and bounds. Kit’s absence was obviously really affecting him, and I figured if he was that miserable out there, there was no point in making him stay. After exchanging a few worried glances with Alice, it was fairly obvious she felt the same way.