The Storyteller

The days were long on the ship. They prayed for one with a little swell so the rocking of the ship would lull them to sleep. This was their only reprieve from the prospect of their life now and what was ahead of them.

Until the storyteller started to speak.

*

"And in the shadow of the mountain, the people who had been sent away by their own, prospered with golden crops and warm days so that they were never threatened with starvation or poverty again!"

An awed silence struck the boat, only the lapping of the waves on the boards and the sloshing of waste at their feet to be heard in the immediate vicinity of the prisoners. The noises of the crew above seemed a world away, separate to them and where they were now headed, according to the vision of the storyteller.

It was a promised land, not a penal colony.

Jacob glowered in the corner. Offering these people hope was, in his opinion, as big a crime as their being here in the first place. It was a PENAL colony. Stands to reason it would be a harsh, unforgiving place, with restrictions just like prison but of a different nature. Why would they send them there if it was paradise?

"It's nonsense, this thing he be telling us," he muttered.

Lily was used to Jacob's grumpy ways and said, "There's no 'arm in it, Jacob. It just whiles away the days."

Jacob's expression hardened. "I don't like it. It ain't preparing us for what's what."

Lily sighed. "I don't think anything could do that."

*

They shuffled along on the deck.

As Jacob passed a guard, he looked askance at him and said, "You wanna watch 'im," nodding his head towards the storyteller, "or you'll have mutiny on your hands. You mark my words!"

The guard never questioned why Jacob would say such a thing. He merely acted on the information, scared of uprising and that night, they came, a struggle ensued, protestations shouted, the hold a-buzz with the sudden drama.

A large splash.

Silence.

In the hold's confused distress that followed, Lily turned to Jacob and said,

"What have you done?"

***

366 words

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