A Float

She'd never been especially coordinated or athletic until, hoping to make some friends, she joined her high school track team and tried the long jump, demolishing the U.S. amateur women’s record on her first attempt. She arrived at Stanford the star attraction of every meet, already hitting 45, 50 feet easy. But a diagnosis of Gravitational Unaffectation Syndrome (GUS) rendered her ineligible for her first Olympics, at which she would’ve broken every world record, male or female, by an order of magnitude. Now she inspects tall-building facades, carefully monitoring her ballast, as she dreams of those long-past glory days.