“I have to go to work now,” he said as he returned the dustpan and brush to the cupboard next to the sink, “so I would suggest that you just get yourselves settled in. The telly works well enough and there are a few videos on the shelf over there. All I ask is that you keep the stove going, because that does everything here—the cooking, the heating, and the hot water.” He proceeded to give a demonstration on the art of replenishing the boiler that would have worked well on playschool. “You take the wood from here,” he said, picking up a log from the box and holding it out to show them what a log looked like, “and then you take it to the stove and you open this door, like this, and then you put the log inside, and close the door again. Simple as that.”

“Ooh, do you think that we can manage that, Nina?” Millie squeaked in a little girl’s voice. “It looks awfully difficult.”

Dan laughed. “All right. Just don’t forget to do it, okay?”

“When will you be back?” Nina asked.

“No later than six o’clock.”

“Six o’clock? You’re leaving us here all by ourselves until six o’clock?”

“I’m sorry, but I do have to work, Ni. You’ll be all right. The dogs will be with you.”

Nina eyed disdainfully the two slumbering forms on the rug in front of the stove. “Thanks a bunch.”

“I will have the weekend off,” Dan continued, feeling a sudden guilt about his departure. “We’ll all go off and do something together.”

“When does Josh get back, then?” Millie asked.

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether he’s finishing early or late at the factory and whether he’s seeing Maria José. He usually gets back at—”

“Maria what?” Millie interjected, her eyes fixed questioningly on her father.

Dan bit at his tongue, wishing that he hadn’t said anything. “Maria José.”

He watched the girls’ eyes sparkle as they looked at each other. “Josh doesn’t have a girlfriend, does he?”

“Well, yes, he does, as a matter of fact.”

“God, she must be blind or something,” Millie scoffed.

“Or so ugly that she can’t find anyone else to go out with,” Nina added with a giggle.

“Or an illegal immigrant who needs to find someone to marry her so that she can stay in this country,” Millie continued.

“Well, you’re both completely wrong about everything. Maria José is a very beautiful and intelligent girl, and she is obviously extremely fond of Josh, otherwise she wouldn’t be going out with him.”

“What does she do?”

“She works in the prawn factory with Josh.”

Millie let out a derisive laugh. “Come on, Dad, she couldn’t be that intelligent if she works in a prawn factory!”