Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 -1 2019 | Page 120

Diary of a stowaway
Harrow International School Beijing, Zhang, Queen - 10
Dear Diary,
Today is the first day writing in this. My friend Sophia and I all want to sail with the great Zheng He. But
we all know the rule that girls aren’t allowed on the boat - so unfair! And girls are treated in a very bad way
and we can’t do anything about it anyway ‘cause we are kids. But this time we won’t let them push us down
any more. We have a plan to sneak on to Zheng’s boat.
Day 1
Today we will try our best to be like men. We help each other cut our hair, even though it looks like our
hair has been bitten by dogs but at least we look like a man. Oh great! Now I look like a beggar. We have
to wear men’s clothes. I hate those stinky man clothes that my father gave me. They are so heavy! When we
tried walking in them, OMG! So disgusting. But after an hour or two we started to actually feel like a man
and swagger like they do. We practice speaking because if we only look like a man and we sound like a girl
that would be pretty weird to others, right? We are very nervous with this because if we do not success we
will not get a chance to sail with Zheng. Or if we get caught we might even be killed. And we do not want
to die. Now I have just got to make my voice very low and make my voice louder and stronger.! Sophia
doesn’t need to try ‘cause she already sounds like a boy (though I would never say that to her).
Day 3
Today Zheng’s crew will be arriving and today our job is to pretend to be selling our mother’s dumplings to
people so we can sneak into his crew without being seen. It is quite easy cause there is a whole bunch of
them and they are all taller than us so nobody will see two girls in aprons crawling on the floor and we
could just squeeze in. Then we will change outfits. Luckily, I have a sister and Sophia has a brother who will
be helping us. We could just tell them we were going to the bathroom and that they have to get on with
the work. Our mother’s recipe is selling very well so it is super crowded. But good for us as we can just
easily slip away and leave our poor little brothers and sisters alone in the crowd handling those crazy
customers.
Now we are in between the crew. Ewwww! Gross! They all smell like animals! I thought that they
are supposed to be great but ughhh, they stink! Really bad.
Suddenly, Sophie fell. In this situation, if you fall, you will probably die. They are men and if they step on
you … Game over! But thank goodness that I quickly pulled her up. "That was close!" I whispered loudly.
Nobody could hear us because the music was way too noisy.
The boat is much bigger than I thought.
Zheng is coming … We rush and hide behind a wooden barrow to change into our uniforms. Now we
look ike men.
Zheng’s voice boomed out "Our mission is to …" He said a lot of things about the boat like where we are
sleeping or where the deck was … Luckily, me and Sophia are hiding in a relief boat on deck so we have a
“room” to ourselves. Lucky us! Ha ha. We have been learning a lot of sailing skills so sailing won't be a
problem. It is just that we don't want to be recognized.
Day 4
The first thing I did in the morning when I woke up was to check the time. I did not want to be late on the
first day of sailing! But Sophia did not seem to care. It was already 6:30 in the morning. Sophia is literally
still sleeping while I am already dressed and ready to get down. I finally wake her.
We zoom upstairs. We are not late.