“This way.”
He leads the way to the fields, before climbing a stile to walk through one. There are no cows in it. Flynn might be confident walking through a field full of cows, but I'm not. What if they got spooked or angry and decided to stampede?
It’s not long before we unhook our baseball caps and put them on. I turn mine backwards so the peak covers my neck. We hold hands and chat while we walk. We talk about the scenery, which is gorgeous, and catch up on the years we were apart. Somehow, we manage to keep Billy off the agenda.
The path varies between hard-packed earth, worn strips of grass through fields, and verges along the side roads. We climb stiles, pause at kissing gates for lengthy, tongue-tangling kisses, and drink often to keep hydrated.
We pass the odd dog walker, a group of people with walking poles who smile and nod in acknowledgement as they hurry past us in the opposite direction, and fields of sheep, cows, or horses.
As the morning progresses, our route becomes more hilly, and we veer off the roads into English wilderness. The ground becomes spongier underfoot, and our path is lined with purple heather and golden gorse bushes. The occasional bird of prey screechesand wheels overhead. First a falcon, and then a much larger red kite.
“They’ve been reintroducing the red kites,” I say.
“Really?”
“Yes. They started with a few breeding pairs twenty-odd years ago. They’ve increased in number and have spread out.”
“How do you know that?”
I shrug. “It’s just one of those Leeds facts that everyone knows.”
Flynn gives me an incredulous look.
“I just picked it up. I have lived here for three years.”
“Huh. It’s a pretty cool fact.” Flynn shades his eyes with his hand and stares at the sky. “They’re beautiful birds.”
I nod in agreement, watching as the kite dive bombs something on the ground. “It would be amazing to have eyesight that good.”
“You’d rather have their eyesight than their ability to fly?”
I grin. “I’d rather be able to teleport.”
“Teleport?”
“Yeah. It would save so much time if I could just will myself to be somewhere else. Need to get to uni? Great. It takes two seconds, rather than walking or taking the bus. Want to go on holiday to Gran Canaria? No problem. Have relatives in Australia? Visit them in the blink of an eye.”
We resume walking.
“That would be pretty cool,” Flynn says. “But are we talking superhero teleportation or technology-based teleportation?”
I purse my lips and contemplate his question. “Superhero.”
“Why?”
“It would be free, for starters. And much better for the planet. I reckon dismantling someone on the molecular level, transporting them across the world, and putting them back together again would consume the same amount of energy as a jumbo jet carrying three hundred passengers would.”
Flynn laughs. “Is this something you’ve thought about a lot?”
“Nope. This is my first time.”
“If you say so.”
“It is!” I tickle him, making him double up as he giggles. “What superpower would you like?”
He hums. “Teleportation would be the most useful. Or speed. Travelling at the speed of light would be less scary than being teleported. What if my molecules got mixed up with someone else’s? What if I got teleported into a wall?”
“What if you collided with someone while going super fast?”
