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“Mommy!” Sally Simpson shouted from the site of her latest adventure. She was seven, desperate to be thirteen. She could find adventure in the unlikeliest of places — a cardboard box, a furry worm, or a pile of rocks could be turned into magic kingdoms and wiggly monsters. “MOMMY! LOOKIT!”
Sally’s mother sat on the veranda reading in the shade, a tall mint julep sat beside her; light on the mint — heavy on the julep. She lifted her sunglasses and tried to focus on her daughter. Between the distance and effects of her third drink, focusing was a losing battle. “What is it, sweetheart?” she shouted.
“I want to show you something.” Sally turned her scrutiny back to her creation. A small stack of old books borrowed from her mother’s library sat on the stump as a short pedestal for a small ocean; blue paper folded into a magnificent tiny boat stood amid cut bits of cardboard — a paper sea wrought and crafted from the big imagination of a clever little girl.
“Can you bring it up here?” Dana Simpson slurred over the top of her next sip. “I don’t want to get out in the sun.”
Sally turned back and watched her mother drink. At seven years old she knew the score and intuitively understood the fuel of her mother’s indifference. She resigned in futility and shouted back, “Never mind, Mom. I can show you later.”
Moments later, a mother’s watchful eyes closed as she drifted off to sleep, the open pages of the latest Nora Roberts caressing her chest.
Sally frowned and turned back to the tiny paper ocean. She laid her head down on the stump, her eyes level with the top of the books and focused on the little blue boat. “I wish I had someone to play with… somebody… anybody…” She closed her eyes.
A moment later Sally thought she heard a small voice, quiet and subdued, like a child far off in the distance. “I’ll play with you,” the tiny voice said. “We can play together!”
Sally opened her eyes and stared at the folded paper boat. She watched with marvel as the surface of the book turned to a light choppy sea and the boat began to bob in the undulating water. “Ahoy, Sally,” the distant voice shouted. “Avast ye land-lubber, are ye ready to sail the seas?”
And then she saw him, no bigger than a cricket, standing in the folds of the paper boat. He wore a tiny folded hat, black as ink, and adorned with feather bits and jewels. One eye was covered with a leather patch and the other eye was red as the tip of a burning match. “Are you a pirate?” Sally asked.
“I’m whatever you want me to be,” he replied. “Today I’m a pirate. Tomorrow I might be a cowboy or an astronaut. I’m anything you can dream me to be.”
She smiled and watched the little pirate in wonderment. “Can I sail in your boat?”
“Arrr, sweet lass, that you may. There’s booty to plunder.”
Sally’s world began to twirl in a mixture of sharp color and fractured sound. Around and around she spun, shrinking and spinning until she landed on the deck of her little paper boat. Her pink shirt and jeans were gone, replaced with the clothes of a pirate wench, much like her sister wore last Halloween. Gold rings hung from each ear and a heavy wooden sword tugged at a sash wrapped around her as a cloth belt.
“I’m a pirate!” Sally squealed.
“That you are, lass, a real scallywag.”
“What’s your name?”
“My name is Captain Black and this ship is the Papyrus!”
Sally Simpson and Captain Black sailed the Papyrus around the great seas of the world and took ship after ship as their prize. From Tortuga to Siam they practiced the pirate trade until the ship sat low in the water from the weight of treasure.
“It’s time we sail for home.” Captain Black said as he spun the boat’s wooden wheel around and around and around. “We should leave these waters before the storm.”
***
“Sally,” Dana Simpson whispered as she gave her daughter a slight shake. “Sally, you need to wake up, baby. It’s getting ready to storm.” Thunder crashed in the distance.
Sally’s eyes fluttered. Her head lifted from the side of the old stump, the stack of books and the paper sea, sat exactly as she remembered. Her mouth turned down in a sour bow and she scanned the tiny ship for a sign of Captain Black before sighing, “It was only a dream.”
Dana Simpson noticed that Sally had used one of her spell books, The Mind and Magical Journeys, for the landscape of her handiwork. “Sweetheart, you know I’ve asked you not to play with my magic books.” After a short pause, she quizzed, “Did you make any wishes?”
“It was only a small wish.”
“Oh, dear.”
Mickey Mills has been published at EveryDayFiction, Write-in Magazine, Everyday Weirdness and other places around the web. He is elbow deep in the NaNoWriMo challenge this November working on his second novel, Haunting Charleston. His debut novel, Haunting Injustice, has been described as: “…a bona fide page-turning thriller.”
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31 Responses to “SAILING THE PAPER SEAS • by Mickey Mills”
Comments
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November 23rd, 2010 at 2:14 am
I enjoyed this. Well drawn characters, believable dialogue and an intriguing ending.
A couple of points though, that I expect will have us at each other’s throats and give some of us sleepless nights:
1. “the boat began to bob in the undulating water” Can ‘water’ undulate or does the surface of the water undulate?
2. “There’s booty to plunder.” Can ‘booty’ be booty before it’s plundered, or is ‘booty’ plundered treasure?
November 23rd, 2010 at 6:33 am
This is a very sensitive piece. I enjoyed it, especially, as Mr Freeman says, the intriguing ending.
Top marks!
November 23rd, 2010 at 7:04 am
Reminded how great it is to imagine and dream, anything is possible! Great read!
