“I want you to know that I never doubted you. I knew you were brilliant. I knew you could do anything; it was just I forgot that maybe you have your own ideas … it’s just the world can be a cruel place.”

Gracie sniffed. Despite herself, the tears were warming her face now. She looked up at him.

“It can also be a wonderful place…”

Her dad looked down at her.

“It is … and I think I lost sight of that for a little while there…”

He kissed her head. and they stood for a long time.

“You stink…,” he said after a while. “You’re all sweaty.” Gracie laughed, stepped back. Rubbed her face with her hands. They smiled at each other.

“I know.”

“So?” he asked. “What do you want to do now?”

“Well…,” Gracie said, looking at her watch, “I’m glad you asked me that…”

TWENTY-SEVEN

THE SHED DOOR opened.

“GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE!!!!! TAKE A PEE BEHIND THE RHUBARB!!! CHANGE YOUR UNDERPANTS!!! HAVE SOME BREAKFAST!!! TODAY WE SAILLLLLLLLL!!!!!!”

Grandad was bouncing. Marty squinted.

“What time is it???”

Grandad looked at his watch.

“Four in the morning … come on! Up and at ’em!”

Marty saw that Grandad had been revived, then.

Colin, Sadiq, and the lady from allotment 7 were already there. Grandad had scrambled a load of eggs in a frying pan on the fire, and everyone was chomping down. At half past five the skinny man from the paper turned up, his eye twitching, ready to take some pictures along with, it seemed like, half the city. One person had messaged their friends and they had messaged their friends until the crowd was, in fact, huge! Everyone stood gasping and wondering, ogling and guessing.

As the sun began to climb in the sky, it showed off the pumpkin boat in all her glory. She was bright and enormous. Breathtaking. The skinny man scratched his head before Grandad leaned a ladder on the side of the pumpkin and climbed up into it. Then he clapped so that everyone would listen.

“We had a seed of an idea, a little tiny seed. Then we planted it and watched it grow! I present to you, HMS Sailing Seed!”

Everyone gasped.

“We’re going to sail across that channel in this here boat today.”

People were absolutely gobsmacked. The skinny man started to scribble down his notes. This was a scoop. The scoop of all scoops. If he could get some pictures to the newsroom this morning, he might even make the nine o’clock headlines. All the television services would be after the story too, and he was there. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. He took hundreds of pictures.

“This adventure is for all of us! Us dreamers! Us people they say are mad and bonkers! This is our way of saying, ‘We matter too.’ This is our way of saying, ‘Don’t ever let go of your dreams.’”