Starboard by Nicola Skinner

Author:Nicola Skinner [Skinner, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-03-15T17:00:00+00:00

KIRSTEN WOKE BLEARILY to the sound of the ship in her head.

‘I don’t feel well,’ said the ship.

There was something about her voice that seemed odd – slower somehow.

‘I feel all stirred up and unusual. You haven’t been – poking about where you shouldn’t, have you? Nosing around in things that are gone? It’s never a good idea. Quickest way to feel your age, you know, stirring up the past.’

Kirsten noticed Olive’s head hanging upside down.

‘We’re still here then,’ Olive’s chin said wryly, peering down from the top bunk. ‘It wasn’t all a dream.’

Kirsten began to speak, then hesitated. Her broken night’s sleep and what she’d seen in the dreaming ship had left her tired and confused.

Olive seemed to understand. She held up a finger. ‘Wait.’ She pushed her blanket back and landed on the floor softly. ‘Breakfast first.’

They sat on the floor and brought their rucksacks out.

‘Half a banana and half a flapjack each?’ suggested Kirsten after a while.

‘Then chocolate,’ said Olive. ‘And almonds.’

Once they’d shared their food, Kirsten cast a worried eye over what was left. All they had now was one chocolate bar, a packet of crisps, the almonds and the sweets. (And the vitamins, of course, but would that fill them up? Unlikely.) They were also running low on water, although they could keep their bottles topped up with the tap water in the loo. Was that drinking water though? Probably not.

Flames of anxiety burned inside her. They had to get home, not only to avoid starving to death, or contracting something deadly from the drinking water, but also – she did a mental countdown – because she had just over forty-eight hours before her Jade Cooper interview: the interview that would win back her public, placate the bank manager and keep a roof over their heads.

There was no time to waste. She rubbed at her eyes and spoke hastily. ‘I went in the ship’s dreams last night.’

‘Whoa – just like the map said! That’s awesome!’ Olive shot her an envious look. ‘Did you find …’ She picked up her notebook from the trunk and turned its pages. ‘Did you peer past the dreams and find the truth?’

‘I found – or nearly found – a clue. It felt like the ship was longing for something. At times, I thought it was New York, but then I saw something else … but it didn’t make a lot of sense and it vanished.’

They were interrupted by a knock on the door.

‘Hello, Captain,’ Mark Spencer said, then nodded at Olive. ‘First Mate. Having a lie-in, I see.’

Kirsten checked her watch. It was 6.45 in the morning. Mark peered uncertainly at their messy cabin. ‘Have you been burgled in the night?’

Olive gave a short laugh of surprise.

‘I wonder if you might be able to come out and assist me with the passengers,’ said Mark Spencer. ‘The fighting women need breaking up. The first-class passengers want constant attention. And the surgeon wants to know how your heebie-jeebies –’ he left a delicate pause here – ‘are faring.

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