Headgames: A short story

"Sometimes he thinks about swimming, about how his name must sit pretty high on a lot of well-informed people's lists of Coulda Beens. The problem was he should have been, expected to be. They all told him he would be. That he would be a champion and that to get there all he had to do was give it 100 percent. That's what they said."

But that's not what happened. Now he works at a pool, as a lifeguard, collecting damp admission fees from the swimmers, attempting to balance a pH he just can't seem to get right, and forming elaborate theories about Robinson Crusoe and contemporary fiction--all while he watches her swim. She's a good swimmer."

"What all of these tales have in common is masterfully crafted prose, dry but sympathetic observation and an engrossing allusion to a larger, unseen world." - Sydney Morning Herald on Nick Earls' short fiction