The tight sigh of the screen door opening behind her. ‘Anouk,’ Red said. ‘Come on.’

He wasn’t finished with her yet. In the kitchen there was a cupboard for Anouk’s drugs. Neatly stacked white boxes with generic labels, enzymes and antibiotics and vitamins. Red rinsed the spit cup in the sink and turned it over to dry on the windowsill. He handed her a glass of water and a small bowl of pills. Variously coloured tablets of penicillin derivatives. She could swallow three pills in one go. Red prepared her enzymes, pulling apart five of the large, dark-green capsules of Creon and emptying the granules into a bowl. He mixed the granules with a generous slug of maple syrup and stirred. Anouk poured a bowl of cereal and put a chocolate muffin on a plate, always encouraged to eat foods that would help to fatten her up.

‘Eat it all,’ said Red, putting the dish of maple syrup on the table in front of her, handing her a teaspoon.

Even doused in sweet, thick syrup, some of the bitter granules stuck in her teeth and she worked them out with her tongue before they could dissolve and burn her gums.

Nora came into the kitchen, hands in her hair, twisting a bun on top of her head.

‘You ready?’ Red asked Anouk. He was packing a bag for the day: two water bottles and a box of pills, some fruit and cookies wrapped in foil.

‘We’ll be out of your way soon,’ he said to Nora.

‘You’re not in the way,’ she said.

At any given time, at least one room in their house was in a state of flux. That summer it was the kitchen. The robin’s-egg blue on the walls was to be sanded in preparation for some other colour – Nora hadn’t yet decided between a mustard yellow or just straight-up white. She was also restoring the cupboard doors and had stripped the tiles off the floor. Was considering a new set of taps.

The dust wasn’t good for Anouk, so Red was taking her out for the day. For the work, Nora had recruited Jody, a friend they’d known for as long as they’d lived on the river.

‘Do you know where that box of sandpaper is?’ Nora asked. ‘It wasn’t in the shed.’

‘It is in the shed.’

‘Nope. Just looked.’

‘I saw it two days ago.’

Nora shrugged.

Red made a move for the door.

‘Don’t you dare look in that shed,’ said Nora. ‘I’m telling you it’s not there. Could it be in the basement?’

‘It’s in the shed,’ Red called over his shoulder, as the screen door slammed behind him.

Nora leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed her arms over her chest. She frown-smiled at Anouk. Anouk knew, as necessary as the sandpaper was, her mother did not want her father to find it in the shed. Her mom was like a fish swimming against the current.

Nora spooned coffee grounds into a paper cone and put the cone in the coffee maker and pushed a button, slipped two pieces of bread into the toaster.