Jack Pepper

Ruby spun herself in the swing until the chain was taut, but it unfurled again as if it couldn’t stand to be twisted. “I’ve got things I’m trying not to think about because it’s too hard to think about them,” she said. “It’s easier on my own.”

“We are on our own.” Sid grinned, but there was barely a flicker of a smile from Ruby.

Ruby sighed. “My brother,” she said. “Nothing’s the same since he’s been born and that’s all I’m going to say about that right now.”

“I won’t say anything about that right now either,” said Sid.

He glanced at Ruby to see if this was OK. Ruby caught his eye, blew out her cheeks, shrugged. The best agreement she could give.

“So I’ll stay then,” Sid said.

Ruby nodded. It was hard to be angry and sad, all mixed up. But Ruby knew if anyone could make her feel better Sid could. Sid wouldn’t make things harder.

“Do you want to play football?” he said.

“Not really.”

Sid dropped the ball, rolled it under his foot, thought hard, kicked it up and caught it.

“We could play your game?” he said.

“Which game?” Ruby said. Nothing was fun right now.

But Sid knew Ruby was the queen of disguising herself in her imagination.

“The adventure game, the one where we can be whoever we want to be,” Sid said. “Then you won’t have to think at all.”

Ruby leaned her head back, squinted at the cloud above her collapsing and blooming from a ship with sails, to a giant face, into the shape of something yet to be. She allowed herself a smile.

Sid dropped his football again and pushed the swing to sway Ruby sideways.

“How do we start?” Sid said.

“There are no rules in this game, Sid. Start in the middle if you want.”

He hauled one of the swing’s chains and let it go again. Ruby swirled in an unpredictable arc.

Sid searched his mind for something that had nothing to do with Ruby’s baby brother. They both stared at the cloud morphing. Saw the creature that roared to be set free.

“Dragon trainers,” Sid said, rolling the magic words in his mouth. “The dragons are wild and fierce, but… well, they only like us and we’ve made them ours, but now we need to teach them things.”

Ruby dragged her shoes through the sand. She liked the sound, soft and gravelly. Like the slow, lingering breath of a dragon. She pulled her feet back and heard scales shuffle, like scorched leaves, as the dragon emerged from her mind.

“Let’s train them to fly,” Ruby said, swinging again.

She kicked off from the ground, shivering because of the huge dragon she imagined taking her up towards the clouds.

Sid jumped on the other swing. Ruby was already high, soaring on the magnificent creature. Free from the rules that tethered people to the ground.

“Do dragons have claws or paws?” Sid called from the other swing.

“There are no rules, Sid! It can have whatever you want!”

Ruby pushed harder, towards the deepest blue of the sky.

“I want claws for fighting!” Sid said.

They pitched and rocked.

Creak. Click. Creak. Click.

The seat of Ruby’s swing lurched, as if it wanted to go further than the chains that anchored it to the frame. Ruby felt the weight of her body lift, as if she might keep going if she didn’t hold on so tightly.

“And I want a whole heap of treasure,” Sid called. “There’s always treasure where there’s dragons! And it’s been stolen and we’re going to get it back.”

But for some reason the thought of treasure drew Ruby back to thinking about what had happened that morning.

Scales ruffled as Ruby imagined that her dragon dived towards the ground. Claws clattered, the dragon landed, lay down, coiled around the treasure.

The chain creaked.

The fixing clicked.

Ruby jumped from the swing.

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“I’m all right,” Ruby said, before Sid could ask.

Sid dug his toes in to stop, leaped from his swing and ran over. Ruby rolled on to her back in the deep sand.

“Dragon stalled,” she said.

She brushed the grains from her palms, wiped down her clothes and shook out her hair.

Sid collected his football. He watched Ruby as he punched his ball to the ground, bounce-bouncing it.

Ruby squinted, pointing at the cloud, liking the way her raised arm felt wobbly and giddy. Her smile faded as the dragon cloud bloomed, collapsed, dispersed and began to look like a baby in a cot, which reminded her of what had happened that morning.

“What would you do if you met a dragon?” Sid asked.

“Train it to fly, like we said.”

“But that’s in the game. I mean for real.”

Ruby closed her eyes. Her imagination stretched, widened, began to eat her up. There was a dragon at home. A newborn dragon. Hatched, wrinkled, fierce and foul-smelling. Shrieking and demanding, cluttering up the arms of the mother dragon, making his sister feel left out. But she kept this to herself.

“It feels real,” Ruby said, opening her eyes.