November 23rd, 2010 at 7:28 am
Loved everything about this story, especially Sally. Exceptionally well-written and a pleasure to read.
*****
Mr. Freeman, would love to bite but can’t at the moment…hopefully later in the day when the boss goes for lunch.
November 23rd, 2010 at 8:08 am
The story is well written and imaginative. There are a few issues that have to do with precision of language which I see at least one reader has pointed out. Let me point out something else. Be aware of the use of cliches like, “a losing battle” and “knew the score.” I gave the story four stars.
November 23rd, 2010 at 8:14 am
Wonderful story. At the age of seven going on thirteen, don’t we all have places we would love to escape to…and from.
November 23rd, 2010 at 8:32 am
I love this whimsical, magical tale! If there are any “cliche” phrases or unusual displays of word usage, I was oblivious to them. That’s what happens when a story catches me up and entertains me like this one.
November 23rd, 2010 at 9:26 am
For a Witch, she’s not a very good mother. I really did like the story though and I’m glad that Sally found a friend since I originally something bad was going to happen.
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:01 am
Very enjoyable. Well done.
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:10 am
Nice story, Mickey, but I’m a sucker for kids with big imaginations (and a little magic thrown in). It bordered on the too-familiar in places (mint juleps?), for which I’m sorry. A little more time polishing and we’d have more rounded characters, no change in POV, and an unnecessary reference to a sister somewhere.
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:18 am
Thanks for all the wonderful comments. This was a fun little story to write.
To Paul:
1: The surface of water is still water.
2: According to the pirate dictionary, treasure targeted for plunder can legally be referred to as booty before it is, in fact, plundered. In the lingo of a pirate, booty and treasure are the same thing.
I sleep just fine, thank you.
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:21 am
Awwwww What a sweet imaginary tale.
I enjoyed it immensely.
Kinda think —its aimed at a younger audience…tho
Nevertheless……..EXCELLENT DIALOGUE>>>
>> something I have a problem with !!
Five bright dreamy stars
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:46 am
http://www.the-pirate-ship.com/piratedictionary.html
Booty – Riches that have usually been stolen.
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:46 am
Excellent story. Well written, good dialogue, well drawn scene and characters, if there were cliques, they didn’t stand out for me on this one. I didn’t know where the plot was going and did not expect the ending (which I particularly liked). Nice enjoyable read.
November 23rd, 2010 at 10:50 am
I have a different dictionary.
November 23rd, 2010 at 11:01 am
An engaging read. Thank you! I especially liked the twist at the end that changed the mother from a stereotype to a person with issues of her own. This seems a good opening to a much longer story, mothers and daughters, magic and curiosity, a very good blend. The mother comes across as an alcoholic in the beginning, not an easy character to develop, but beautifully reversed in the ending of the story. A 5 star read!
November 23rd, 2010 at 11:07 am
Engaging. It makes me want to be a kid again.
November 23rd, 2010 at 11:13 am
I shouldn’t mention it, but “Between the distance and affects of her third drink”, shouldn’t that be ‘effects’? It bothered me right at first, and made me start thinking about the words instead of the story. Nothing is more fatal to imagination, so I didn’t enjoy it near as much as I would have. I like the last bit, though I wish somehow I could have had a forewarning. Just to develop a little tension in what I thought at first was a commonplace childhood dream.
November 23rd, 2010 at 11:36 am
Great story, nicely done.
November 23rd, 2010 at 11:47 am
Affects/effects typo corrected; thanks, Nancy!
November 23rd, 2010 at 11:51 am
Thanks Camille… Can’t believe I let that one go through.
November 23rd, 2010 at 12:35 pm
I can’t believe the petty pedantic arguing that goes on here sometimes.
November 23rd, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Shouldn’t there be a comma between ‘petty’ and ‘pedantic’?
November 23rd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
I haven’t seen any arguing. It’s more like – negotiation.
November 23rd, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Maybe the comma got stolen…by pirates…as booty?
November 23rd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I’m sorry if I came across as pedantic. I’m not an English major or anything. But when I start to look at the words instead of the pictures they paint in my head it messes up the story. I’d want to know if something I wrote was spoiled that way, so always feel free to tell me. In fact, feel more than free—-please please tell me when something like that crops up.
November 23rd, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Not to me Nancy. I appreciate the input. It was a careless mistake on my part. Frankly, perfection is a lofty goal. Not sure I ever want to achieve it, for when I do I will no longer have any room for improvement. What fun is that?
You keep doing what you are doing. I for one am grateful someone has the good eye to help me improve.
November 23rd, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Enjoyable read.
As far as the comments, I thought writers desired constructive criticism. When I’ve had stories published I appreciate thoughtful remarks.
I’ll leave one. You used passive verbs in a few places… “was”. I suggest eliminating them, except in dialogus, to make a tighter story.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Loved, loved, loved this story of a lonely little girl who, at least for one afternoon, got to have a friend to share the adventure of a lifetime. Thank you, Mickey!
December 4th, 2010 at 7:29 am
I liked the fact that the twist ending consisted of the world being one in which magic is a commonplace (yet it’s one that co-exists with Nora Roberts paperbacks). Sort of a half-twist, the best kind. It reminds me of the William Goldman novel BROTHERS, where the nature of the world (some) of the characters are living in turns out to be different (to say no more) than we expected.
Kudos, Mr. Mills
December 5th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
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