In the kitchen, Clara dumped a stack of glossy paper on the island while Eve got down some glasses.

“What’s all that?”

“University brochures.”

“U of T engineering, right?”

“Well, yes…”

There was something unsure in the girl’s tone. “But?” Eve queried.

“I’m having cold feet.”

“About which part? About university in general?” There was something strangely, uncomfortably familiar about this. Was this how Sawyer had felt when Eve had had this same conversation with him?

“No. About everything else, though. What to study. Where to go. Even if I do want to do engineering, I could do it at the Mississauga suburban campus. Maybe that would be better? Like, not as dramatic a change as moving from here”—she waved her arms around—“to a humongous city. But also, engineering. I thought that was what I wanted to do.” Her voice was rising, and she started talking faster. “But I won this essay contest recently. It was about federal policy, and I think I might really like political science. And then I think of Maya, who has this really cool, creative job. And that’s just all the stuff I already know about! I mean, what if what I really want to do is, like, dig up dinosaur bones or something that I’ve never even thought of? I’m seventeen years old! How am I supposed to know what I want to do with the rest of my life?”

Eve slid a glass of lemonade across the island. “Breathe. And drink.”

Clara smiled sheepishly but did both. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be dumping this on you. I just thought, you went to U of T, right? And you’re, like, smarter than pretty much everyone else in this town—no offense to everyone else.”

“Let’s go into the parlor and sit.” There was a plastic mermaid doll “standing” on the table between their two chairs. Eve grabbed her by the head and pulled to make way for their drinks. She had learned that the glue holding everything down was old and brittle. Once she’d freed the doll, she tossed it across to a small sofa that was littered with similar crap she’d pulled up. “Anyway, about school. I don’t think you have to know what you want to be when you grow up. That’s what university is for. Partly, anyway.”

“But I have to apply to a program. And a school.”

“So apply to them all. Put off the decision.”

“Can I just do that?”

“I don’t see why not. But my larger point is that whatever you decide, you can change your mind. It sounds like you have great grades and extracurriculars. What’s the worst that happens? You apply to one program and you end up transferring to another?”

“Yeah, but money’s going to be tight. I’m not going to have time to waste.”