Life in Colour

Archie stood staring at his bed, where his father Jude had laid out his clothes. Black cargo pants, black button-up shirt, black socks. This was a problem - Archie needed to wear two colours. Archie liked there to be two of things; two soft toys to sleep with, two turns of a doorknob, two parents. Unfortunately today was already troublesome, because now Archie only had one parent, so one colour was the last thing he needed. Granted, he hadn’t seen his mother since his diagnosis, but he always liked knowing that she was out there somewhere, completing the pair. And now half of that pair was gone, like a lost sock.

. . .

Jude scanned the monochrome sea of mourners in search of his offspring, spotting a pair of red sneakers peeking out from underneath the beverage station. He peeled back the tablecloth and parked next to Archie, handing him a yellow piece of cheese on a white rice cracker. Archie took the cheese in his left hand, the cracker in his right, and then stuffed them both in his mouth, before pulling out his recipe book from his back pocket. Archie’s recipe book didn’t actually contain recipes, but instead was a little black notebook he used to record everything he did every day. Mostly though, he just wrote lists of the foods he ate for each meal, and their respective colours. Breakfast, for example, was always the same: “Tiger toast. 2 stripes of vegemite, 2 stripes of cheese. Yellow and black.”

. . .

It was too late when Archie realised the cheese and biscuit had been a bribe. He found himself in a very overwhelming room; red carpet, brown furniture, blue and green chairs, and an orange man with black hair. He reminded Archie of the orange men he had seen in a movie once; they had green hair and white overalls and were surrounded by lollies of all the colours of the rainbow. Just as Archie was feeling that he couldn’t be in this room any longer, Jude’s face appeared in front of his. He was kneeling on the red carpet, which meant this was important, because a lifetime of working as a tradie had left Jude with bad knees. It was then that Archie noticed the orange man watching him, which made Achie feel very uncomfortable. Remembering his father’s set of dodgy joints, he implemented one of their secret strategies; pretending there was a unicorn horn coming from the middle of the orange man’s forehead. This way, Archie didn’t have to make eye contact, but he also didn’t appear rude - it took focus, and it was one of his favourite tricks. Regrettably this technique did have one downfall, and it wasn’t until they had returned home that Archie realised he had gotten so carried away imagining the orange man’s magical horn, that he had forgotten to turn his ears on and hadn’t heard a word the man said.

. . .

It was past Archie’s bedtime, but whenever his dad’s special friend Naya came over after dinner he would sneak out to spy on them. They never seemed to do anything interesting, just a lot of talking, sometimes drinking a glass of wine, and Archie would note all of this down in his recipe book.

“Grand?! You know I love our little Archibald prize, but what is he supposed to do with that kind of responsibility? We both know that as soon as you tell him it’s his, he’s going to spend the lot on Lego. She is unbelievable.”

Lego? Archie’s ears pricked up. Lego was one of Archie’s most favourite things in the world. Each Lego brick was only one colour, and could easily be paired up. Lego always did exactly what he wanted. Lego was predictable. Lego didn’t mind if Archie couldn’t think of what to say.

. . .

Archie’s eyes fixated on the numbers in front of him; two, and lots of zeroes. The zeroes began to blur, but more importantly, there on the ATM screen was his favourite number. His mother really did know him, he thought to himself. As Jude attempted to explain the value of saving, Archie’s imagination wandered to images of colour-coded sock drawers and raspberry candy canes marching two by two.

“And I know you’re going to want to spend it all now -- ”

Sometimes Archie was sure Jude could read minds.

“ -- but I just want you to remember that once it’s gone, it’s gone. So if it’s burning a hole in your pocket -- “

Archie glanced down at his pockets - no smoke.

“ -- at least try to make sure you put it towards something important. Something that matters.”

Archie nodded. Something that matters. Like his recipe book, he thought.

. . .

Archie clicked his tongue as he surveyed his list, legs splayed out on either side of him like chicken wings.

“Star Wars Lego, Batman Lego, Lord of the Rings Lego, Lord of the Rings movies, Lord of the Rings books, my softies, my bedroom, my food not touching, my routine…”

Archie crinkled his nose. These were all the things that were important to him, but he already had them all. What else was there?

“Dinner, Archie!” It was Thursday, which meant Naya brought IKEA meatballs and mashed potato, brown and white. Archie wondered how many meatballs he could buy with his inheritance. Perhaps that would be a better use of his money; helping to pay for the groceries. After all, Jude had supported Archie his entire life.

He was halfway out his bedroom door when Archie dashed back to his list and added: “Dad”.

. . .

As Archie collected Naya’s plate, he noticed her hand on Jude’s knee. Archie didn’t like being touched, but it always seemed to make his father happy, so when Naya came along he was glad to have her take up that mantle. Naya was actually pretty cool. She would turn down the volume on the tv whenever he walked into the living room, she never tried to make conversation with him on the drive home after school, and she didn’t seem to mind that Archie took twenty minutes to brush his teeth. In fact, one night when Archie had run away, it was Naya who’d found him. He was hiding behind some bushes, and somehow Naya knew he was there without even looking at him. She’d just sat down, for quite a long time, and then eventually she just started talking. She didn’t sound angry, and she wasn’t forcing him to come out, but soon Archie found that he wanted to all on his own. Archie had never felt so accepted by someone who didn’t have to love him. That mattered.

