The Biggest Ship

Anya had only ever known the ship. Her whole world resided between the sails, the wooden slats and the vastness of the blue beyond. Her cabin was on the ship, and her favourite hiding places, and her crew. Ma and Pa were on her crew, and First Mate, and Chef, and Maria and all of Maria’s knives for good luck. There were others on the ship too, but Anya didn’t count them in her crew because they didn’t talk to her and she didn’t talk to them. She thought that was only fair. Her favourite crew member was George, the white cat with blue eyes and one missing tooth. He shared her cabin sometimes. Anya liked him because he was soft, and he was the only one on the crew smaller than her. George was Anya’s best friend.

The weather was getting warmer, the seas more amiable, and Ma said it was because they were reaching Anya’s fourth summer. She didn’t remember the previous ones, but had already decided she quite liked this one. She had seen blue creatures chasing the ship, Ma said they were called dolphins. They were loud and splashed a lot and Anya yelled back at them in what she hoped was something like their squealing language. She did this for a whole morning once, until Chef said the noise might curdle the milk. Anya didn’t want that.

When the rest of the crew were too busy to play with her, Anya played hide and seek with George. He was an exceptional hider, and Anya would sometimes spend hours roaming the ship, hoping to catch a glimpse of a white tail or a blue, feline eye. He found her easily though, especially around dinner time. George always wanted lots of cuddles then. And Anya would share her dinner with him, and they would go above deck and lie on the wooden boards, gazing up at the bone white face on the black flag that always guarded the ship.

A game that Anya particularly wanted to be part of was sword fights. Sometimes Ma and Pa and the crew would visit other ships, and they would all play sword fights together. Anya was never allowed to join this game. Ma sent her to her cabin whenever there was any talk of visiting another ship. She heard banging and crashing and yelling from above, and sometimes she would see shadows of the people on the deck dancing on the waves beyond her window. It all sounded terribly fun.

But what she especially liked were the new things that Ma and Pa brought her afterwards. Sometimes she had new clothes from other ships or even toys. Ma always wore new jewels, and there was a big banquet afterwards to celebrate. Maria with the knives said presents and banquets were only for the winners of sword fights. Anya couldn’t wait to join one day.

She was reaching the end of her fourth summer when Anya saw something strange on the distant horizon. It was like the shape of a ship, except this ship was bigger than any she had ever seen. Inch by inch, her ship crept closer to this strange new one, and every minute that passed more and more disturbing details became apparent. It was big. Bigger than was comprehensible. Anya wasn’t even sure she could see its ends. She would begin to get a grasp of its size and then they would sail closer, and Anya realised there was still more she couldn’t see.

A soft face nudged her shin and Anya bent to pick up the white cat. “Look George,” she said. “It’s the biggest ship I’ve ever seen.”

This ship had no sails, no mast, and, she couldn’t be sure, but there seemed to be no rigging either. Mist clung to its edges, making strange, rolling shapes that were incongruent with what a ship should look like. And it was eerily still, unfazed by the waves around it. Anya could only stare.

After some time, heavy footsteps sounded behind her, and Pa knelt by her side, a rough hand clasping her shoulder.

“What do you think, Anya?”

“I’ve never seen a ship without sails.”

Pa’s booming laughter carried across the sounds of the sea. “There’s no sails because it’s not a ship, love. That there is land.”

“Land?”

“Aye. It’s where the people go when they’re sick of the sea. Though I don’t know how you’d ever get sick of it. We’re visiting for supplies. First time in about four years, mind.”

Anya asked, “How does the land sail?”

“It doesn’t, love. It’s stuck.”

“That’s terrible.”

Pa chuckled, squeezing her shoulder. “Don’t you worry. We won’t be staying long.”

Pa left to help prepare the ship for docking. Anya stayed by the rail, watching the land as it neared, but even when they reached it, Anya stayed aboard her own ship. She would be safer there with George, she reasoned. True to Pa’s word they didn’t stay long, the next day pulling out to sea once more. Again, Anya watched the land, staying in her place at the railing long after it disappeared from view. Only George’s insistent calls for dinner eventually dragged her away. But in her dreams for many nights that followed, Anya watched the biggest ship cutting through the waves, sailing with ease beyond the misty horizon and across the skies beyond.