He doesn’t believe in the finance system, spends what he wants when he wants and has been bankrupt two times that we know of. But he continues unperturbed, expecting that one day he’ll be proven right and civilisation will be finished. Or at least Wall Street, its Zionist banking cabal and their fellow travellers. And on that grim righteous day, no-one will be more ready than Travis. He has done his research – been to all the best survivalist websites – and he knows that the expiry dates on tins of beans are nothing more than a corporate scam and beans last forever. So, he’s there, hidden away outside Hope, with his bullets and his drums of diesel and his old beans, living each day as if it’s the last of the old ways.

Cedar is supposed to spend every second weekend with him, though in practice it’s less than that. With music lessons happening upstairs on Friday afternoons, I’m usually the driver, and that makes for a low-tension handover. Travis sometimes offers to meet us halfway, at Portage – it’s under halfway for us, in fact – but it’s better not to make that a habit, so that one of us sets eyes on his place from time to time, sees it’s not too crazy.

Many houses in Hope are seasonal, roofs made mostly of rust. Cedar doesn’t tell us much about how he spends his time there, but my guess is there’s some shooting, some fishing and some panning for crumbs of gold on the banks of Resurrection Creek. Gold will still be of value in the post-collapse times, apparently.

Cedar will be bald by the time he’s thirty. It’s in his genes. When men on either side of his family bunch together for a photo, it’s like a clutch of eggs placed on plaid.

I can’t alter that, but I am trying to instil some sensible thinking about money.

For all Wade’s practicalities in business and most of life, he and Colleen practised The Secret until all too recently, with pictures of dreamed-for items and experiences on their fridge, including a picture of a fridge. One by one, the subjects of the pictures either came into their lives or didn’t, and all those that did were purchased with hard-earned dollars. When Colleen picked up a new TV for forty per cent off, it was hinted that The Secret might have played a role. Nothing to do with a model being superseded and too much stock being held. It is all too easy to be an asshole when people you are close to profess an interest in The Secret.

Wade thinks Travis is an idiot.

On top of the filing cabinet, the printer wakes up, hums and starts to print.