They must leave the lights on all night, I thought, looking down on the blue water of the pool. It's far too late for a swim. Everyone is fast asleep.

In fact, I bet people hardly ever swim in that pool, I thought, looking down on the blue water in the pool. This is not that kind of a hotel. People come to this hotel to sleep not to swim in pools. They probably don't even know there's a pool back here until after they've checked in, I thought looking down on the pool. I didn't know anyway.

But it's good for kids, I thought, looking down on the pool. Kids love pools. Pools are like holidays for kids. They don't care if they've been stuck in a car all day driving through miles and miles of nowhere. It doesn't matter how late they arrive here. It doesn't matter how exhausted they might be. Kids love pools, and they're going to want to jump right in. Of course that drives the rates up, I thought, looking down at the pool. It pushes the insurance rates right up, and the insurance rates push the hotel rates right up. If a kid drowns, it's the hotel that is liable even if there's a fence and a sign that says, Swim at Your Own Risk or something to that effect. It won't matter one iota to a jury if there's a drowned kid involved, I thought, looking down on the pool.

The insurance company will pay because the parents will make them, I thought, looking down on the pool. The parents will make the insurance company pay as exorbitant a sum as possible. Who wouldn't? Then again, they might not be able to stand it, I thought, looking down on the pool. The parents might be utterly destroyed. They might not be able to think about a settlement. They're thinking about their drowned child. There's nothing further from a settlement than a drowned child, I thought. In fact, the idea that a drowned child could actually be transformed into a settlement might strike the destroyed parents as Satanically perverse. The destroyed parents already know they are in Hell. They hardly need the transformation of their drowned child, with limbs etc. into a big crate of fresh green dollar bills to confirm that fact. Who would? I thought, looking down on the pool.