In the kitchen he washes his hands and pulls on his apron, tells Jean-Marc he can go home if he wants. “We might have some more hours for you coming up, if you’re interested,” Shawn says, lifting the lid on the giant pot of mojakka and giving it a stir. The lack of tension in the room tells him that none of the kitchen staff have seen the video yet, thank god. “I hear you got a little one on the way,” he adds, trying his best to act normal and be his jovial boss-self.

Jean-Marc gives Shawn that grin of the first-time expectant father – stoked, sheepish, and scared as hell. “Thanks, man,” he says. “Things are getting a little tight.”

“I hear you,” says Shawn. Then: “We’ve got another one on the way, too.” It just slips out before he can stop himself. Stupid. They haven’t even told Katriina’s parents yet.

“Hey, congrats!” Jean-Marc says. “Three kids, man. That’s crazy.”

“Yeah.” Dawn shows up in the window with a ticket, and Shawn grabs it from her. Three orders of pancakes, one with bacon, two with sausage, and three orders of strawberries and whipped cream. “Just, uh, don’t say anything to anyone, okay? We’re trying to keep it on the down low.”

“Of course, man, sure.” Jean-Marc wipes his hands on his apron. “You sure you don’t want me to stick around?”

“No, that’s fine,” says Shawn. He’s already working on another batch of batter. Later, he knows he will have to go back to the hospital, face the reporters again, look at Kate’s motionless body without breaking down. But for now, there is just eggs, milk, salt, sugar, flour, butter. Over and over, until the end of time.

FOUR

The morning that Kate takes the barrel over Kakabeka Falls, Walter wakes up and knows something is wrong. It had rained the previous evening, though the researchers he is guiding on Caribou Island – three men and a woman from Arizona State University who wear head-to-toe Gore-Tex and apparently don’t mind sleeping in the rain – had happily zipped themselves into their high-tech tents for the night. But sick of the damp, Walter had dragged his soggy self out of the woods during the night and holed up in the cabin of the Serafina with a mug of hot chocolate and an Agatha Christie novel until he fell back asleep on one of the narrow benches. That’s where he is when his eyes fly open at eight with a panicked start, overwhelmed by the need to go home.