Kiri.

Kiri was assigned an assistant, Ngaio, in her twenties, quick, the kind who learns everything the first time and then gets bored. In the second year without births she said it to her face: what's the point of all these rounds if there's nobody there. Kiri didn't defend herself. What she did was start handing her the instruments in the wrong order, one after another, so the girl would have to guess which one came next. Three years later she still hasn't told her that's teaching.

Behind that waiting is a calendar nobody decides. The kakapo only breeds in the years the rimu fruits, a mass fruiting that happens every two to four years; in the years between, no chicks are born. Zero. Kiri counts time in fruit years, not plain years, and she still goes out on the nights there's nobody to attend. She isn't afraid of dying. She's afraid Ngaio will get tired and leave before she's seen a full year. The girl has been three years in the trade and still hasn't seen one.