Daybooks

Two women, Nat and Frankie, await the arrival of their dinner guests. It is an early spring evening, not yet dark. The “drills and hammers and music” that filled the streets of their “up-and-coming” Toronto neighbourhood all afternoon have been replaced by the distant sound of a brass band. They each take a shot of tequila. They kiss. “Nat tilted her head back, letting the day and her upset wash over her,” indulging in a moment of pleasure before their ten-year-old daughter, Clio, bursts into the kitchen. And they remember that their son, Felix, still hasn’t returned home.

“Where was Felix?” This refrain rings throughout the final third of Kate Cayley’s Property. A third-person narrator wanders in and out of Nat’s mind as she fights the urge to abandon their evening plans and go look for her twelve-year-old child. Between her thoughts, memories, and worries, there are extended descriptions of the couple’s recently renovated home: “They had arrived in their...