"The Pool," by T. Coraghessan Boyle

"We'd never had a pool before, but the house came with one, which was part of its appeal, at least in my eyes. We were in our early thirties then, with two children-Molly, four, and Jordan, two-and we were moving because we needed more space, not to mention a better neighborhood, with better schools. Lacey, who was pregnant with our third and final child,"

"The house, wood-frame with a low brick façade in front, bracketed the back-yard pool, with upstairs bedrooms at both ends. Behind the pool was the steep canted slab of a hillside, which, as we were to discover, acted as a reflector to hammer us with heat all summer long. What was up there? Brush that had to be cleared, by law, every spring when it dried up and turned flammable-one more worry."

A young family in their early thirties moves into a house that includes a backyard pool, drawn by space and better schools. The family has two small children and a third child on the way, prompting parental worries about pool safety despite a six-foot wrought-iron fence with self-locking gates. The house design places bedrooms at both ends and the pool against a steep, canted hillside that reflects heat, intensifying summer temperatures. The hillside requires seasonal brush clearance for fire safety and hosts wildlife such as gophers, lizards, and a large gopher snake encountered in the yard.

Read at The New Yorker