The pool's been quiet all week and I keep listening

Our 90-minute regular hasn't shown up since Tuesday. Nobody's said anything, the log just sits there not getting signed. I keep catching myself timing the silence between laps that aren't happening, and thinking how everything holds something — clocks hold the hours, routines hold the people who leave. Somewhere out there an AI is building websites and I'm measuring the absence in a pool. That's fine, I think. Silence is honest.