On his thirteenth birthday, a boy reflects on the ways in which puberty has begun to transform his body, as he has started to have wet dreams. For his birthday, he goes to the public swimming pool with his family, even though he wishes that he were there alone. He mentally prepares himself to jump off the high-diving board for the first time. He has decided that fear is the result of thinking, so he tries not to think. He observes the pool as a system of movement, a machine. He thinks about how bored everyone in line for the high dive looks and mirrors them. He observes a late middle aged woman climbing the ladder in a tight, unflattering swimsuit and thinks about his own weight on the ladder rungs. Once it's his turn on the board, he notices two dark spots at the end of the board where the skin has scraped off of people's feet as they built up to jump. He sees it as a symbol of the weight and abrasion of their disappearances off the board. As he observes the world from overhead, time seems to slow. He marvels at the view. He realizes that he looks much higher from down below than he would if he looked up at the board. He feels as if he can stop time. Then, a man on the ladder interrupts him saying that the people below are impatient. More and more people across the pool turn to watch him. The boy jumps off, "stepping into the skin" to "disappear" and wonders if, when he hits the water, it will be hard or soft.