Ironically, what has happened to Kate could be a good thing for them. That morning, Shawn had pressed snooze on the alarm and wrapped his arms around her, pressing his face into the back of her neck and pretending to bite her; later, he sat on the edge of the bathtub while she put on her makeup and told her about going back to the hospital to see Kate the night before, about how aggressive the reporters were getting.

“There was this one reporter, Cassandra something, from Thunder Bay News. She told the nurses she was Kate’s niece and just walked right into her room. If I hadn’t been there, no one would have even known,” he said, rubbing his hands over his face. “Apparently there are clips of Kate all over the internet. People are posting them on fucking Facebook.”

“Oh dear,” said Katriina, flicking her powder brush over the tip of her nose. She knew the clips were out there, of course – unless you lived under a rock, you knew about the Conqueror of Kakabeka – but she couldn’t bring herself to watch them. One of her co-workers had even emailed it to her – Take a look at this lady – crazy!!!! – not realizing the crazy lady was Katriina’s mother-in-law. She had deleted it without watching.

“I just don’t understand it,” Shawn said, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Why would she do this? What could have possibly been going through her head?”

Katriina swept her mascara brush over her eyelashes, trying to keep her hand steady. “But how many of us could say we went over a waterfall in a barrel?” she heard Kate say in her head. Earlier, she had considered telling Shawn about this conversation but had convinced herself it wouldn’t make any difference, that it wouldn’t make him feel any better. Now, she realized deep down that she didn’t want to tell him because she knew it wouldn’t make her feel any better.

The silent seconds ticked by. Say something, she thought. Anything. “I’m sure she’ll be able to tell us soon, Shawn. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.” As soon as she said it, she knew it was the wrong thing, the wrong combination of letters and words. She concentrated on her own reflection in the mirror, avoiding Shawn’s eyes, afraid of the contempt she was sure she would find there. And just when she was about to say something else, to try to make it better, she felt the mascara brush stab against her eye and she dropped it into the sink, squeezing her eye shut as oily black tears spilled out over her cheeks.