And of course Walter did. He always did. He would do anything Kate wanted because back then he believed that to deny Kate anything was to hurt her, and he couldn’t stand to see her hurt. “Wolfe and Montcalm,” he told her. “If you remember anything about the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, remember Wolfe and Montcalm.”

“Montcalm. Montcaaaaalm. Hmm.” She brought her hand up to her face, pushing back a piece of hair that had freed itself from her braid. “I’ll remember that one because it’s fun to say.”

“So is Wolfe. Wooooolfe.”

“Nice try.”

“You’ll remember. Wolfe. Like the animal. Arooooo!” He tilted his head back, howling to the sky. Kate skipped ahead, ignoring him.

Kate was right – she did forget Wolfe. But weeks later, when the snow had just started to fall and they had lugged out their winter boots, still dusty from sitting in cellars all summer, she remembered. Their grade seven class had planned a pre-Christmas trip to Chippewa Park, where they were going to go on a sleigh ride and tobogganing, and then throw maple syrup on the freshly fallen snow. Walter was surprised to discover that Kate did not share his excitement.

“Don’t you want to see Lake Superior?” he asked as they left the schoolhouse, trailing behind the other kids in their class as they rushed towards the bus. Despite how close they lived to it, neither of them had ever been to the lake. Still, it loomed large in Walter’s imagination, overwhelming him as he tried to picture that much water at once. It was like trying to picture the Milky Way, or the distance between Thunder Bay and Antarctica. Or, he supposed, the way he felt about Kate. He didn’t have a frame of reference for it, or a way to make it manageable in his mind.

But Kate had never had a problem with the infinite. “It’s just water,” she said, climbing on to the bus. “And this trip is still school, only outside.”

“But the outside part will make the school part fun.”

“Or the school part will make the outside part boring.” She slid into one of the last pair of seats available, right behind the bus driver. Walter sat down beside her. The outside of her right leg pressed against the outside of his left as she leaned into him, whispering so the driver wouldn’t hear. “But maybe we can avoid some of the school part.”