Page 80 of Hold On

“You let me eat fish and chips before we did this? Was that wise?”

Ren chuckled. He pulled up by the side of a hangar and they got off the bike. Ren attached their helmets, locked up their jackets and led Dominic round the building. The plane in front of them looked like a toy, too insubstantial to carry anyone into the air, and Dominic pressed his lips together.

Ren waved to a guy who was coming towards them. “Hi, I’m Ren. Are you Jason?”

“Yes, come into the office and we’ll do the paperwork.”

“I’ll wait here,” Dominic said.

“Don’t run off.”

Dominic sat on a chair in the sunshine. He was touched that Ren was coming up with things to do that were new experiences for him. There was no way Dominic could afford to take a flight for fun.

While he was waiting, he went onto Amazon and looked for a present for Ren’s father. He found a book calledNow We Are Sixty,a parody of A. A. Milne’s classic poems. It sounded different so he ordered it to be delivered to the stable block and since Amazon were offering a deal on Prime, he was able to get the book the next day. Meeting Ren’s parents was a big deal. He assumed Ren wouldn’t tell them about his past, so did he have to come up with a lie? How would that work when Will knew the truth?

Jason eventually returned with Ren but Ren motioned for Dominic to stay where he was while the two of them walked around the plane, then got inside. It just gave him longer to grow nervous. By the time Ren was heading towards him and Jason was walking in the other direction, he was wondering if Ren would be okay if he said he didn’t want to do it.

“Are you up for a spin?” Ren asked.

“I’d rather we didn’t spin.”

“Spoilsport.”

“I hope the pilot’s someone with years and years of experience. I’m thinking at least twenty or thirty years since he got his licence, and he has an unblemished record.”

“Not quite.”

“Not quite to the first part or the second?”

Ren grinned. “I’ve never crashed.”

“Have you flown this plane before?”

“Not this exact one, but this type, yes.”

“Right.”

“Scared?”

“Should I be?”

“No.”

“Okay.” But Dominic’s heart rate told him a different story. “Do we get parachutes?” He was deadly serious. Maybe notdeadly.

“You want to jump out?”

“No, but…”

“Parachutes aren’t a good idea. You’re more likely to kill yourself leaping out of this sort of plane. In the very unlikely event of engine failure, we can glide without power for a considerable distance. Plenty of time to find a field or a road to land on.”

“So no dropping straight down and spiralling to our death?”

“Thank you, Mr Cheerful.”

“Have you made sure the wings are firmly attached? That the propellor spins?”

“It’s fine,” Ren said. “Jason said he took it apart last week and put it back together. There were just a couple of screws left over.” He bit his lip. “If you don’t want to go up, you don’t have to.”

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