Blackbird

I want him to come with me. But I can’t say those words. His answer might devastate us.

Because if he doesn’t come, I won’t stay.

I know my little sister Alex doesn’t get it, why I want to leave so badly. It’s not that I hate it here. She thinks it is. She thinks it’s too small for me. It is a small island, but it’s not too small for me. I just have this fire in my stomach to go. I want to start in London, dance. Then I want to travel around the world. I want to see it all, and not miss one moment.

I want to go to Switzerland, Italy, France. I want to kiss a stranger in New York City in Times Square like in the old photo of a sailor from the 1940s. I want to take a surfing lesson in Australia. I want to explore a sulphur cave in New Zealand, and ride a camel in Morocco. I want to walk along the Great Wall of China, watch the sun set in Hawaii, ride in a cable car up to Sugar Loaf Mountain in Brazil. I want to scream as loud as my lungs can cope over the Grand Canyon.

My sister is always talking about the flower that blooms just once at midnight – the kadapul flower, which is only found in Sri Lanka. When I told her I’d go there and pick it for her, she laughed and said I couldn’t, because it withers almost as soon as you pick it. And when I told her she should go there then to see it in person she laughed even harder.

My sister will never leave this island.

And she seems to be OK with that.

I don’t get it. We’re so different in that regard. But I guess she knows what makes her happy. I just hope she’ll come visit me in London.

London.

I don’t know how to tell him about London.

I’m not ready to say goodbye to him yet. But I’m not willing to say goodbye to my dreams either.

I dream about stepping on to that aeroplane. I’ve never been on a plane before. The furthest I’ve ever been to is Aberdeen, and we took the ferry.

Sometimes I lie in bed and think about being up in the air in that plane. Passport in hand, bag beside me, watching Orkney fade into the distance. Knowing that when I return – and I will return – that I would have explored the world, seen so much, felt so much.

That plane will soar so high in the sky, and for the first time I will feel free.

Free as a bird.

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