The Stow Away

• Maddy Diss, Grade 8, Sacred Heart College
• Short Story
• 2013

Excellence Award in the 'Dream Big 2013' competition

“Have I ever told you about the beginning?” I asked my children, as they sat at the foot of my hospital bed.
Rose was the first to shake her head. “No Maman. You have never enjoyed remembering” she shifted as she spoke, readjusting the rosy cheeked baby in her arms.
“Can you stay awhile longer? You need to know the truth. The truth of your own mother” my next breath comes raspier than the one before. Age was taking over my body, but my soul lived on.
Rose checked her watch. “Yes Maman. We can stay however long you like. You know that”. Her gaze was anxious, checking for any sign of distress amongst the maze of wrinkles I called my face.
“Right. Well, it started like this…” I drew a deep breath and dove into my pool of memories.
8
No one noticed me as I slipped silently onto the ship, melting into the deep dark shadows. Nobody saw my tiny, childlike hand reach out to open the doors into the hull. No soul, but one, heard the quiet creak of the unoiled hinges on a wooden door too old to be standing upright.
The moon’s light cast flimsy shapes onto the rickety floors as I stepped forward, drawing back the hood of my navy cloak. I flung my wide, blue-eyed gaze around the empty space, and pushed my blond locks impatiently out of my pale face. I hurriedly placed my small but precious belongings behind a coil of netting, and then waited patiently for the ship to set sail.
A loud squeak echoed through the room, and I jumped up as quickly as a leopard. I determinedly settled down again, tense in every way, and took in my surroundings.
Fishnets, ropes, hooks and boxes surrounded me, as well as stacks and towers of gunpowder. The smell of mould was as thick as smoke, making breathing difficult.
Suddenly, a rough hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, making me dizzy. After a moment, my sight cleared and I saw a sailor, around 40 years old, staring at me through a bushy beard with surprise, but also… a bit of pity, maybe? He placed his other hand over my mouth, cutting off my startled cry.
“Shhhh! They’ll hear you!” he hissed, before removing his hand.
I stared at him in disbelief, before starting the speech I had prepared if I was found aboard. “I am so very sorry, sir! I was-“
“Oh, don’t even bother! I am Markus, and I know why you’re here, your mother sent me a letter before she… passed. I know you need to get away from this war, and America is the ideal place to go. But if you don’t listen to me, then you have no hope of getting there alive” he finishes in a whisper. His voice was a gruff growl.
After a while, we agreed that the best way for me to travel was in disguise. So, a few moments later, I was standing in front of Markus dressed in a boy’s coat, some puffy pants that bunched up around my ankles and were the colour of spew, along with boots ten sizes too big for me. I took a deep breath and stepped out into the open air, ready to act like a young, innocent sailor boy.
8
Voices pull me out of the depths of my memories.
“Maman? What happens next?” Rose asked, she and her brother leaning forward, like they were about to topple over.
I startle awake, and realise that I had basically dozed off. “Oh, uh, well we were only a half hour away from making it to the American shore, when I was found out. It was awful, the Nazi’s grabbed me and locked me below deck, in the dungeons, but I broke a window and escaped. It was only a one hundred metre swim, but my body had been on a ship for a long time, so I was slow and heavy. I almost got shot as well when I was running on the shoreline, but the bullet just grazed my shoulder” I sigh, wincing at the painful but lucky memory. “I had never tasted air as light as freedom.”