I move in with the children while the Mexicans work in my bedroom. Enlarging a window turns out to be a swine of a job. I had imagined it to be merely a question of hacking out the right-sized square and popping in a piece of glass. But no, apparently there are other considerations: structural forces, the re-cladding of walls, reframing, etc. not to mention placing a special order in Phoenix for a ten-foot piece of glass, subsequently delivered by a tough female driver who negotiated her way along the Temerosa road in a twelve-wheeler lorry. ‘How on earth did you manage that?’ I asked her. ‘I would have given up on the first bend.’

‘Women round here don’t quit on a job,’ she said bleakly, cracking open a Budweiser with her teeth.

As soon as the glass is fitted, Duval stands aside for me to take a look. The bedroom faces south and where before was visible the merest sliver of mountain, a smidgeon of tree and the thinnest slice of sky, like enticing thumbnail prints in a holiday brochure, there is now a stunning panoramic view.

I’m busy telling Duval what a success it all is, and suggesting, perhaps a touch patronizingly, that we opt for the same in every cabin, when there’s a thud. A small bird smacks against the glass at tremendous speed and plummets to the deck below.

Emmy had been sitting on the floor organizing plastic tubes of glitter and nail varnish into pleasing colour coordinates, while Jack, bored, had been knocking them over with his feet. Now they both leap up and gallop downstairs. By the time I catch up with them, Jack’s struggling to slide open the stiff lock of the back door and Emmy has hoisted herself up on the stove to see through the window. Outside on the deck, a beautiful jewelled hummingbird lies on its back, feet in the air, panting.

‘Don’t worry, it’s only stunned.’ I edge Jack aside, wondering whether mouth to beak is appropriate, but no sooner do I get the door unlocked than a raven swoops down right in front of us and snatches up the humming-bird in its claws. Emmy hides her face with her arm and forces a strangled noise out of her throat. Jack stares at the departing predator. ‘That is so cool,’ he pronounces, awestruck. Emmy looks confused. She blinks once then stills her oscillating lower lip. ‘So cool,’ she breathes.