‘I switched it off.’
‘Miranda was worried about you. She asked me to go home and check you’re OK. I managed to persuade her to let you go to the ball tomorrow, but if you’re not careful she’s going to change her mind.’
‘I’ll call her now.’
‘You need to be more careful,’ he said.
I knew he was right, but all I could think of right now was that Ryan and I had only a few hours left together.
‘Um, Travis?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Do you think you could tell her I’m at home? In the garden?’
‘You want me to lie for you?’
‘You know how she overreacts. And it’s not like I’m doing anything wrong.’
‘What are you doing?’ Travis peered into the hole.
‘It’s a time capsule,’ said Ryan.
‘What’s in it?’
‘Nothing,’ I said.
‘Right. A time capsule with nothing in it.’ He looked at us both. ‘Fine. Don’t tell me.’
‘So will you cover for me?’
Travis scratched his neck. ‘I haven’t seen you. Don’t get drunk. Don’t let him drive you anywhere. And don’t get caught.’
We waited until Travis had driven away before saying anything.
‘Travis is cool,’ said Ryan.
‘He’s growing on me.’
Ryan covered the time capsule with dirt while I called Miranda.
She answered on the first ring. ‘Where are you?’
‘In the garden.’
Technically that was true.
‘Why didn’t you answer the house phone?’
‘I couldn’t hear it from here.’ Also true. ‘And I didn’t realise I’d turned my mobile off. Sorry.’
‘Just keep your phone switched on, OK? I need to be able to reach you. I have to work late tonight. You’ll need to make your own dinner. I’ll see you around ten.’
‘See you tonight,’ I said.
Ryan had finished planting the tree. ‘You hungry?’ he asked.
‘Starving.’
‘I made a picnic.’ He looked up at the sky. ‘It looks like the sun is going to shine for a few more hours. Shall we eat outside?’
‘Are you expecting the weather to change?’
‘It will cloud over later on. But tomorrow will be clear again.’
‘You’re becoming quite British you know – this unhealthy obsession with the weather.’
Ryan stood up. ‘When the sky is cloudy, you can’t see the stars. Most of the last two weeks have been too cloudy for stargazing. But tomorrow night will be clear all night.’
Of course. He would be tuned into things like that. I was suddenly reminded of the fact that Ryan was here for a reason and that he’d only shared with me the big picture, the things I needed to know. By tomorrow evening, he would be gone and it would be too late to ask any more questions.
He came back with a blue check picnic blanket that was still in its protective plastic wrap and a traditional wicker picnic basket, crammed with food. He tore the plastic off the blanket and spread it across the grass.
‘When did you get all this?’
‘This morning.’ He gestured to the blanket. ‘Make yourself comfortable.’
He took out a green bottle and two crystal champagne flutes.
‘I was going to buy champagne, but decided that you’d probably had enough alcohol for one weekend.’
‘You thought right. I will never, ever, drink alcohol again.’
‘So we have sparkling water with a slice of lemon.’ He pulled a couple of lemons out of the basket.
‘What else is in the basket?’
Ryan pulled out several different packages. ‘Sandwiches,’ he said. ‘Roasted vegetables and hummus. And I made a salad.’ He pulled the lid off a glass container. Inside was a salad made from cherry tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, black olives and tiny grains I didn’t recognise. ‘And we have cherries and strawberries.’
‘Wow. That looks really good,’ I said, stunned. I would have expected Ryan to be the sort of boy who’d buy prepared food from the supermarket.
Ryan rolled his eyes. ‘What? You didn’t think I could make a picnic?’
‘It’s not that. I’m just surprised at how much trouble you’ve gone to.’
He smiled. ‘It was no trouble. I wanted today to be special. Tomorrow will be stressful. I’ll be working. We both will be.’
The sun was warm on our backs. We ate the sandwiches and drank the cold water and talked about trivial things: the pink and silver theme of the ball, our favourite music, Connor and Megan going to the ball together.
‘It’s hard to believe that Connor is such an important person in the future,’ I said. ‘He’s so ordinary. He’s just Connor. He’s good academically, but he’s not exceptional. I know at least a dozen people in Year Eleven who are cleverer than him.’
Ryan laughed quietly. ‘A few weeks ago you asked me who my hero was. When I was younger, Connor was one of my heroes. For becoming such a big hero with so little effort.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘He discovered a temperate planet, quite by chance. Serendipity. It could have been anyone or no one. It wasn’t as though he’d been searching the skies for a habitable planet. He just happened to have a big argument with someone – you – and go outside and look up at the sky.’ Ryan smiled and shook his head. ‘The discovery wasn’t a big deal at the time. Planets were being discovered every week. There was just a small article in the daily paper and that was that. He didn’t go on to become a famous astronomer or anything like that. He just bummed around for a few years being spectacularly unexceptional.’
‘What did he do?’
‘You can probably guess.’
‘From the pictures in his autobiography, I’m guessing he finally learns to surf. If I had to predict Connor’s future, it would probably be underachieving beach bum. Am I close?’
‘Don’t ask me to confirm or deny,’ said Ryan. ‘You’re going to grow up with the guy. How would you like it if he knew everything you were going to do before you did it?’
‘But you haven’t explained why he was your hero. Why do you admire him if he did so little?’
‘For seizing opportunities when they arose. Eden didn’t matter when we couldn’t get there. But then my grandfather discovered a means of travelling across the galaxy, and suddenly Connor Penrose was famous. He was everywhere. He was on one of the first voyages to Eden. He was interviewed on every chat show. He was everyone’s favourite dinner-party guest. He dined out on that one opportune discovery for the rest of his life. To achieve so much success with so little effort is quite admirable.’
I grinned. ‘There’s no such thing as a work ethic in the twenty-second century then?’
‘Work for work’s sake? No.’
I sighed. ‘Poor Connor. To think he would have had a lifetime of cool parties and easy money ahead of him and now he doesn’t.’
‘We’re not there yet.’
‘I hope he finds something else. I would hate to be responsible for robbing him of a lifetime of fame and fortune.’
Ryan raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m not sure Connor cares too much about fame. And I bet he’ll have a good life whatever lies ahead of him. He has the knack of seizing opportunities when they arise. You may be helping him
