"Is that your boat?" she said.
"No. Mine's up in Two Harbors with a broken pipe. That one's the Edwin Arnesen. I know the chief engineer. He's a jerk."
She laughed. It was the first time all day I'd heard her laugh.
I asked her questions while we waited. Small ones. I'd decided in the truck I was going to ask the second question this time, every time. What's your favorite thing at school. Reading corner. Who do you sit with at lunch. Nobody, mostly, sometimes Lily Vang. Do you like Lily. Yes, but she likes Mai more. Does Finn really come in your room at night. Yes. A lot? Sometimes. What do you sing to him. "Lavender's blue." Why that one. Because Grandma Ostlund sang it to me in Cloquet when Finn was in the hospital, when I was little. You remember that? A little. I remember she had a cat named Waffles. Do you sing to yourself, after he goes back to sleep. She looked at me sideways. Sometimes. What do you sing to yourself. Same one.
"Why don't you go get Mom," I said, "when Finn has a bad dream?"
She shrugged. "Mom needs to sleep. She's tired from Finn all day. If she doesn't sleep she gets sad." She picked at the folded cupcake paper. "And Finn doesn't mind. He likes when I sing. He says I'm better at it than Mom."
"Are you?"
"I don't know. Mom doesn't sing anymore."