Page 28 of The Happy Hour
‘I’ll throw it up?’
‘Yes! Go!’
She braced her legs wide and threw the kite into the air. It shimmied for a second then plummeted back to the ground. ‘Ouch,’ Jess said, on the kite’s behalf.
‘Never mind,’ Ash shouted. ‘We’ll try again. I’m not letting Mary Poppins get the better of us!’
‘No way!’ Jess agreed, fighting to make her voice carry above the wind. ‘Let’s do this!’
They tried again and again, Ash letting out more string, Jess waiting until she felt a tug of wind, then throwing the kite into the air. Sometimes it went up a few feet, then came crashing back down. Sometimes it didn’t even catch the wind, sinking sadly to the grass without even trying. A couple of times it swerved towards Jess and she had to jump out of the way.
By the time Ash came over to her, she was sweaty and giggling, and the kite was lying limply on the ground.
Ash flopped into the grass next to the forlorn toy, his breaths staccato. ‘This is harder than it looks,’ he said, as Jess sat next to him. ‘How are those kids doing it?’
She looked over at the young family with the octopus kite, their heads angled upwards, staring at their soaring sea creature. ‘Maybe they justbelievethey can do it?’
‘I thinkwecan do it,’ Ash said, handing her her coffee. ‘It’s probably cold by now.
‘It doesn’t matter.’ Jess took it gratefully. ‘A break, then we’ll try again in a minute?’
‘Definitely. I’m not giving up.’
‘It’s a good superpower to have,’ Jess said, after a minute.
‘Flying a kite?’ Ash asked. ‘Surely flyinglikea kite is better.’
‘No, the ability to not lose coffee. We came all the way from the market, up the hill, through the park, and my cup’s still full. It’s not life-changing, but it’s still impressive.’
Ash stretched his legs out on the grass. ‘Maybe everyone has a superpower, but most of us have small ones, like not spilling coffee, always arriving at the bus stop just as the bus turns up, being able to tie the perfect tie. Maybe it’s only a few, very select people who get the world-saving superpowers, like flying and X-ray vision.’
Jess grinned. ‘Aren’t these small superpowers you’re talking about just skills?’
Ash shook his head. ‘Turning up at the bus stop just as the bus pulls up isn’t something you can learn. I’m not talking about memorising the timetable, I mean you get there at the perfect time even when it’s late. And we dragged ourselves all the way up this hill, out here, andyouwere the one who pointed out that I’ve not lost you any coffee. Under the circumstances, it seems beyond the bounds of normal human skill.’
‘So it’s a mini-superpower?’
‘Yes! Or... how about a subtle superpower?’
‘I like that,’ Jess said. ‘A subtle superpower.’
‘What would yours be?’ Ash turned to face her, his knee unapologetically nudging hers where she was sitting cross-legged on the grass.
‘My subtle superpower?’ Jess asked, stalling for time.
‘What small but incredible thing are you able to do, to improve your life or other people’s?’
She had thought that it was to bother nobody, to exist quietly by herself, but that hadn’t been working out for her too well recently.
‘Do you know all the lyrics to a song after you’ve only heard it a couple of times?’ Ash suggested. ‘Can you tell what time it is without looking at a watch? I had a teacher who could do that; she instinctively knew what time it was, down to the minute. She wowed us all.’
‘Wowedyou?’ Jess asked. ‘With being able to tell the time?’
‘Wowed the nerdy kids,’ Ash corrected with a sheepish smile. ‘Most of my fellow pupils didn’t give a shit, but I thought it was cool.’
‘Are you sure she wasn’t tricking you?’
‘She used to do it in the playground, with her hands behind her back.’
