About water: between chlorine and fries: off to the summer pool!

“I take a deep breath of the smell of chlorine, throw my backpack on the bench next to Ursula’s colorful basket, pull the dress over my head, jump headlong into the water, dive into the deep area to the bottom, sit on the ground and watch what’s happening in the pool from below. Lots of children’s legs wriggling in an uncoordinated way, a few older people’s legs wriggling in a more or less coordinated manner, children’s bodies diving, mixed legs at the edge of the pool. Overall, the interaction of these many moves looks like fun, as far as I can tell from down here. I push off the bottom to swim my 22 lengths as usual, and when I’m not sure if the 20th or 22nd length is 20th or 22nd, I get annoyed and swim 5 more as punishment additional lanes.«

This scene appears on page 10 of a wonderful novel that was published in mid-April. I was immediately fascinated by the title »22 Bahnen«; the cover of the debut novel by 28-year-old author Caroline Wahl shows a woman in a red bathing suit sliding into a painted blue something in the midst of scattering white spray. The exterior rarely indicates the content more clearly. It’s about swimming. And about numbers. All numbers are written as digits, 1 night, 22 lanes, etc. Tilda, the novel’s first-person narrator, is studying mathematics. Is a math genius and a loner. Your life revolves around numbers. From the university to the supermarket checkout to the outdoor pool, which she visits every summer evening. Then the surprise awaits: Is the mother sober or drunk? How is Ida, the little sister? Does the mother swear never to drink again? For the 8th time. to get better? For the 12th time. Tilda counts.

If the novel had already lured me with the cover, I fell in love after sentences like these: »I take a deep breath of the summer air. Sunscreen, chlorine, fries and Ursula’s intense perfume fill my body. I open my eyes and look at the pastel evening sun sky, take a deep breath and feel light and warm. I’m surveying the pool.”

I want to climb into the book and start swimming. 22 lanes is my magic number, sometimes 22 to 24 in perfect conditions, never odd, that’s bad luck. Then look at the sky, similar smells in the nose. And birds, in Berlin’s summer swimming pool in Humboldthain last year it was falcons, hawks and swifts. Swimming laps is only possible there very early in the morning or when it rains. Otherwise it’s just too crowded. Maybe I should do it like Viktor, who suddenly appears in the novel, diving with powerful moves to set himself apart from the chaos in the pool and among the book staff, including a roll turn.

The Berlin outdoor pool season has already started; the outdoor pool at the Olympic Stadium was the first, followed last Sunday by the Prinzenbad. On May 13th, »my« Bad in Humboldthain opens, there should be express entrances for ticket holders, the water is also getting warmer again. I’ll get into the pool unlined, swim a few strokes, turn on my back, breathe and let glide, float under the sky over Berlin and wait for the birds. Will the goshawk pair breed in sight again this summer? Will a kestrel perch on the fence behind the slide late in the afternoon and peer over at us unnoticed? Will swifts circle high above us? Will the nightingales belt out their songs? Most certainly! I heard the first nightingale in Humboldthainpark.