Woroni Creative Magazine
High Rise Competition Woroni ACT Writers Centre Fellowship Winner
Legacy Kate Lewis “…knowing what you want, taking it, making it everyone else’s life purpose to make it happen! What is it, son, what do you want?”
“Look,” she cooed enthusiastically, sitting him onto the polished marble barrier, indicating the aimless bustle below them, “They are all for you. They may not quite as good company as cats tend to be, but they are the tools you can use to push civilisation forward… if that is what you wish. Do you understand, darling?”
The speech had taken a lot out of the dying man, and he had not coughed and spluttered the words over the foot of the bed for the boy to reply “… more cats?” from an embroidered rug already crowded with several of the creatures.
“But I don’t want to push forward” the boy whined in a similar tone to his father, turning away from the view, “I want…”
His equally feline-looking wife approached the bed as the coughing intensified, encouraging him to aim for the floor this time as opposed to the imported sheets.
His liquid-bronze eyes pleaded with her, his chubby hands reaching… Up.
“He needs to do something…” he whimpered, but she silenced him with a knowing look and soothed him back to sleep before turning her attention to his heir.
His mother latched onto the gesture, and before her son knew it he was in her arms once more, bouncing towards a new destination. He barely noticed the moan of the palace doors as they opened for them, preferring instead to focus on the lilt in his tummy that heightened each time he removed a limb from around her
Their son clucked with pleasure as she swept him into her strong arms and weaved through the medicine men towards the balcony. 6