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scared.”
    Her mother gulped. A weird sound escaped her lips. “I really don’t want to be.”
    “What did Kristian say?”
    “He’s going to deal with it.”
    “See. No need to worry. Kristian’s got it. He’s good at making sure things go just the way they are supposed to. Maya just needs a doctor.”
     

Chapter Six
     
    The sun had risen when Kristian woke Emmy and Ingrid. “No chores this morning girls. Pancakes for breakfast,” he called up the stairs of their loft bedroom. The door to the cabin slapped closed.
    Emmy sat up.
    She watched her mother blink and stretch, then curl onto her side. Both of them gazed out the round window at the far end of the room. It felt like their room was perched high in the treetops. A flock of parakeets screeched up a frenzy as it flew by.
    Emmy leant down and kissed her mother’s shoulder, inhaling the scent of vanilla on her skin, faded during the night. “Pancakes Mum. See , Kristian made pancakes.”
    “I didn’t sleep.”
    “I know.” 
    *
    Once the bucket was full, Emmy and Sebastian helped themselves to some of the ripest strawberries and blueberries. Their tongues were purple. Sebastian took a fistful of strawberries and crammed them in his mouth. “Ha you e’er he’r’ a s’aw’erry ki’?” he mumbled.
    “Huh?”
    He chewed and swallowed some of the fruit. “Have you ever heard of a strawberry kiss?”
    “No.”
    He grabbed her shirt sleeve and pulled her to him. Juice dribbled down his chin. “Do you want one?”
    “No,” she squealed, pushing his face away.
    “One day you will,” he said, bending down to pick up the bucket.  He reached out to her with his other hand. At first she placed her hand in his but then she shoved him away.
    Sebastian and Emmy made it back into the kitchen just as Kristian flipped the last pancake. Ingrid had beaten the cream into peaks. Maya took the bucket from Sebastian and rinsed the fruit.
    As they sat around the table, Emmy noticed the dark circles under everyone’s eyes and wondered if hers were the same. The mood was subdued but the pancakes helped lighten things. It was a good way to start a crappy day.
    *
    At the gate, Emmy and Sebastian waved off their parents. As the dust settled in their wake, they dashed to the cabins.
    “Make beds and sweep floors,” shouted Emmy.
    “I’ll meet you in the kitchen. Dishes and a mop,” Sebastian shouted back.
    “Windows are dirty too.”
    “I hate windows.”
    “Maya hates them when they’re dirty.”
    “I’ll do the one in their bedroom then. Just in case she wants to come home and rest,” Sebastian offered.
    Emmy tripped over a pothole, and slowed down to a walk . “Yeah, she loves to watch the river from the bed. She saw a fox come down for a drink the other day.”
    “What else needs doing?”
    “The vegies. Composting the garden.”
    Sebastian veered towards his bedroom. “And we need to pick some more fruit.”
    “Grapes?” Emmy asked, as she leapt up the stairs onto the porch of her bedroom cabin.
    “Not today,” he called back over his shoulder. “Apples.”
    “What about school work?”
    Sebastian stopped and turned back to her. He screwed up his face.
    “You’re right,” she said. “There’s way too much to do.”
    *
    Exhausted, Emmy and Sebastian sat under a tree near the kitchen cabin in clear view of the river and the gravel road. Maya, Kristian and Ingrid should return at any time. Sebastian had found a newspaper under Kristian’s pillow. It was nice to read one that hadn’t been pulled apart, ripped or stained with beetroot.  
    The article Emmy was interested in was on the front page. “There it is again,” she said.
    Sebastian read over her shoulder. “This is big news in Mercy Falls.”
    Emmy’s attention was caught on the phrases, Walking home with boys alone, Drinking, Too much make up, Clothes too tight, Most of the texts in her phone from young males. “They’re so judging her.”
    “Boys will be boys,”