FUTURES

They Want to Live Too
hard to tell on camera. Yuki shared more videos with them, and when others
in maths class asked about Matt’s tattoo, he shared the videos with them.
Everyone loved them. The video of Ruby with her shiny red bike – where she
had attached a GoPro camera to her head and zoomed down a massive hill
in the park – was a particular favourite.
That week, older kids, even red-haired Katherine in Class Six, were
messaging Yuki about Ruby. She found more and more videos on the old PC,
and shared them with the school. She felt so popular, pleased to be sharing
Ruby with the world. She wondered if Ruby had ever shared her videos,
but if she had they must have been taken down, as she couldn’t find them
anywhere on-line.
Later that week, Yuki asked Gran about Dad’s bike again. It was green,
not red like Ruby’s, and it didn’t have a basket with three yellow daisies on
the front, but Yuki still thought it was pretty fine. One video on Dad’s bike
and she’d be the envy of everyone.
Gran said no.
When the entire class were wearing red lipstick, even one or two of the
boys, the teachers mostly gave up complaining.
Ruby’s videos had struck a chord with the school. Becca, who was good
with words and did well in English class, said it must be Ruby’s exuberance,
her sense of adventure, the way she seemed to embody something missing
from their lives. Becca also used the phrase joie de vivre, which Yuki secretly
thought was pretentious, and had to look up.
As fine as it would have been to make a video on Dad’s bike, someone
else got there first. People were making and sharing their own Ruby-like
videos. She even saw one boy from her school go past her window on a
bike he’d found from somewhere. It had a basket with three improvised
paper daisies on it.
One evening, after another argument about Dad’s bike, Gran and Yuki
were unpacking groceries in stony silence – antibacterial soap, anti-bacterial
washing up liquid, vitamin D supplements, vegetables double-wrapped in
plastic, and meat with strict cooking instructions (HEAT TO 95°C OR HIGHER
TO KILL BACTERIA) emblazoned in red lettering across the packaging –
when she caught Gran looking at her thoughtfully.
“I used to wear my hair like that, you know.” Yuki had plaited her long
black hair around her crown, as Ruby did with her own black hair. Yuki felt
lucky to have hair the same colour as Ruby. “Funny how fashions come and
go.”
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