Morning

Fruitopia wakes with the sun — except the Neon Grove, which wakes at sunset and considers this a moral position. In the valley, juice presses start at dawn; at the cove, fishing boats go out with the tide; in the marsh, nothing starts before second breakfast, and that's the law.

Work

• Orchard work — picking, pressing, and pie-baking; the valley's economic heart.
• Night work — the Grove's clubs, kitchens, and coat-checks; glamorous and exhausting.
• Sea work — sailing, fishing, and trading at the cove; salt in everything.
• Craft work — sugar-smiths in the Peaks, boatwrights on the rivers, florists everywhere.

Evening

Evenings belong to gathering: diner booths in the valley, velvet booths in the Grove, beach fires at the cove. The fruit-people have a saying: “A day is for doing; an evening is for belonging.”

Roxa’s typical day

Up at noon (allegedly), correspondence and flower orders till six, doors at eight, the Grand Entrance at nine, court till two, and the quiet booth till dawn. “Sleep,” she says, “is for the innocent.”