Finn sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe she’s still in the caravan, thinking about it.”

“Maybe she’ll spend the rest of her life in the caravan thinking about it, and then one day she’ll wake up and realise she’s old and that’s been her whole life. Thinking.”

“That’s a very dark ending,” said Finn.

“You’re the one who’s always saying fairy tales are meant to be dark… is that a bird?”

“Where? Oh, that’s lovely.”

The bird spiralled past in a frantic flutter of beating wings, swooping almost to the ground and then soaring off into the high ceiling.

“You see,” said Ava, “if you have a baby, you fall in love with it. You love it more than anyone in the world. You’d do anything. You’d kill for it. You’d die for it. Absolutely whatever it took. And I don’t know if I want to love someone else as much as that. I think it might end up tearing me in two.”

Finn squinted at her. “You can’t mean Paul.”

“Of course not Paul, you idiot.”

Finn swallowed hard. He shambled to his feet and took three steps towards the escalators. Then he came back and enveloped his sister in a fierce desperate hug.

“This is the last time, okay?” he muttered. “The very last time you’ll have to drop everything to come after me. I promise. I swear.”

“I don’t mind, I’ve never minded. It’s what we agreed. Just the two of us against the world. You’d do the same for me.”

“I never have though, have I? It’s always been you rescuing me. But I promise, Ava, this is it. You’ll never ever have to come and get me out of jail or pay my airfare home or anything. I’m going to make you proud.”

“You don’t have to make me proud. You’re my brother. I love you how you are.”

“I’ll finish the book, no more messing. I’ll have the first draft finished by Christmas, words and pictures, and start shopping it round. And next time there’s any rescuing to be done, I’ll be the one rescuing you.”

“You don’t need to.”

“They’re calling our flight.” With difficulty, Finn shouldered his backpack.

“Let me carry it.”

“Absolutely not.” His eyes were bright with tears and fever. “I mean it, Ava. No more.”

“So now I just have to be a boring suburban wife?”

“When you get tired of it you only have to say. We can run away and build the beach hut. Or join the Foreign Legion. Or you can just be a boring suburban wife. I don’t care. You’re still you.”

Side by side, they crossed the deserted terminal to the boarding gate.

The man who had
everything he wanted

Once there was a man who believed in the power of hard work. He looked around at the life he found himself in and he thought, I want more than this. He looked at the things he wanted and he thought, The world won’t just give me what I want. He looked at his two strong hands and he thought, This is how I’ll build my future.