Prompt: There are three children sitting on a log near a stream. One of them looks up at the sky and says…
“I’m gonna live in one of the Archangel’s someday.”
“Iva don’t be dumb, people like us don’t get to see Archangel from any view but below.” Noah gives the blond girl next to him a shove and a grin.
The girl sticks out her tongue before remembering her manners. She straightens up, then smooth’s out her dress and combs her fingers through her blond hair that’s matted with dirt. “It’s Ivana, Iva ain’t a proper name. If I’m gonna get a ticket into the flying city I’ve gotta be a proper lady.”
The boy to Ivana’s left gives a small smile and straightens out his glasses, “Ivana, ladies of Archangel do not speak like that. They always enunciate their words properly and they never use words like ‘ain’t’ and ‘gonna.’”
“See Ivana, you aren’t a proper lady. Callum would know his parents lived in one of the city ships when they was kids.”
Ivana looks at Callum with a small frown and a furrowed brow. “It don’t make no sense to me why they’d leave.”
Callum looks up the sky and grimaces, “They talk about it a lot, life in the flying city. It was beautiful and perfect and lovely. The people though, Mom says they were ugly, mean, bitter and awful; the sort of people that walk around with their noses in the air and ignore those in need.” He pauses and looks to his feet where his worn shoes toes the muddy ground, wet from the nearby stream. “Dad says that the Earth is a gift to us from God and that we shouldn’t abuse her like we have. That our place is on the ground and building the great flying cities was wrong in the first place. That’s why they left.”
“Can’t be that bad up there,” Ivana points out, glancing up again, “I’ve heard they have big street fairs and there ain’t no rotten smells from factories and things like there is down here.”
“That is true.” Callum says ignoring Noah’s huffs, “It’s clean up there. Mom said that she went to school every day, but on the weekends she could go out and play on big playgrounds like they have in the advertisements.”
Ivana gives a sudden happy smile before reaching into her dirt stained sock and pulling out a folded broacher. “I found this in a trash heap near our house once.” She opens it like it’s a most treasured object. “It’s an advertisement for Michael, the big city ship over New York. Everythin’ looks so bright and shiny in the pictures.” Her voices softens as she strokes her finger over the image of a little blond girl with pigtails wearing a pink dress and running with a red balloon. “I know it’s just a drawin’ but she looks so happy. Her dress ain’t dirty like mine and there’s an ice cream parlor in the back. See it there? I ain’t ever had ice cream before but my big brother did once when one of those humanitarian groups came down in their fancy clothes, they brought it into the classrooms. He says it’s cold and sweet like Auntie May’s tea.”
“You know what I think?” Noah asks, not caring the his friends don’t care to hear his opinion, “I think it’s all rubbish. Callum’s parents wouldn’t of left if it was as great as the pictures say.”
When Noah reaches for the broacher Ivana lets out a little shriek and pulls away, toppling back off the log they’d been sharing and into the filth piled behind it.
“Noah leave her alone!” Callum snaps before turning to help his friend to her feet when she doesn’t reach for his hand he follows her gaze upwards.
Bright confetti is raining down from above.
Ivana mutters, “It does that sometimes.”
