Thora looks at him warily, wondering if he’s trying to catch her out. She takes a risk. “No. But I got new ones from the Odysseum.” She points to the floodlit glass of the adventure museum across the river. “It’s amazing. The gift shop has European Space Agency badges. You should go.” She laughs. “If you don’t mind being the oldest person in there by like—ten years.”

“We’re supposed to grow out of all that.” Santi speaks quietly. “Little kids all love the stars. They all want to be astronauts. Explore the universe, see what no one else has ever seen. But then we get older and—we stop looking up. We keep our eyes on the ground and decide to be something realistic.”

“I never did.” Thora can’t believe she’s telling her biggest secret, the tender heart of her, to this boy she just met. She runs through his likely responses: laughter, fake interest, well-meaning advice to let go of what’s never going to happen.

“Me neither.” He tilts his head to the stars. “I want to go up there. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

For the first time since she arrived in the city, Thora relaxes into a genuine smile. “Why do you want to go?”

He looks at her like it’s obvious. “I want to see God.”

Thora laughs, because of course he’s joking. He looks back at her calmly, not offended but not laughing along either.

She frowns. “You think God lives in space?” He cracks a smile. She pursues it. “You know all that stuff about heaven being up, it’s—probably a metaphor.”

“There is no up in space,” he says seriously.

“So in space, you wouldn’t be short? That’s convenient,” she says without thinking.

He looks hurt. She wants to go back, to try again, but in this universe, time only moves one way, tumbling her with it. “As for me,” she says, “I want to go to space because in space, no one can hear me say the first stupid thing that comes into my head.”

He doesn’t exactly smile. “Why do you really want to go?”

She sighs. “I want to get as far away as possible from—all this.” She gestures vaguely at the tower, the city, the planet.

“All this?” He stands up, swaying—she reaches out, but he catches himself on the arch. “What’s wrong with all this?”

“Nothing.” She shrugs. “It’s fine. It’s here. I’ve just always wanted—elsewhere.”

“I know what you mean.” Santi looks out at the city. “Still, here is pretty amazing.”