The back of his ears are still red. I’m a bit worried Big Ben will be jealous but he’s not interested in long jump, only track and cross country. And he knows we have to be nice to Pete. My Chronophone buzzes in my bag. I know, without looking, it isn’t Big Ben telling me how many chairs he’s broken. It’s MC2.

The future just got even better.

I’m starting to like the future even more than the past. You can’t predict how it’s going to happen, it changes so much. You have to do good things in the present to help the future. One thing I know: I’m definitely a Level 1 Infinite, though I became one in the future. I proved myself and I passed the test. It can’t unhappen. Some things from the future ARE fixed. When I go there again, it won’t be to fight Le Temps. Le Temps doesn’t exist in the future any more, now Pete LMS is Pete.

Millennia doesn’t hate me in this changed future because she can’t employ a non-existent Le Temps to build her business for me to destroy. Millennia hates me RIGHT NOW for something that has already happened in HER past, MY future. Sometime in the future I’ll leap back to the past and thwart Millennia.

Maybe that will be my next test. If I pass, I’ll become an Intermediate. I’ve been in training to improve my leap skills. Everyone at athletics club thinks it’s to improve my accuracy on the board for the long jump but I’m doing it undercover. I’m really training so the next time I leap, I leap to a nanosecond. I haven’t even told Big Ben but I think he’ll like it.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

I would not have written The Infinite without my two wonderful sons, Solomon and Valentine, encouraging me to read the books they’d fallen in love with. Boys, you took me away from gritty adult realism to alternative realities, at times equally gritty, at times fantastical. Solomon, you reminded me young readers like action, action, action; Valentine, you invented the Ferrari Forever and PPF and gave me perceptive, enthusiastic feedback for the very first draft. When you announced, several summers ago, you were both going to write novels, I thought, if you can do it, so can I.

And here it is!

There are other young people I’d like to thank who read early versions of the book: my niece, Esther, for that upbeat email where you said you’d recommend it to your classmates; Eleanor for persevering even though reading’s not your thing; Oliver for loving the book and grilling me about the publishing process whilst simultaneously stewarding Junior Parkrun; and Grace for appreciating the characters of Elle, Ama and GMT. May you continue to thrive as a reader AND a writer!