‘So we could bury things about us,’ he said. ‘What it’s like to be you and me in 2012.’
‘A time-crossed friendship capsule,’ I said. ‘Things that represent our friendship here in 2012.’
‘Any ideas?’
‘Do you have a printer?’
He nodded.
‘Then let’s start with a photo.’
I held my phone at arm’s length, put my arm around Ryan’s shoulder and grinned into the camera. Snap.
In the kitchen, we printed out two copies of the photo – one for me to keep and one to bury in our time capsule. It was one of those lucky strikes, a quick snap in which we both looked good. My grin was crinkle-eyed and genuine, quite unlike the careful face I usually composed for a photo. Ryan was smiling at me, not the camera.
Ryan got a Tupperware container from the cupboard under the sink. ‘We can use this.’
I put one of the photos in it.
‘What else?’ he said.
I checked my jacket pocket. My fingers touched a letter I had written for Ryan the night before. I planned to give it to him the night he left.
‘Have you got anything?’ he asked.
I shook my head and then I felt a smaller piece of paper. ‘Train ticket to Plymouth.’
‘Ah, the romantic train journey to Plymouth where I pulled you into the loos and showed you my credit cards.’
‘Do you have anything?’
‘My ticket to the Eden Project.’
‘I think we should include a page from Connor’s autobiography,’ I said. ‘If it wasn’t for that book, I wouldn’t know who you really are.’
‘Too risky. We mustn’t include anything that’s from the future. How about I put in one of my sketches of you?
He ran upstairs to fetch it.
My fingers closed again over the letter in my pocket. I took it out and reread it.
Dear Ryan
By the time you read this, I will be long dead. Although my life will be over, only a day or two will have passed for you. It’s strange to think of you out there, still young and pretty when I am dead and gone.
Meeting you has changed my life. I hadn’t thought much about what I wanted to do, but now I know I want to do something good with my life, something that helps take care of the planet maybe.
I wish I’d had the courage to tell you to your face how much you mean to me. But it’s so much easier to write your feelings than it is to say them. I wish you could have stayed. I know why you couldn’t. But I will never forget you.
Thank you for three wonderful months.
I love you.
Eden.
I wasn’t sure I would have the courage to give it to him. I’d never told anyone I loved them before. Not even in writing.
‘I’m going to miss this picture of you,’ Ryan was saying as he came back into the kitchen.
Impulsively I pushed the letter into the container, hiding it under the photo.
‘It’s the first picture I drew of you,’ he said. ‘Back before I knew you were the evil girl who broke poor Connor’s heart.’
I smacked him jokingly. ‘If you miss it that much, you can dig it up when you get back to your own time.’
We carried the container back outside.
Just as Ryan lowered the time capsule into the ground, a car came slowly up the drive. Ryan stood up straight and wiped his dirty hands on his jeans.
‘That’s not Ben or Cassie,’ he said squinting into the sunshine.
The car stopped and a man got out. Travis.
‘I thought I might find you here,’ he said, strolling over to us. ‘Why aren’t you answering your phone, Eden?’
‘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.’