Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 110

from the ship, silencing the sea’s roaring waves. On the deck, laid a field of grass, which felt indisputably more
comfortable than the sturdy, rugged wooden floor of the ship’s deck. Feathery and soft, I could lie on it forever if I
wanted. Strange, I remembered this ship having seen better days the first time I was on board.
“Do you really have that much time wasting away in this wretched place?”
The voice… too familiar… Sitting straight up confirms my assumption of his identity. There he was sitting in
front of me. His voice contained in a putrid exterior you could call a body. With my thoughts, I answered.
You again, you keep coming back and for what?
“Pathetic, I can’t even pity you anymore… sitting in a cargo hold of some ship, rotting away like a corpse.
Intaking some herbs… how much more pathetic can you get?”
You are right on one thing. I am pathetic. But I accept that I am pathetic, just leave me be. I can accept it if I
can live in this paradise. You are not even obligated to pity me.
“ Live in this paradise…? You ain’t even living anymore. You’re just a dead man walking. You call this
paradise? This is just some mental space you conjured up, your brain tricking your senses into perceiving this space
physically.”
Shut it with your explanations, just get out of here and let me rest. In here, no one can touch or bother me.
“ A temporary measure, once you get back out there, you will be insulted and berated, assaulted and thrown
around like a little toy.”
I came on board the voyage to travel the harsh seas, discover new destinations, meet unique people and exotic
wildlives, not to acquaint myself with a bunch of muscle-heads and some egotistical, arrogant brute who directs them
all.