She smelled the pizza, wanted it. They were in the kitchen now, opening cans of soda. They were happy, and there had been a time when Juno’s family had been happy, as well. Humans had a way of uprooting happiness. They found flaws in it, picked at it until the whole system unraveled. Juno had been bored with her life once upon a time. Instead of being professionally distant, she’d festooned her life with the stories of her patients. She’d become too involved; she knew that now. An idle mind leads to mischief, her mother had said. And she’d paid, oh had she paid. She’d lost everything.

Pizza was over; the Crouches were heading upstairs. Juno was glad to be rid of them; she’d be even more glad tomorrow when she could leave. She peed into the empty apple juice jug, took three of the Crouches’ Advil, and drifted off to sleep.

13

JUNO

Monday came; Sam was the first to leave, slipping out the door before the sun had fully woken up. Juno could smell the nutty, sweet aroma of the waffle he carried out the door, and she registered hunger for the first time in days. The desire to eat would pass, though the need for it would not. She pulled a handful of oyster crackers from her pocket, placing one on her tongue with extreme concentration. She couldn’t afford to eat something and then get sick in Hems Corner. Thirty minutes later Nigel and Winnie left together, stopping at the back door to check that the first of the workers had arrived. Juno listened to them have a brief conversation, jiggling her hips in her desperation to pee.

“I think they’re coming in the house to use the bathroom,” Winnie said. “I specifically told them they’d have to use a public toilet or get one of those construction toilets. We can’t just have random men in here.”

“A porta potty?” Nigel offered.

“They shouldn’t be coming in here,” she said firmly. “I don’t like it.”

“You don’t know that they did. You’re making assumptions.”

At this she got huffy. Juno heard the clipping of her heels as she moved from the kitchen to the front hall where their coats hung in the closet opposite Juno.

“I hate it when you do that. Act like I’m blowing things out of proportion.”

Her voice was needling. Juno needed to pee. She needed to pee, she needed to pee, she needed to pee… She put another cracker on her tongue and pressed it to the roof of her mouth.

Nigel was quiet as he shrugged into his coat. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll talk to the foreman again. See where they are with the portable.”

“Thank you,” Winnie said stiffly. The cracker crumbled and dissolved against Juno’s tongue.