Mimi doesn’t break stride. “There’s Buda Castle, some famous hot baths, and the Parliament building, which Carol says is amazing at night, but we won’t have time.”

“We won’t have time for anything.”

“Budapest is close, Bird. It’s so close.”

I wait. Sometimes, when I wait, a problem goes away. Sometimes, it doesn’t. “It’s only for the day,” says Mimi. “Think of it as research.”

“Research for what?”

“Life,” says Mimi. “Think of it as research for life.”

MIMI DID NOT HAVE an easy childhood. When she was eight, her father was killed. Martin Bull Shield was on his way back from Waterton Lake when he had to stop to fix a flat tire.

“Hit and run,” Mimi told me. “Guy drove off and left Dad to die.”

Mimi’s mother buried her husband and moved the family to Lethbridge.

“Why didn’t you stay on the reserve?”

“I think Lethbridge was a way to get away from the blame and the pity.”

“Why would anyone blame your mother for your father’s death?”

“Bad luck,” Mimi told me. “People tend to see bad luck as contagious.”

“The guy who killed your father? Was he drunk?”

“Probably.”

“They ever catch him?”

“Rob or Bob somebody. Real-estate developer in Calgary. Showed up in court with a couple of lawyers, his wife, two kids, and the pastor of his church. Man was real remorseful. Talked about his personal life and how his business had been doing poorly and how financial anxiety had left him depressed.”

“So he got drunk, jumped in his car, and killed your father?”

“Cried when he got off.”

“Hit and run, and he got off?”

“Judge didn’t want to destroy the life of a good man.”

The night Mimi told me about her father, we went walking on the Golden Gate Bridge. The sky had been clear, but you couldn’t see the stars because of the lights of the city.

“At Standoff, you can see the stars.”

“Canada sounds nice.”

“Maybe you’ll come and visit.”

“Maybe.”

“How do you feel about sex?”

I had never had a woman ask me that question before.

“Did I shock you, Mr. Blackbird Mavrias?” Mimi leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “What do you think we should do about it?”

WE FIND A SMALL CAFÉ on the Old Town side of the bridge. We share an order of beef sliders. We each get one, and Mimi cuts the third one in two and eats both halves.

“So, we get up early tomorrow and go to the train station.”

“What about breakfast?”

“We’ll get something at the station or on the train.”

“What if we can’t get tickets?” I wipe my hands on the napkin. “Maybe everyone is going to Budapest to see bullet holes in walls and the train is booked.”