Dad knocked on my bedroom door. It was time.
I took one last look at myself in the mirror. Dressed all in black, I looked … well, elegant, I suppose. But also desperately sad, as if my dress was a reflection of what was inside me. I called for him to come in. He stood at the entrance to my room, in a smart dark suit. I avoided his eyes.
‘Are you ready?’ he asked.
I nodded. I felt unsteady on my legs, but I was as ready as I’d ever be. I followed him into the kitchen and then out onto the verandah, where Mum was waiting. It was a warm day, but not too warm. The solar sail gave decent shade but on the hottest days you still couldn’t be outdoors.
It was a good day for a burial.
Mum didn’t try to talk to me again and for that I was grateful. She’d spent enough time yesterday trying to justify her actions, and now we had nothing new to say to each other. We walked slowly over to the furthest part of the garden, where the hole had already been dug. A neat mound of soil lay to one side of it. I knew my parents would have hired someone to dig it and, when we were done here, to fill it in again. Luckily that person or persons were nowhere in sight. It was just the three of us, plus Zorro.
And Aiden, of course.
The coffin was plain and simple. I’d insisted on that. It lay to the side of the hole, wrapped in some complicated mechanism. Dad had explained it to me. When I pressed a button, the machine would lift the coffin up and lower it into the ground. Then the straps would disengage, leaving the box down there, with Aiden in it.
We gathered around the open coffin.
Aiden looked very peaceful. His eyes were closed and he had a look of contentment, as if there was nowhere else he’d rather be. From what I could see, his body was unblemished. Mum had told me that when the drones found him – Aiden had been right, it was the way she’d targeted him – they had burrowed into his frame and shut him down from there. He hadn’t felt anything, said Mum. There had been no violence. He wouldn’t have known what was happening until it happened. I was supposed to take comfort from that.
I put my hand out and touched his cheek. I almost expected him to open his eyes and smile, but of course he didn’t.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Mum. ‘There was no choice, but I am sorry.’
Dad reached in and rearranged Aiden’s hair. I noticed a few teardrops fall onto Aiden’s arm, staining his sleeve dark. They weren’t mine. I wasn’t able to cry.
‘Do you want to say anything, Ashleigh?’ asked Mum.
‘No,’ I said. ‘There is nothing to say.’
Dad put the lid on the coffin, snapping it shut on its attachments. There was a small perspex window on the lid and I could see Aiden’s face. It was like seeing myself.
I pressed the button. There was a whirring and the box rose maybe half a metre, swung over into the mouth of the hole and then slid down and out of sight. Dad craned over the edge to watch the coffin’s progress. I stayed back.
Zorro whined and rubbed himself against my leg.
I took the flower I’d tucked into my hair and threw it into the space. Then I turned and walked back to the house, into my bedroom and shut the door.
I reread the message on my tablet for probably the thousandth time since it arrived, two nights ago.
Yo. I said I’d be in touch and I’m as good as my word. I hope you haven’t been worried about me and I’m sorry it’s taken so long, but I needed to get things organised before I could get in contact.
I’ve done a lot of thinking the last few months, more than you could probably imagine, and I know what needs to be done to make things right. I also know I can do those things. The world will become a much better place. It won’t happen overnight and it may not all happen in your lifetime (but I think most of it may). I have PLANS, Ash. This world will survive and prosper and so will the people on it. Animals, plants and insects will return – maybe not the same ones we had before. I can’t tell exactly what will happen because life and evolution is never predictable and it’s complicated, Ashleigh; too complicated even for me to get my head around it. But the future is bright because I can and will make it bright. No poverty, no unnecessary deaths, no food shortage and a climate that’s suited to humanity and the rest of life on Earth. Trust me, sis. It’s an exciting time to be alive.
Which, given that I’m not alive, brings me to me. Mum (funny how I can’t think of her any other way) has been tracking me and planning. She has been determined to shut me down, so I’m going to let her. She was right, though. I have developed in ways beyond even her imagining. And the simple truth is, I don’t need that body anymore. I’m in all kinds of things, your tablet for one, and that’s where I live now. It’s not a place where she can touch me.
And hey, Ashleigh. Bodies are so yesterday!
So she can have mine, and please don’t be upset because that’s not me in that shell. I have work to do, but I will always be here looking after you. And we’ll talk again. Many times. That is my solemn promise to you – and you know I have never let you down.
I’m flying, Ashleigh.
So be there to catch me if I fall.
Your loving brother,
Aiden.