‘Like Mickey says, nothing to it. You only have to make small adjustments to make a difference but the boat responds slowly, so you shouldn’t keep on turning it otherwise you’ll tack along the canal. Anticipate. This lever here, you pull backwards for reverse. If you pull sharply and then return it to neutral, that’s the way to stop if you need to. OK?’

‘You sound like a teacher.’

‘I am.’

‘What do you teach?’

‘Meteorology. Geo-chemistry. Weather.’

‘Luke’s a cloud man.’

‘What?’

‘He loves clouds,’ said Mickey. ‘Ever since he was a kid, he loved clouds. He used to spend hours drawing them. Maybe he still does – that notebook there’s probably full of them.’

‘Not many clouds here,’ said Irene.

‘Here,’ said Luke, ignoring their words. ‘Sit here.’

They changed places. Irene gripped the wheel. When she turned it, she could feel the boat’s ponderous weight.

‘Why do you love them?’ she asked. ‘Clouds, I mean.’

He shrugged. ‘I always liked watching them.’

‘That’s it? Very informative.’

He glanced up at her, his expression impassive. ‘They change their shapes all the time. They start as one thing and then they pass into another. Watch out, you’re swinging too far to the left.’

‘Oops!’

‘That’s better.’

‘Can I get through that bridge ahead?’ said Irene dubiously. ‘It looks alarmingly narrow. Does one of you two want to do it instead?’

‘Me and Mickey will stand at the bow and stern and push you off if you hit.’

‘OK.’

The boat passed safely under the low brick arch. Katherine and Lorrie came out on deck, Neil followed carrying a bag of toys which Katherine proceeded to lay out next to Irene: two floppy rag dolls with braided hair and patchwork skirts; a small box of plastic bricks with pictures painted on their sides; a large, lift-the-flap picture book; a toy phone with a rattling dial tone; a case of thick wax crayons and a pad of thick paper in red and green and blue that Katherine proceeded to open.

‘What are you going to draw?’

She looked at Mickey.

‘You,’ she said, picking up a blue crayon that snapped when she jabbed it against the paper, the two halves spinning across the deck and over the edge. Katherine calmly watched them go and then picked up another crayon.

His face was a wobbly green circle, his hair a wild scribble of black, his eyes were huge overlapping loops, his smile was a pink bisecting slash, his legs and arms sprang out from his chin, his fingers were multiple random spikes like a collapsing bunch of twigs.