‘What do your parents do, Eden?’
‘They’re dead.’
He tore his eyes from the road and gave me an apologetic look. ‘Of course they are. Everyone you know is dead. Except Ryan.’
‘They died when I was six. A long time ago. My mother’s younger sister Miranda brought me up. She’s a legal secretary. I guess I should say she was.’
It was the first time I’d thought about Miranda since leaving my own time. My throat closed up. I forced myself to swallow.
‘It must be hard,’ he said quietly, ‘leaving everyone behind.’
‘Ryan’s dad told me to start building a new life, but it’s not easy when you don’t know anybody and things are so different it takes you two days to work out how to turn on the TV.’
‘What’s a “tee vee”?’
I sighed to myself. ‘Technology has changed so much you don’t even know what I’m talking about. It’s a screen that you watch films on. It doesn’t matter.’
The road wound higher and higher until we were up in the mountains, encircled by them, and the horizon was lost behind thick green trees and low cloud. There were no mountains where I came from, just miles of coastline and broad horizons where sky and sea met in a blur of blue. If Cornwall was blues and greys, this place was greens. Peg pulled off the main road and drove along a bumpy track. I breathed in the smell of fresh, living wood.
‘This is it,’ said Peg, parking the car on a dusty verge.
Outside the car, the sun poured down its thick, sticky heat.
‘The trees will shade us,’ he said, throwing me a bottle of water. He stuck his own bottle into his belt.
We walked to a poorly marked trail that snaked its way up the side of the mountain, hairpin bend to hairpin bend, each turn offering a view out over endless forested hills. Despite the shade from the leaves, I was hot and clammy and I emptied my water bottle in no time. Just when I was about to suggest we head back to the car, I heard a noise. A roar, like a busy road.
‘Nearly there,’ he said.
I didn’t realise we had a destination.
We followed the trail around a corner of white rock and there it was. A wide, shallow pool with a raging, white waterfall cascading into it. I looked up. Above was another pool with a larger waterfall. The water thundered and rushed.
‘The falls are bigger in the spring,’ said Peg. ‘But the water is warmer at this time of year.’
I pulled my sandals off and waded in. The water was colder than anything I’d ever felt. For a moment it took my breath away.
‘Good, huh?’ he said, oblivious to my complete and total body shock.
He was up to his thighs. His trousers had been discarded on the rocks, and he was wearing just his swimming shorts and a vest top. There was no way I was stripping down to my underwear. My dress was long, but light and loose. I was pretty sure I could swim in it. As I shuffled deeper into the water, he dived under the mossy green surface of the pool, emerging several metres away, under the spray.
‘Come on!’ he yelled at me. ‘It doesn’t get much better than this.’
His smile was so big and enthusiastic that, although my toes felt like they were going to turn to ice and fall off, I waded deeper, trying to ignore the ache in my flesh, the jolt of pain in my heart, the tightness in my lungs. And then, before I could talk myself out of it, I dived under the smooth green surface myself. The water was different to the scratchy salt water I was used to. This water was like silk; it was oily and slippery and coated my skin. When I surfaced, I gasped for warm air. Peg was treading water beneath the spray. I swam to him and when I was under the falls I leant back and opened my mouth a crack, feeling the icy water splatter on my tongue. This was the best feeling I’d had since arriving in the twenty-second century.
‘You want to climb up to the upper pool?’ Peg called out.
‘Yes!’ I yelled above the roar of the falls.
He pushed himself on to the rocks at the base of the falls and I followed. The rocks here were wet and slippery and I crunched my toes up tight to give myself traction. I followed Peg to the side of the waterfall and he pointed out the way up the rocks. It was only about fifteen metres, but I’d always been scared of heights.
‘It’s easy,’ he told me. ‘Much easier than it looks. Just follow my moves.’
He began the climb. I followed close behind, careful to match my handholds and footholds to his, making sure I never looked down. Every time a wave of nausea threatened to overcome me, I reminded myself that Ryan was locked up and facing trial. What I was doing was nothing compared with what he was facing.
When I finally hauled myself over the ledge and on to the sunny, rocky plateau by the upper pool, I was glad I’d made the effort. The waterfall here was even higher than the one below and tiny sequins of golden mist sprayed the air. Peg gestured to a flat, rocky area to the side of the falls. I joined him.
‘What do you think?’ he asked.
‘It’s gorgeous,’ I said.
He smiled to himself and pulled his wet vest top over his head, laying it out on a sunny rock to dry. I was still in my green dress. Underneath I was wearing nothing but my underwear.
‘You should take off your dress,’ he said as if reading my mind.
‘I only have underwear underneath.’
He shrugged. ‘I only have these shorts.’
‘That’s different.’
But I knew he was right. Although the sun was powerful, the heavy wet material clung to my skin, chilling me to my bones. I peeled off the dress and laid it out on the hot rocks. Peg was lying near the top of the waterfall, his eyes shut. Feeling exposed in my matching blue bra and knickers, I lay on a flat rock nearby and shut my eyes.
‘So what’s a ‘‘tee vee’’?’ he asked after a while.
‘Television,’ I said. ‘You watch movies and documentaries and the news on it.’
‘So it’s a com-screen?’
‘What’s a com-screen?’
‘You know the big screen on the wall in your room? That’s a com-screen. You can use it to call people and find out information about anything and watch movies.’
‘Right. So it’s a TV and a phone and the internet all-in-one.’
‘If you say so.’
‘The twenty-second century isn’t so different from the twenty-first century. Just enough to make me feel stupid.’
‘I’ll be your guide to the twenty-second century. Any questions, just ask.’
‘I have a million questions.’
‘Shoot.’
‘So is America still the most powerful nation in the world? Or let me guess – is it China?’
‘America is still the most powerful country in the world. However, not the America you’re thinking of.’
I waited for him to continue.
‘The United States of America no longer exists. Most of what was once the United States, together with Canada and Alaska all now comprise the Federation of North America.’
‘Really? Canada and America together?’
‘Around the middle of the last century, climate change really hit America. A lot of farmland became too dry to farm. At the same time, Canada became much more suitable for farming. And then when the Arctic ice melted, everyone wanted to claim territory in the Arctic Ocean. By joining forces with Canada, America was able to do that, as well as putting in a claim for Greenland.’
‘What happened to China?’ I asked.
‘China was the most powerful nation until about 2048. But climate change forced them to focus on feeding their population.’
‘Anything else I should know?’
‘Depends what interests you. Politics? Economics? The law?’
‘Tell me about the Guardians of Time. I know a little, but not much.’
‘There are five of them. In many ways, they have more power than the president, parliament and the supreme court together. They approve missions to the past and future and try all cases that come to the Time Court. Every two years one of the Guardians is elected president of the Space and Time Institute. The president sets the agenda for the next two years. Right now is election time. If Admiral Wolfe wins the presidency, there will be no time travel. He’s dead set against it. If Westland wins, time travel will still be allowed.’