. . .

“What’s your budget mate? How much can you spend?”

The bloke on the other end of the phone had said a lot of things very quickly, and even though Archie had practised what he was going to say, he hadn’t allowed for someone this loud.

“Um… Two, zero, zero?”

“Two hundo? Ah, sorry buddy, can’t help ya for less than about two grand I’m afraid.”

Grand. Archie hurriedly checked his recipe book. ‘Grand’ was the word Naya used when his father had told her about the money.

“That’s how much I have!”

“Oh, two, zero, zero, zero? Mate! That’s excellent, we can definitely take care of you for that. I’ll email you with all the deets.”

Archie checked his inbox. $1999. His elation quickly turned to anxiety; that was all the money he had. Then Jude’s words rang in his ear - “...make sure you put it towards something important.” This was. This was something important, and Archie would have a whole dollar left for himself. He would save that, just like his father had advised him to do.

. . .

It was spag bol night, which meant Naya was picking Archie up from school. Archie was talking so much about the history of aviation that she barely braked for the lollipop lady - Archie was never chatty right after a big day of school. However, Archie behaving like a walking encyclopedia wasn’t odd at all, so Naya just listened, relishing the change of pace (or lack of silence, as it were) during their one on one time. As they pulled into the driveway, Naya was surprised to see Jude parking.

“What are you doing here?” she quizzed.

Jude looked to Archie. “Look I’m not really sure, but this young man here promised he wouldn’t spy on us tonight if I knocked off early today.”

Archie felt ready to burst. He was not good at keeping secrets and this surprise had been making him feel tingly all week, but it was going to be worth it. He hoped.

“Just, come here!” Archie waved his arm wildly in a beckoning gesture as he led Naya and Jude to their back porch. “Sit.”

As they did so, Archie giggled and disappeared into the house, leaving Jude looking quizzical. Naya laughed at him, shrugging, and ran her hands through his hair as Jude laid his head on her shoulder. A loud buzzing sound drew their attention to the clear sky above, as a small plane cast a shadow across the bindi-infested grass.

“Weird, Archie talked about aircrafts all the way home today,” Naya mused.

Jude shot up from her shoulder like a meerkat. “Wait, he was conversing in the car?”

Just as Naya opened her mouth to respond, Archie’s voice came booming through the door, “Guys, LOOK!”

There, in front of their eyes, the little aeroplane was flying loop-de-loop, leaving a trail of white smoke behind it. And then it dawned on Naya; “Is that… my name?”

As Naya attempted to get closer to the lettering - despite this being an obvious impossibility - she unwittingly embedded a bindi in the sole of her foot. Due to the pain, she completely missed the precious moment occurring between father and son right behind her, and by the time she had extricated the weed from her foot, the skywriting read:

“NAYA - WILL YOU BE MY NEW MUM?”

Speechless, she turned to see her two boys, an achingly charming pair, each on one knee, with Archie holding what looked like a rubix cube. Naya swept the back of her hand across her eyes, realising the rubix cube was in fact a box made of lego, and that Archie was gazing at her expectantly.

“Archie Bear. I would be honoured. And I see you used four colours for me, thank you!”

“Two pairs of colours. Red and black. Yellow and blue. Essendon Bombers and the Swedish flag.”

“For our IKEA meatballs, of course.”

Archie nodded and handed the box to his father.

“Archie, how did you pull this off?”

“I put my two thousand dollars towards something that matters.”

“Two thou -- Arch, your mum left you twenty thousand dollars.”

Archie froze, confused, as Naya and Jude eyed each other, eyes twinkling.

“Dad, open it.”

Having momentarily forgotten the mysterious lego box, Jude removed the lid to reveal Archie’s Lord of the Rings officially licensed replica ring - his pride and joy. Grinning, Jude pulled out his wallet. Hidden behind a long overdue frequent shopper card, was a silver ring set with an oval emerald. Naya howled and tackled Jude, rolling him over onto the spiky grass as Archie shouted,

“DOES THAT MEAN YES?”

. . .

Archie was telling anybody who would listen.

“This is my dad and my new mum. We’re going on their honeymoon. Mama Naya said we could go to Legoland because I’m paying.”

Archie excitedly reached the front of the queue.

“Copenhagen?”

Archie panicked. He closed his eyes and started shaking his head back and forth.

“No. No. We’re going to Legoland. No Copenhagen. We’re going to Legoland. No Copenhagen.”

Suddenly Naya appeared from behind him, and whispered something to the flight attendant.

“My mistake sir. This is in fact the flight to Legoland. Welcome aboard.”

Archie grabbed the hem of Naya’s cardigan, and followed her to their seats, with Jude bringing up the rear. Archie still didn’t like people touching him, but this didn’t count; he was touching them.