a boat :0

Skipper was, well to put it frankly, anxious. No matter what anyone said to him, nothing could quell his beating heart. He made sure there was nothing around, nothing to get in the way. Of course, that didn’t change anything. Sometimes he wished he could just enjoy life as others did; carefree and happy. Even if they didn’t take everything so seriously, they lived life in a way he would die for.

So when what felt like the one person who was nice to him died, anxiety hit him like a tidal wave. What was he to do? He was a mere child.

When the news of Zelim’s loss made its way to his village, he fell apart. He didn’t know what else to do but run, so he did. The orphanage keepers sent Usagi, their fastest runner, after him, but he managed to duck out of sight right at the perfect time.

He could hear a muffled mix of someone, probably Usagi, calling to him, and his own heartbeat. He breathed heavily, but by the sound of things he was too far away for it to give himself away. He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting back the tears, as his mind played out the news over and over again. She’s dead. She’s dead. She’s dead. 

Eventually a louder voice manages to break through. He recognized it this time. 

“Hey Skip.”

He forced his eyes open to see Bleu, another orphanage-bound kid that he’d gotten quite close to over the years. Her hand was reached out in offering, as if everything was ok. Like they were just playing another game of hide-and-seek and Skipper couldn’t get up. He wished so, though. 

Bleu responded to the silence, “Listen, I know this might be hard for you, but we have to get back. The others will be worried if we’re gone for too long.” Skipper’s, well, more-or-less pet, was peaking over his shoulder. It stumbled down his arm and leaped onto his shoulder, making himself comfortable in the crevices of his hoodie. Almost like everything was normal, just a normal game of hide-and-seek.

The orphanage popped into his mind. The people, the ‘friends’, the place. 

Screw this. He’s hated his whole life there. All the tears, all the fear, all the anxiety. It all builds up. 

He scrambles to get up, but manages anyway without the help from Bleu. It catches her off guard, and she scrambles to follow, but he books it off to the shore he could faintly hear in the distance. It called to him.
Knowing Bleu was, well, slow, and Usagi wasn’t near, he knew he had time to make it there and hide before he was caught. 

He ran like he never had before. He felt the tears stream down his face, catching in the wind and leaving trails behind him. 

Skipper adores the sea, reading everything he could on it in the pitiful library they house in the playroom of the orphanage. The fish just put him in a trance, it was amazing. 

Or he was just nerdy, as the other kids claim.

Eventually, after doing enough log-hopping to give him a painful cramp in his stomach, he spots the waves in the distance. 

He yearns to dig his feet in the sand, to let the waves consume him. He assumed Kip did too, because it jumped off his shoulder and scurried off to the shores. The two bursted through the hedge to stumble onto the sand. He took a moment to pause and take in the sight of his favorite place, the waves, the sky, and the sound. The familiar tides, calling to him. The breeze that shuffled the leaves behind him, all of it. But there was something new, this time. A strange boat rocked ashore, something he’d only heard of in books. It just sat there, creaking ever so slightly. It was big, and looked expensive. It had an engine and everything.

Kipper peers up at him from his feet, and they exchange a confused glance. It seems they were thinking the same thing.  

Suddenly the echoes of the voices that he thought he lost came back to him. It was faint, but he knew Bleu knew where he went. He was pretty transparent when it came to his visits with the ocean. 

So, he stumbled past the rocks he stooped upon and tumbled onto the sand. Although his knees took a hit, he quickly pulled himself back up before he could dwell on it. Kipper was close behind, making his way through to remain perched under his legs. 

The sand tripped him up, but he got to the boat, and quickly found a little step to pull himself up. To his relief it seemed like it’s been untouched for a while. 

“Skipper! You aren’t allowed out here without an escort.”

He panics. In a last ditch effort to get away, he rushes to the front, grabs the controls, and pulls something.

Behind him one of the people at the orphanage just wrestled out of the bushes. “Skipper!”

The boat’s motor starts.

“Skipper, come back. The sea is dangerous.”

He reaches a hand and Kip crawls up it, leaping into his lap.

Quickly he pulls another lever the boat rocks up and down the current, speeding up the more he pulls, the lady on the shore getting farther and farther, the boat getting faster and faster, and his stomach getting less tighter and tighter.

The boat drifted off. Skipper enjoyed watching the water below and Kip liked to dabble in the puddles accumulating around the ladder. He let his mind wander, which was something he never got to do because the other kids were always so loud. The ocean was so welcoming. He could stay there forever. 

Although that might be what he gets.

Because when he looked up, the slivers of lands surrounding him dissolved into water. 

And he doesn’t know where he came from.

And he certainly doesn’t know how to get back.