The sound outside the window was a cooper fitting a hoop.
Three measured blows, a pause, then a fourth.
Iven woke before the next set. For a moment he listened without deciding that the sound required him. Neri was awake beside him, one arm under the pillow, looking at the light above the shutter.
“Your neighbor starts early,” he said.
“Our neighbor.”
“He was your neighbor while we were away.”
“He charged both of us for the roof repair.”
Iven smiled. She moved closer, and for a little while the cooper’s measured work went on without an audience upstairs.
