Maiden Voyage

Open your eyes. What do you see? Listen carefully. What do you hear?
I hear a harmonious chorus sounding all around me. I blink and I'm standing in a field, surounded by flowers. Golden yellow, so beautiful that the sun would feel envious of their warm radiating colour. The air smells sweet. It smells of new hope, new beginings and flowers. It's perfect.

A wind picks up. I feel it pass through the fabric of my clothing, cool and embracing. Standing on my toes, I'm desperate to feel more. It feels like the sky. I reah my hands up, up, up. I want to go up. I want to be on the sky.
I close my eyes.
And when I open them, I see and endless horizon before me. I feel the hardness of a wooden deck below my feet. I hear the wind blowing in the canvas sails. The propellors cutting through the clouds. The smell of the clockworks grinding and the steam rising. I am in the sky.
When I look down at my attire, I see a uniform. I see a pistol and boots. I'm ready to go.
No, wait. Something is missing. My eyes search but I cannot figure it out. Then it clicks.
"Where is my sister? I do not see her and I cannot leave without her."
there are foot steps and I turn.
She is here. She is with me, smiling at me with her laughing eyes. She is here. Everything is going to be okay.
I rush to her. I grab her hand. I tell her we have to go now, it's time for an adventure and I want her to be with me. I look at her face, but her eyes are no longer laughing. Her face has fallen.
What is wrong?
Have I done something wrong?
"I cannot come with you, pushka."
did I do something bad?
"You have to go on your own now."
What is she saying?
I try to reason. To make her see.
"You have always been here."
She turns.
What is she walking away from me?
I scream. She stops. It always works.
She's looking at me once more.
"This is not my adventure. I used to be here, but no more. I have been with you, bur I haven't been here for a very long time."
she points to the horizon. To the end of the world.
"Im there. I will always be there," she says, "and this is your start. Your maiden voyage. One day you will make it there. Live here an meet me there."
"How do I know that you will be there?"
"Every night, when the dark is just starting to fall, I will set out a light for you and it will burn until the sun breaks the night with her face. It will be the first light you see in the night an the last ad it's just for you. Now go."
she pushes me and I begin to fall back.

A land. The hard deck cracks my back uncomfortably.
"You okay there, short stack?"
The captain is looking at me and it is dark. The sun is going to sleep and the purple sky is turning indigo.
Then I see it.
On the horizon. A bright star begins to shine and I feel myself being pulled towards it.
"The evening star is out. You like stars? Just like your sister."
I look at him and say, "That is Susan. She has lighten a light, letting me know she is there and when I'm done here, I too will be there."
laughter fills my ears. Not hard or cutting but warm and comforting.
"Quite an imagination on you, Claire, just like Susan. I can believe it's been ten years since she went down with her ship. How old are you now? Feels like I have known you forever"
A smile crawls onto my face. Pain grips my heart. Tears fill my eyes. I do not look away from the light and an answer slips past my lips.

"Sixteen and this is my maiden voyage"