Moxyland - Lauren Beukes [41]
Ash wants to talk about it, all the way home. 'It doesn't mean it's over. She probably just wants to have the baby and be done with it. Take off with her boyfriend, start a new life somewhere. We could even help them. They could disappear.'
'And what's Home Affairs going to say? Refugee wife just ditches her kid with us and runs off, and they're not going to investigate? No, fuck that. We signed up for the full deal here, Ash. Our kid is not gonna get taken away from us just because babydaddy's back in the picture. And they're not running off and getting deported to cause all kinds of shit for us. They're just gonna have to see it through.'
'Ten, don't be stubborn, please. Think about it. It's three years we'll have to keep this up. And what if she changes her mind? Runs away with him?'
'No way. Forget it. This is my stand against the bullshit of artificially imposed borders and bureaucracies. And if Emmie and her pop-up babydaddy don't understand the implications, then I'm just going to have to hold her hand through it all. She's sticking it out. And she's
not going back on our agreement.'
'But this is not a moral stand, Ten. This is our lives.'
After the horrendous day, it's a shock logging into Avalon. My enviro-friendly house and the three houses surrounding it have been replaced with loxion shelters, the tinshacks appallingly incongruous among the mansions and manicured lawns.
I'm already on the backfoot when skyward* walks out of the corrugated door, his avatar grinning idiotically wide and extending her arms with a little twirl, like a Miss Mzansi contestant.
>> skyward*: tada! what do you think? do you like it?
>> 10: What the fuck? I didn't authorise this. u can't just hack my dwell
>> skyward*: it's a new direction. we're abandoning the subtle approach.
>> 10: It's DEFINITELY not subtle
>> skyward*: should it be? does subtlety cut it? how was your green house working out for ya?
>> 10: It's an idealisation, it's setting an example, showing people an alternative to what a perfect world might be
>> skyward: is it enough to set a good example? how much of an impact have you really made here? and what the fuck does that matter anyway? it's not real.
>> 10: I don't understand. I do REAL shit realworld
>> skyward: you have Struggle connections in your family, right?
The part of me that is not still reeling from the surprise of finding my house transmogrified into shack chic is impressed that he remembers this from the conversation we had when we first met through the future*renovate site last year. But I may have overemphasised the connection. It was a second cousin by marriage whose grandmother helped shelter Ruth First, a Communist journalist blown up by a letter bomb in the 1980s. They had to scrape bits of her off the walls. Not a nice way to go.
>> 10: Yeah. And?
>> skyward*: you ask that cousin about the effectiveness of politely asking for change, of peaceful demonstrations, the total pointlessness of street theatre or civil disobedience. or democracy.
>> 10: She's dead. She died last year of a heart attack. We flew up to Port Elizabeth for the funeral.
>> skyward*: whatever. it's time to radicalise, 10. assuming you're ready for more ambitious work? but maybe i've misjudged you? based on how upset you are by such a minor adjustment? it's just a virtual house, after all.
>> 10: No, you just, you caught me by surprise. I wasn't expec
>> skyward*: best time to catch someone, wouldn't you agree? unprepared. is your protege fully recovered from his scratch, btw?
>>10: What?
>> skyward*: your soccer boy. the one who was injured?
>> 10: Oh. Yeah. Mostly. He's taking some downtime. The meds patched him up. He spun them a story about falling off a roof, doing stunts, trying to impress a girl.
>> skyward*: i posted the video from your friend's jacket cameras to the net, by the way. it's doing the rounds of the jam circuit. already spilling into the mainstream viral content. a colleague