Walter said nothing. He didn’t want to be like this. He wanted to be a good husband, to try to explain things to Kate in a kind and patient tone. This is called a strawberry. You use this for grating cheese. Clouds are made of vapour. Vapour is made of water. I don’t know how it gets in the sky, Kate, okay? Question after question, until Walter either snapped or gave her an answer so complicated that he knew it would shut her up. He understood his frustration was a manifestation of his own fear, and not a reflection on her, or how he felt about her. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to notice how upset he got with her when she couldn’t remember things. None of this made him feel like any less of an ass.

They stopped at their favourite look-off point, the way they always did, reading the plaque there quoting American geologist William H. Keating’s account of his expedition to the Great Lakes in 1825: Directly opposite to the place from which we contemplated the fall, there is in the rock a cavity, which, in the superstitious legends of the Indians, is regarded as the residence of the evil spirit. Just imagine, evil spirits haunting the holes left behind by ancient creatures trapped in the rock, exposed by the river slicing it open, all of this taking place over the course of 1.6 million years.

“Maybe the Ojibwe were right about this,” Kate said. “The earth must have been quite a different place back then. Full of magic and mystery. There could have been evil spirits all over the place.”

“I’m sure a lot of life has come to an end in this gorge,” Walter agreed. “Prehistoric flies, Ojibwe princesses. Probably a voyageur or two. That’s quite a legacy.”

“A person could do a lot worse than become a part of that,” Kate said, running her fingers over the railing as she stared out into the gorge.

How could he not have known?

Throughout their lives together, Walter has always thought of Kate as fearless. But he was wrong. She wasn’t fearless; she was brave. You can’t be brave if you don’t feel fear. What makes you brave is that you feel the fear and do it anyway.

Kate faced that waterfall and felt no fear. She couldn’t have, otherwise she would never have done what she did. Bravery does not take you over waterfalls. Bravery lets you jump across rivers, lets you stare into the abyss of a frozen lake and fight your way back to the surface. Bravery takes you to Europe and leaves you on your own for a year. Bravery opens your front door to a homeless boy and makes him your son. Bravery helps you face an illness that eventually takes everything away from you, including your bravery. But bravery does not take you over waterfalls.

So then. What does?