“I can show you,” said London. She came back with her laptop and sat beside her grandmother on her bed and they read about cougars together on Wikipedia. They read about how cougars are more closely related to house cats than actual lions, about how they are stalk-and-ambush hunters, about how they have been excessively hunted and are practically extinct in the eastern part of North America.

“It says that there are only 850 cougars left in all of Ontario,” Nana said, frowning. “That’s not very many.”

“Poor cougars,” London said, trying not to cry even though reading about the cougar was incredibly sad.

“It also says that they are reclusive and usually avoid people.” Nana ran her finger over the picture on the screen. “I’d say you were very lucky indeed to have seen one of these beautiful creatures.”

London, who up to that point was just relieved to not have been eaten by one of those beautiful creatures, looked at her grandmother and wondered if maybe she was actually still secretly super wise and it was just that no one understood her.

Now whenever London thinks about her grandmother, she tries to remember that moment: a still point in the chaos of their lives, when she knew without a doubt that her grandmother was her grandmother, and she didn’t feel quite so alone in the world.

—

PONYO: Did you watch the video?

PONYO: Adam? Did you watch it?

PONYO: Adam, are you still there?

PONYO: Adam?

PONYO:…

FIFTEEN

1 p.m.

It’s surprising how little time these things can take when you know what you’re doing. By one o’clock, after just a couple of signatures on a few pieces of paper, Katriina is the proud new owner of a probably haunted house.