“No. I. Am. Not. All. Right. The tape’s broken because you weren’t here to help me.” Tears swam in his eyes like silvery fish.

“I told you to wait for me,” said Aster, trying to button down her impatience.

“You were gone for ages.” A whiny, stubborn tone crept in. “It’s not my fault.”

Aster bit her lip. It wasn’t her fault, either, but nine-year-old boys could be irrational, and he was worried about their mother, and she didn’t want Evan telling their father any more than he already had.

“Let me see if I can help,” she said, offering an olive branch. Evan accepted it with a tremulous smile.

The tape was strewn across the place like a streamer. Aster wasn’t sure it could be rescued. She pulled out her phone, searching out solutions on the Internet.

“Have you got a pencil?” she said.

Evan jumped up and scrabbled around in his drawer for his favorite with its My Neighbor Totoro topper. He thrust it at Aster. “Here.”

She slid the pencil into one of the holes in the middle of the cassette, and slowly began to wind, sucking up the tape like a strand of spaghetti.

“Is it working?” asked Evan, peering over her shoulder, his bony knees pressing into her back.

“Not sure yet.” She glanced at him and the doubt spreading across his face. She softened. “Patience.”

Evan flicked through his pile of soccer trading cards. Leafed through the pages of a knock-knock joke-book. Whispered questions to his Magic 8 Ball. The sun dappling the walls of his room was deepening into a molten bronze, throwing down shadows. The day was thinking about ending, and Aster still hadn’t decided if she was going to meet the boys. She didn’t want to. That old man scared her. But she hated the idea of them dismissing her as a coward.

“Where did you go, Aster? Earlier, I mean. It doesn’t take that long to go to the shops.”

“I got distracted.”

“Were you talking to those boys?”

Aster did not lift her eyes from the cassette, but pink roses bloomed on her cheeks. “What boys?”

“The ones on their bikes. I saw them out of your window. You were with them, remember?”

She wanted to shake him for going into her bedroom, but instead said, “Oh, those boys. I said hi, that’s all.”

Her answer seemed to satisfy Evan, who turned his attention back to her slow-turning pencil.

“Have you done it yet?” He leaned against her, knocking her slightly off-balance. He was skinny and warm and smelled faintly of orange Fruit Pastilles.

She inhaled and imagined she was breathing in calmness and tolerance and all those qualities that a good big sister should possess.

“Almost. But I’m not sure it’s going to work. See, the tape looks a little twisted.” Her fingers worked to smooth it out, but she couldn’t make all the kinks disappear.