the second occasion

[deepest_magic]

House. Wardrobe. Coats.

Comments

[neverbeatme]

"I bet I can get a ride out of Chris, actually."

[deepest_magic]

"Are you going to tell her? Would she believe you if you went and showed her the snow before it melts?"

[neverbeatme]

"I'm pretty sure she would. But it might decrease our chances of getting a ride if I tried to sell her on 'please take me and Bella to the abandoned house so we can rescue the magical land of Narnia from an evil witch queen', snow or no snow, instead of 'please take me and Bella to the abandoned house so I can indulge my morbid imagination with her for a couple hours'."

[deepest_magic]

"Charlie wouldn't believe us. He'd think you got a - a snow-cone machine or something." Pause. "If you got a snow-cone machine or something this isn't funny at all."

[neverbeatme]

"Real actual snow from a real actual magic forest, I swear."

[deepest_magic]

"I would think people would notice if the back of their wardrobe led to a magic forest. Are you sure it always works?"

[neverbeatme]

"The two times I've walked through it, it was a magic door, and the one time I just stuck my arm in it wasn't one. Maybe it only works if you climb in and most people don't climb into their wardrobes to check if there's a magic door in the back."

[deepest_magic]

"That could do it I guess."

[neverbeatme]

"Okay. So if all we're doing about the grown-ups is getting a ride from Chris, the remaining question is... what do we pack? It might be a bad idea to bring anything that's too big to hide away in a backpack, in case Chris asks questions, but if we think of something really useful I'd risk it."

[deepest_magic]

"Notebooks for me. Food - enough to last a while if we're careful, especially since if we meet people who are hungry because of the winter we might want to share or trade with them. Maybe - flashlights? We can take coats from the wardrobe which is good because I don't have anything warmer than a raincoat."

[neverbeatme]

"Yeah. And food that keeps, as much as we can, and doesn't need cooking or anything. Flashlights... yes, but the kind you shake or wind, if we can get them, not the kind that needs batteries. Batteries run out and I don't think Narnia has electricity."

[deepest_magic]

"Granola bars, um, nuts, raisins, candy maybe, candy keeps... I have a flashlight you squeeze to charge."

[neverbeatme]

"That works. Okay. Wanna scour your house for non-perishable snacks and then meet me at mine?"

[deepest_magic]

"Yeah, will do."

[neverbeatme]

"Okay. See you in a bit. If you find something you think might be useful, bring it if you can; we can always leave it at my place if we don't have room."

[deepest_magic]

Bella nods and goes into her house.

[neverbeatme]

Elizabeth closes up her backpack full of slowly melting snow and bikes back to her place.

She dumps the snow in her bathtub, dries out the inside of the backpack, and starts going through her kitchen as efficiently and systematically as possible.

[deepest_magic]

Bella's there an hour later, her own backpack full up.

[neverbeatme]

"Hi," she says when she opens the door. "I've got all the nonperishable food in the house and the one wind-up flashlight I found that worked. What have you got?"

[deepest_magic]

"Notebooks and pens and my flashlight and a first-aid kit. Granola bars, chocolate chips and Skittles and crackers and a jar of peanut butter and a knife, and I made us sandwiches - they should keep until the next time we want to eat, in our backpacks in winter, even if they wouldn't last days. Box of matches. Water bottle, I could only find one though."

[neverbeatme]

"Nice. I've been focused on the food; I can't go rooting around for useful objects so easily while Chris is working. I should clean us out of matches if I can find any, though. And I bet I can come up with some water bottles. There's probably room to throw a roll of duct tape in here on principle, even after all that..." She hefts her backpack, which is looking pretty full but still has room at the top - it's twice the size of the one she originally filled with snow.

[deepest_magic]

"Ooh, duct tape's a good idea."

[neverbeatme]

"I thought so! It's very - generally applicable. C'mon in. Any more room in yours?"

[deepest_magic]

"A little but not enough that I took the can opener and tuna."

[neverbeatme]

"Okay. C'mon in and let's see about water bottles and duct tape."

She finds those things - two water bottles, one large roll of duct tape. She shifts a few protein bars from her backpack to Bella's to make room for the water bottles (filled), then rearranges objects until she can fit the roll of duct tape and a pair of scissors, plus two warm hats and two pairs of warm gloves. Now her backpack is much closer to full. She also uncovers one box of matches at the back of a drawer, which she tucks in her pocket along with a small notebook-and-pen. She wears the clockwork watch, and a pair of boots that will be warmer than her shoes but are more plausible for wandering around an abandoned house in summer than actual winter boots. (Whether the digital watch would have worked in Narnia or not, it disagreed with all the snow she piled over it and is now out of commission.)

"All right," she says, surveying their full backpacks once this mission is complete. "Any last-minute good ideas?"