Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 212

myself. This was not real. I could feel the boat pulling away from the dock, rocking me side to side. I was
lost. I had no idea where I was. I started rummaging through the boxes to figure out where I was.
After countless minutes, it left me with a conclusion that I was in food storage. I guess it’s not bad I have a
lifelong supply of food. I had to find a way out though. I couldn’t stay here when I could be seeing the
world. I found a light sitting by a box of tea. However, this only gave me the dimmest bit of light in a
pitch-black cellar. I looked around the room trying to find some way of escaping. It was hard trying to stay
on my feet. All that rocking was making me sick.
Finally, I found a ladder. I knew that there would be some way to get out if they stored this much food
down here. I climbed up the ladder extremely exhausted. Reaching the top was like conquering my fears.
But really when I looked down there was only about 3 steps. How long had I been down there for? I could
finally see light.
The hatch closed. Someone had seen me. I didn’t breathe. What do I do? Just as I was climbing down I
stumbled across a set of clothes. There was no way I could go to the deck in a dull brown costume.
I made it up in only a few seconds after changing. I looked like I had just come out of a garbage can
hopefully no one saw me like this. I got on to the deck. I breathed in the salty, misty air. This was great.
I had never thought through what I was going to do. Just getting up on the boat was all I was worried
about. Some guy dressed like me approached me with a cup in his hand. It looked really dirty and chipped. I
saw his mouth about to move I took another breath and tried to relax.
“Excuse me what ya doing, matey” he repeated three times.
“Oh ah …” I replied without even thinking of who I was pretending to be.
“Excuse me”
I coughed from the smell of his tea.
“Oh, I’m just about to clean the deck”
“Ok” he smiled showing his gold tooth
I quickly found a mop and threw it all over the wooden boards without even knowing what to do.
It felt like hours of mopping passed. I started thinking of why I was here. My mother was probably thinking
of where I was. Maybe she just didn’t care. I caught myself dozing off. I took the opportunity to explore the
boat. Just as I was about to walk; one of the lookout men shouted “Land ahoy!”
I jumped thinking that they were shouting at me. I threw my mop down. I slowly bent down to pick it up.
It was surprising how much work it took being on a boat. Everyone had their own job.
“Hello what do you want me to do” I asked a random pirate.
He responded with a weird look on his face “Carry that box from over there to here like you usually do”
I nodded silently. I did I was told but I was unable to pick up the box even with two hands. What was in
this box bricks or rocks? I dragged the box to the designated place where they would distribute the presents
to the people on the land. It took tiringly long minutes. I sat down on the chest waiting for the next
command but nothing came I sat there in silence pondering on the fact that I was on a boat traveling the
world.
An abrupt awaking startled me. Cannons were firing and it left me clinging to the chest. Luckily, I dogged
the fiery bullet racing past my head. I ran to the front of the boat to look to see what it was.
Just as I reached the top a bullet shot straight into my thigh. I screamed in pain and fell straight to the
ground.
Breathing heavily, I had rolled off my bed and a textbook fell on my face. I opened my eyes to the view of
my plain old white roof. Hearing my mother in the other room made me realize that I was in boring, old
home again.