Finn knows she should go to the hospital, but instead her instincts take her all the way through town to Barkley’s, the sports bar where her old roommate Alyssa works as a bartender. As she drives she tries to keep her eyes on the road, to not look around and see the ways in which Thunder Bay has changed, although she already knows that, at least in this neighbourhood, the change has come in the form of decay. All the businesses around Barkley’s – other than a pawn shop and a deli that processes freshly shot deer into sausages and pepperettes – have closed down since she was last here, including their favourite old diner, a hardware store, a bakery, and an appliance repair shop.

At least Barkley’s is still there. In a place like Thunder Bay, people will always need to drink. And Alyssa is still there, too, god help her. Alyssa: blond, gorgeous, hopeless, working behind the bar in a Leafs T-shirt and a ponytail, pouring two-dollar draft for the toothless barflies since high school, when her mother got sick and her father got laid off from the mill. Finn watches her through the window, suddenly nervous about going in because it occurs to her that Alyssa might be kind of pissed at her. The last time Finn spoke to her was from a payphone in Wawa, on her way to Toronto, swearing up and down that she wouldn’t be gone long.

Finn opens the door, bracing herself for a confrontation of some sort. But when Alyssa sees her, she simply raises an eyebrow and motions to a stool. That’s it – no fireworks, no drama. And that’s when Finn remembers why she loves Alyssa so much. She is stoic as a goddamned rock.

Alyssa doesn’t ask what Finn is doing back in Thunder Bay. She doesn’t have to. The TVs in the bar are all showing the waterfall footage. “I’m guessing you need a shot of something,” she says.

“Anything,” Finn says, sitting down next to a long-haired white guy wearing a jacket from the 1995 World Nordic Games. Gasp, thunk, splash, her mother goes over the falls.

Alyssa quickly changes the channel to baseball, then pours Finn a shot of Jack Daniel’s and a beer. “How’s your mom?”

“Still in a coma,” Finn says. “I mean, as far as I’ve heard.”

Alyssa nods. “I ran into her last week at the grocery store. She said that she and your dad were thinking about taking a trip to Minneapolis. It didn’t sound like, you know, she wanted to…It sounded like she was making plans for the future, that’s all.”

Finn takes a long drink of beer. What if Kate had never meant to make it out of that river? The thought is just too much for her to handle. “Yeah, well,” she says. “Hey. I’m sorry for…you know. Leaving like that.”