“How would she find her herd? How would she find you?”

“Had you been lying all along? Mum gently stroked my hair. I whispered into her shoulder. “I can’t go back. Not yet. I can’t leave.” And she held my head tight to her chest and wrapped her arms around me. “You don’t have to,” she said, rocking me. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, not anymore.” And I cried.”

“How long will you keep me?" I asked.You shrugged. "Forever, of course.”

“Who says I'm not Superman?" You were looking at me with one eye closed against the sun. I shrugged "You would have recued me by now if you were Superman." I said quietly. "Who says I haven't?" Anyone would say you haven't.Anyone's just looking at it wrong then." You pushed yourself up a little, onto your elbows."Anyways, I can't steal you and rescue you. That would give me multiple personalities."And you don't have them already?”

“I mean, that star over there is blinking at me madly now, but for how long? An hour or two, or for the next million years? And how long will we sit here like this? Just another moment, or the rest of our lives? You know which one I'd prefer...”

“But without humans, the wild would take over. It would only take a hundred years or so for nature to win again.”

“Ty?” I said, trying out your name, liking the way it sounded. “So what’s it like anyway? Australia?”You smiled then, and your whole face changed with it. It kind of lit up, like there were sunbeams coming from inside you.“You’ll find out,” you said.”