New Piece of the New World

               The ship swayed gently on the deep blue waters that it rode upon. The door to the stairway that opened up to the rough stairway to the hold, and a small figure emerged out into the sunlight. She was in a dress made of plain cloth with a small white bonnet fastened around her blonde hair. The wind took the two ends of the bonnet and sent them dancing through the air.

                She was slightly pale from being on the ship for almost three months. Under that paleness there was the faint shadow of golden skin gained from working outside glimmering. Her sky blue eyes took in her surroundings, and fixated on the men aloft. The men in the rigging looked like spiders climbing on their different webs. The men were stitching up the sails that had been ripped in the last storm.

                 “ ‘Scuse me Miss Addy.” She moved out of the way of a rough sailor dressed only in trousers and a vest of leather. The men had gotten so used to her being on deck that she had become almost a mascot to them; a reason for heading to the new world. She headed over to her favorite spot on the whole of the ship: the prow.

                When she stood in the prow she could look out across the blue expanse of water. Sometimes she could see the shadows of fish darting around the wooden hull. But what she loved the most about the prow was the sea spray that would come across if the day had a breeze. The smell of the salt on the water made her think of the times her father took her down to the beach in search for good driftwood for his carpentry work.

                Being up on deck was also a reprieve from the death pall that hung over the people in the hold. Many were sick. There hadn’t been enough fresh water and food. Both had gotten contaminated by rats on the trip, and more than a few had passed away.