‘How will you get back?’ I asked, as we pulled out of the car park.
‘In a flying saucer.’
‘You’re not serious?’
He laughed. ‘I’m not serious.’
‘Do you have, like, a spaceship hidden somewhere? Where would you even hide a spaceship?’
‘Yes, we have a spaceship. Although I doubt it’s anything like you’re imagining.’
‘I don’t know what I’m imagining. I guess I’m thinking of a huge battleship-grey ship shaped like a disc.’
‘Like a military style flying saucer.’
I laughed. ‘I don’t really have any idea.’
Ryan pulled on to the coast road as usual. ‘Our ship is small. It can carry five people maximum. We only have enough fuel to transport three people safely.’
‘It must be tiny.’
‘It’s just a bit bigger than an average size car.’
‘You travelled through space and time in a car?’
Ryan grinned. ‘Yeah. Although spaceships come in all sizes. You can get large ships and small ships. Those that travel through time are usually smaller because it’s easier to distort space-time for a small ship than a large one.’
‘How long does it take to travel back to your time?’
In my head I imagined years, but Ryan was only seventeen so I knew that couldn’t be true.
‘Two minutes exactly.’
‘Two minutes,’ I repeated. ‘How is that even possible?’
Ryan shifted down as we took the dangerous bend above Lucky Cove. ‘It’s hard to explain. We create a short cut. You probably think of it as a wormhole.’
‘I can assure you I don’t think of it as anything.’
‘Well, it uses a ridiculous amount of energy, but our ship distorts space and time allowing us to travel from one time and place to another quickly. To reach most times and places takes only minutes.’
‘That certainly beats driving or flying. No queues, no waiting around. Travel in the future must be incredible.’
‘You can’t use it for short journeys. It’s much too dangerous.’
‘What’s dangerous about it?’
‘Portals – that’s what we call these short cuts – are unstable. If they collapse when you’re travelling through them, you’ve had it. Distorting small sections of time and space is too difficult. You need some distance. So you can use them to travel to distant parts of our solar system or to other star systems or through time, but not from one place on Earth to another.’
‘Will I be allowed to see you leave?’ I asked.
‘No,’ he said softly. ‘Ben didn’t want me telling you anything about our technology. He’d be furious with me if he knew what I’d just told you.’
‘Where will you do it from?’
‘The ship has been stored in the garage. By the time we get home, Ben will have moved it into the back garden, behind the garage where it isn’t overlooked.’
All the lights in the farmhouse were blazing and Ben stood in the open doorway, a halo of light around him.
‘Mission accomplished!’ yelled Ryan as we approached.
Ben hugged Ryan and slapped his back. ‘Was it difficult?’
‘Eden took care of everything. Connor went on to the roof of the school with the telescope from the science lab! Eden tackled him and destroyed the telescope in the process.’
Ben laughed and shook his head. ‘Despite everything we’ve changed, he was still planning on looking up at the stars through a telescope tonight of all nights. It makes you wonder if there’s any such thing as free will.’
Cassie appeared alongside Ben. ‘Everything is ready to go.’ She checked her watch. ‘Ten minutes till departure.’
‘Then we’d better say our goodbyes,’ said Ben. He pulled me in for a big bear hug. ‘You’re an amazing girl,’ he said. ‘I still can’t believe how you’ve taken so much in your stride. Thank you for being such a good friend to all of us.’
‘Thank you for letting me,’ I said. ‘I know that my finding out about everything left you with some tough decisions. Thank you for trusting me.’
‘Ryan didn’t exactly give us a choice,’ he said, laughing. ‘But he was right to trust you.’
Ben released me from his grip and held me at arm’s length. ‘I know I don’t need to ask you this,’ he said, looking deep into my eyes. ‘But don’t forget to keep all this secret, will you?’
‘Of course not,’ I said.
‘Have a good life.’
‘You too,’ I said. ‘Look up my grandchildren. Or my great-grandchildren.’
‘I intend to.’
I tensed at the thought that my future was out there somewhere, lying ahead of me, unlived, unknown, unimagined, but that in a few minutes’ time Ben and Ryan would be able to find out exactly what I had done with my life, exactly what I would do.
Cassie shook my hand. ‘Take care of my great-grandfather.’
‘I will.’
Ryan took my hand and pulled me to him, so that the full length of our bodies was pressed together. He looped his arms around my waist and pulled me tight. I could feel the warmth of his arms against my own cooler skin, the warmth of his body through his shirt and my dress. He kissed me hard, with the urgency and passion I realised meant goodbye. For ever. I felt myself flush. Ryan seemed oblivious to anyone else, but I was acutely aware that we had an audience.
Cassie cleared her throat loudly. ‘How long is this goodbye going to take? Should we sit down with a cup of coffee and come back later?’
Ryan ignored her and looked at me. ‘I’m going to miss you so much.’
‘I’m going to miss you too.’ I put my lips to his ear. ‘When you get back, dig up the time capsule. I wrote you a letter.’
‘You did?’ He looked surprised.
Cassie sighed loudly. ‘Five minutes to go, Ry. Have you finished your goodbyes or are you planning to go back for an encore?’
He kissed me lightly on the lips. ‘Goodbye, Eden.’
‘Goodbye,’ I said, swallowing hard, determined not to spoil our last moments with tears.
He looked at the watch on my wrist. ‘It’s four minutes to midnight,’ he said. ‘It will take us about twenty seconds to leave. Go inside and sit down. Wait until two minutes after midnight.’ He smiled apologetically. ‘Temporal Laws and all that.’
I nodded, no longer trusting myself to speak.
‘Ry!’ shouted Cassie.
He released me and followed her behind the garage to the back garden.
I went inside the house and sat at the kitchen table. If I was in a film, if I was a different person, I would have raced outside and around the back of the garage yelling at them to stop, wait, and take me with them. I would have told Ryan that I didn’t want to live without him. And I would have told him that I loved him.
But I wasn’t like that. I was practical and sensible. I knew that I had obligations here in Penpol Cove in my own time. So I sat at the kitchen table as I’d been told and stared at my watch as it ticked away the minutes till midnight, while Ryan, Cassie and Ben prepared to travel forward in time.
I did quite well. I watched the second hand make three complete revolutions before I went outside. I didn’t run. I walked calmly through the garden and around the back of the garage.
Directly in front of me, a huge translucent disc vibrated and shimmered. Through it I could see a blurry vision of a grey vehicle. The disc vibrated faster and the image beyond it blurred further. After a few seconds the
