Taken.

• Abbey Hesford, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2022

This boat is like a bad dream. But eventually you wake up from that bad dream in your bed, still under your covers, with a roof over your head and your mum and dad in the tent beside you. But that's not the case here. This ship is called The Zong and is sadly my current living arrangement. There are rats everywhere, and diseases that are killing people from my tribe left right and centre. This ship is currently carrying 589 african slaves, my mum and dad were separated from me at the docks so I am mentally and physically alone. I have actually never felt more alone, crammed into the undergrounds of this ship with 213 other children and it is very overcrowded. Like many ships we are packed like spoons into these compartments, with no room even to turn or sit up. We get fed twice a day, our meal consisting of rice, farina, yams, horse beans and on the rare occasion bran was rationed around between us few lucky ones. The hygiene on this ship is so different from back home. In this tiny space where me and many others live for up to 9 months we are all to share a place where we are to relieve ourselves. I have made a friend on this ship whose name is Tomika and she’s just like me in the sense she got separated from her parents when boarding The Zong. We sleep side by side each night and sometimes talk about what we think lies ahead of us in America. Tomika is really nice but she has recently become very thin in recent weeks. I ask her all the time if she wants to eat some of my rice but she constantly refuses and sometimes offers me her own meal. Confused, I accept the free food and ask about her life back in Africa and she tells me stories of her brothers and sisters in her village. Besides Tomika I have no one else to talk to except my pet rat Lotia that I adopted 5-6 weeks ago. I found him lurking near the corner where we use the bathroom and officially adopted him. Lotia didn't like it when I picked him up at first but now he likes it if I pet his belly after. I feed Lotia a few of my horse beans but one time when I had fewer beans to feed him he bit me so I didn't pat him for a few days. But eventually I forgave him but apparently my body hasn't because where he bit me has gone all purple and black with yellow stuff coming out the top. I showed one of the older girls in our compartment and she told me the bite is infected. I don’t know what ‘infected’ means and since I’m only 8 years old the guards refuse to treat my wound because it's not a major priority but oh well. I will figure something out because this ship will keep floating, this world will keep turning and the sun will keep shining. I actually haven't seen the sun in a good couple of months but sometimes I can see a ray of sunlight creeping through the cracked top deck and smile to myself mentally. It will be okay.