"It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be but I'm glad. Quiiiiite glad." One of the old men on the neighbourhood council said as they all sat in a circle outside of the unfinished homeless shelter.
There was a bonfire in the middle of the circle and just like they had arranged, all of the young people of the community surrounded it. The circle was pretty thick since some sat in front of and behind others.
"Yeah I'm glad too. It's looking pretty good from here. I can't see it too well now but when there was light out it looked like a real thing." Sairah sipped from her styrofoam cup. Perrie had come through with the soup. They had distributed it a while ago and the people had been very glad for the warm meal.
Jade sat next to Sairah, listening to what she was saying to the old timer while simultaneously looking out at the excited young people. Some of them were little kids so they were playing around by throwing their empty cups at each other. She saw some little girls playing with the dolls they had brought them last Christmas. Everyone had been happy to see her car rolling in since they assumed that it meant more gift giving. It would've been a shame if we came in empty handed huh? "We need to work on building new houses for everyone. Winter's approaching and the shelter's gonna be pretty warm but everyone's houses are still quite cold. Even though we brought those little heaters."
"Sometimes people just gather around them for warmth. It helps but things are still pretty rough out here." The man chuckled.
Ray Ray was staring at the fire. He sat at the left side of the man while Jade and Sairah were at his right. "We wanted to ask all the young people what they wanna do in the future."
"I wanna try one of them long, long sandwiches. I saw a picture of one once while I was working with the better offs. Man that looked delicious. If I could just taste that I'd feel good." Ziggy was next to Jade.
"In the future I want to uh . . . to drive in one of those cars. Like your car." Hex pointed at Jade. He sat next to Ray Ray. His cup was empty. "What's it like to drive huh Jade? Does it feel like you're in control of the world? Can you go fast?"
"This bruthuh's talkin' bout drivin' while all I can think of is food. I want a sandwich like what Zig said and I also want a . . ." Shaggy looked into his cup. He was next to Hex. "I want a big bowl of that soup you brought. What flavour was it?"
"Chicken soup?" Jade answered.
"Yeh." Shaggy licked the inside of his cup.
Ray Ray . . . didn't even know what to say. "All y'all want is food and well a car?"
"I want a warm house. A big one so my siblings can have space to . . . grow. Mine's one room right now and it's hard. I sleep outside sometimes and it's cold as heck." Rico laughed with the other guys.
Jade and Ray Ray were speechless.
Sairah rolled her eyes. "When he asked what you want to do in the future he means like what you want to be. Not silly things like eating sandwiches. Do you want to be a singer? An actor a gamer? I don't even know what else- oh my mum's a lawyer. Wanna be that?" Her voice carried.
A boy who looked about eleven years old raised his hand.
Ray Ray saw him. "You wanna say something little man?"
The boy stood. His skin tone was very dark and he had missing teeth. It was odd since he seemed too old to have that issue. Maybe they fell out? "I want to be a builder like the man dem who was building that house for us!" He pointed at it.
"Me too!" Other little boys were agreeing.
A little girl held up her doll. "A princess!"
Jade smiled a little.
