'Dinosaur Girl' (Extract ... "I Am Not Banksy!")

"I Am Not Banksy!"

'You mind if I watch some TV?'

Eve looked at the time traveller incredulously but shook her head, too tired to care.

Ravenna took the remote, and the screen was filled with a western saloon scene. The classic seventies sci-fi movie Westworld. A moustachioed man in a cowboy outfit was graphically shooting a black-shirted android who was blown to the floor spurting fake blood.

'Intriguing dystopian concept, but I have seen it,' Ravenna said briskly, 'mind if I ..?'

Eve shook her head and the Mediterranean girl flicked the channel once more: a documentary on how coffee beans were harvested and dried. Ravenna lingered for a moment then shook her head and changed the channel once more: Steven Spielberg's Classic Jurassic Park. 'Certainly not,' she muttered and flicked again: a reality TV programme where young men and women went to live as Roman Citizens for a month. 'Interesting,' she said with an amused look, then smiled and shook her head. 'Your confusing culture makes me want to laugh and vomit in equal measure Eve Wells.'

Eve turned to gaze at her.

'Your culture?'

'I have visited many places Wells, lead many lives. I am not from round these parts as they say.'

Eve frowned. 'Many lives?' Ravenna glanced away evasively, keeping her tone neutral.

'And I have met some interesting people' she continued before she had time to comment further.

'Like who?'

Ravenna thought for a moment. 'Da Vinci was a lovely man, inspired – a real charmer – but the sex was nothing to write home about,' Eve's jaw dropped, '– only joking, Eve Wells, our working relationship was purely platonic.'

Eve's mind was racing, could it really be possible that the girl who sat across the room from her had ... 'You're kidding! You really met ..?'

Ravenna looked at her levelly for a moment then flicked off the TV and shrugged.

'Of course.' She frowned as if it were obvious. 'He too was a time traveller – where do you think he got his ideas for the helicopter and submarine from?' Eve gawped.

'But ...'

'Charles Babbage was a real sweetie to, we had such a blast working on his difference engine.'

'Charles Babbage!' she echoed, 'you helped to make ...'

'Yeah, yeah, the first computer: a terrible mistake really – and I should have kept my nose out of the internet in the early 80's – world would have made the world a far simpler place.'

Eve's eyes widened as the words sank in.

'You're not joking are you. So who else ...'

'Anne Boleyn,' the Mediterranean girl replied in a tone which was tinged with pride and yet mildly bored, as if she'd been through it all a million times before. 'Winston Churchill ... Louis IX of France ... Matisse ... Darwin.'

'You met Charles Darwin?'

'He was an interesting man – if a little obsessive – though oddly more fun than Shakespeare.'

'William Shakespeare!'

'Over-rated,' the time traveller continued dismissively, 'though I kind of had a thing going for Marlowe – he was quite a guy – we even agreed to disagree about religion. The fatal misunderstanding over his supper bill was just so sad.'

Eve didn't know whether to laugh or gawp. 'Then there was Fred Estaire, Ivar the Boneless. Descart ... and that whole Joan de Arc thing was just a terrible misunderstanding on the part of the Commune of Paris,' she broke off and swilled her glass thoughtfully, '... oh – and I am also Banksy.'

Eve spluttered into her glass. 'That also was a joke Eve Wells.'