Once Indigo and Rose had started wishing on aeroplanes by night, it seemed only logical to wish on them by day. Neither of them ever really gave it up, and all the summer, the year that he turned seventeen, every day it didn't rain, they lay on their backs on the lawn, leaving body-shaped depressions in the long grass and watched the aeroplanes leaving contrails like scars in the sky.
'They're clues,' Rose said. 'They point us to where Tom is. Like a paper chase. Paper trail vapour trail.'
(Sometimes the line, blown by fifteen thousand feet high winds, wavered and dispersed all over the place.)
'He'll come back,' Indigo said, trying to make himself certain. There was a part of him that never quite believed it.
(Sometimes it ran straight as an arrow, east to west or west to east.)
Rose did not have that particular part. 'Of course he will. That's why you went to the Sixth Form Disco with Sarah and not Lily Even Though She Asked You Which Was Very Brave.'
'Very brave of her to ask me, or of me to turn her down?'
'Both,' Rose said.
(Sometimes you couldn't see it at all.)
'It feels like there's part of me missing,' Indigo said.
'That's love,' Rose said.
(And then there was the line that Indigo couldn't see at all, because he was on the plane that was leaving it ruled across the sky. Down on the lawn, Rose waved and waved.)
Oh my god. You have no idea how much I love this. Rose!! Rose, the perfect muse and advice-giver, so wise. And Indigo!! And the capital letters in Even Though She Asked You Which Was Very Brave!! This is so perfect. Thank you thank you thank you!
'They're clues,' Rose said. 'They point us to where Tom is. Like a paper chase. Paper trail vapour trail.'
(Sometimes the line, blown by fifteen thousand feet high winds, wavered and dispersed all over the place.)
'He'll come back,' Indigo said, trying to make himself certain. There was a part of him that never quite believed it.
(Sometimes it ran straight as an arrow, east to west or west to east.)
Rose did not have that particular part. 'Of course he will. That's why you went to the Sixth Form Disco with Sarah and not Lily Even Though She Asked You Which Was Very Brave.'
'Very brave of her to ask me, or of me to turn her down?'
'Both,' Rose said.
(Sometimes you couldn't see it at all.)
'It feels like there's part of me missing,' Indigo said.
'That's love,' Rose said.
(And then there was the line that Indigo couldn't see at all, because he was on the plane that was leaving it ruled across the sky. Down on the lawn, Rose waved and waved.)
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