The Seven Revels

The Plan

 Once they entered the house, they made their way to the kitchen. The house already felt ghostly, and it had an air of abandonment to it. Milo's mother had left the kitchen perfect, not a pear out of place. Milo made his way to the wine cooler and dug through it until he found a bottle of the most expensive wine his parents had.

"We've been saving this for a rainy day. Even though the weather is perfect, it feels like it's pouring." Milo pulled two glasses from the cupboard and poured the wine. He handed one to Indigo, who looked at it curiously, and together they sat at the counter. Indigo took a gulp of the wine, then coughed.

"Drink it slower," Milo encouraged her. She took a smaller sip then nodded and set her glass down, tears in her eyes.

"It's good," she said, before sticking her tongue out.

"It's an acquired taste, I suppose." Milo took a sip of his own wine, then set the glass on the table. "If my parents knew I was drinking their expensive wine, I'd be dead."

"Why does it taste so bad if it's expensive?"

"Because that's the way wine is. It's disgusting. But after a few sips you kind of feel this 'okay I guess this is okay' kind of feeling."

"Well then by all means, continue to drink it until it tastes good." Indigo laughed again and soon Milo joined in. They were interrupted by a loud noise outside. They shared a glance, then dashed to the window and glanced outside. Milo counted seven airships flying overhead, the low sound of so many engines combined made the house rattle. Indigo sighed in relief.

"I thought it was your parents," she said when she saw Milo's concerned glance.

"My father will be true to his word, and my mother... I don't think she would risk coming back."

"What do you think she'll tell Tetso? There's no way he won't notice you aren't on board."

"I don't know." Milo had forgotten all about Tetso, his ten year old brother.

"He's safe though. That's what matters. He's safe and so is my Nana."

"Now we have to worry about us."

"I think we'll have to wait until everyone who is leaving has left."

"What?"

"I mean, we don't know how to go about stealing an airship-"

"But we don't have time to wait! The announcement said we have maybe a week."

"Which means everyone who is going to leave will be gone by sundown today. Until then, there's not much we can do."

"We should at least find a house with more than one airship. Our homes are the only ones for miles."

"Okay. If we're leaving now, let me go home and grab a few things. I don't want to leave everything behind." She gave Milo's shoulder a friendly squeeze, then disappeared out the door.

Back in her Nana's kitchen, Indigo put her hands on the wooden table and sank to the floor, her chest tight. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. Then she stood and headed to her bedroom. She pulled her worn green backpack out of the closet and opened it. She pulled out notebooks and binders and crumpled up papers. She smoothed them out before tossing them to the floor. She opened the drawer in which she kept her clothes and pulled out a few things, before shoving them into her bag. She swiped a framed picture of a man and woman from her bedside table, wrapped it in a shirt, and set it gently into the bag. She picked up her ratty stuffed raccoon, and moved on to her grandmother's bedroom.