It’s never really worked out for me to do that yet. They’re busy running a coffee shop together a bus ride away from here, in his new place in Hamilton. But Eleanor’s nice, from what I remember. She’ll probably make a great mom when they decide they want to start a family together, which Mom has been preparing me for from the get-go: “Trust me, that child bride of his will want to have a baby,” she says, and I remind her that they’re not married, and she says, darkly, “Yet.”

When he left, he made a big speech about how he and Mom never went anywhere, never traveled, never went to Europe or museums or art shows. He didn’t ever strike me as the kind of person who liked art, especially if you took his clothes into account, although he does wear a slouchy toque pretty often now. Mom said the gig was up later when it was discovered that he had a “lady friend” who happened to work with him. I don’t know if they go to a lot of art galleries; when he comes to visit every few months, we mostly just go to Boston Pizza. I kind of feel sorry for him, but I miss him, too. I liked having him around, liked how he always joked with me, and tickle-tackled me as a kid. He was like having a much older brother, and then he was gone, having his own life. He texts me though and calls sometimes, and it’s like hearing from an old friend from camp. He’ll ask about Mom and tell me that Eleanor says hi. It always makes me smile, and we talk about how we should see each other, but then it fizzles out. He never seemed to mind that we did family stuff without him. If he called when we were watching a movie, he’d laugh and tell me he missed me and to call him when it was over.

Still, it was good when it just was us at home, before I started high school, before she started dating, before everything changed. Mom works from home, cutting hair in our basement in a room she’s outfitted with all her hairdressing gear. I could always count on her to be at home for me when I wasn’t at school or Lottie’s. It felt like it was the two of us against the world, hanging out and having movie nights. Sometimes Mom says we should do it again, but it never happens anymore. She’s hardly ever home. I started my own channel a couple of years ago so I can talk about films with other people like me out there. It fills up the time when there’s no one else around. It’s not totally the same, but it’s something.