‘Hey, it was only marijuana.’ He looks affronted. ‘Everybody does it, but I spent time in a federal prison. If they catch me on the wrong side of the border I go back to jail.’ He leans his hands heavily on his knees to stand up, then says something to the pharmacist, who begins rifling through the stacked shelves of small boxes behind the counter.

‘Is that it?’ I look from one to the other. ‘Are you finished?’

‘Finished? Yes.’

‘So what’s wrong with her?’

‘She has an ear infection.’

‘An ear infection! Is that all? Are you sure?’

‘Quite sure.’

‘But it can’t be – her temperature was so high, and the fit, I mean, it was really scary and I thought . . .’

Louis pats me clumsily on the arm. ‘Fever is maligned and much misunderstood. The fever is to show you her ear infection, but the infection makes her dehydrated and dehydration forces up the fever. If the temperature is high enough she can have a little seizure, but I don’t think she will have another.’

The pharmacist gives him a bottle of banana-coloured liquid.

‘Antibiótico,’ Louis says. ‘She must take this three times a day, after she eats.’ He smiles, seeing my hesitation. ‘You can trust me. She will be all right. Can you pay me twenty dollars?’

‘Of course.’ I’d happily have signed over the deeds to Temerosa.

‘If you need anything for your daughter, you can come back or ring me. We will post everything to you direct.’

I thank him and pocket the business card he offers.

‘Take your daughter home,’ he waves in the general direction of the street, ‘and think of us over on the other side sometimes.’

I strap the children back into the car. For a second I wish Robert was with me, just to have someone to take responsibility, so I could sit in the back and hold on to my daughter and keep her safe, but at the same time I know he would never have agreed to crossing the border, there would have been exhaustive arguments and wasted minutes and who knows what might have happened, who knows . . .