Steal My Sunshine by Emily Gale

Author:Emily Gale [Gale, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Young Adult
ISBN: 9781742758503
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2013-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

We’d been in a trance, transported into the guts of Essie’s past, and now we were back in her smoky lounge. Her hands had been clasped tight the whole time she’d been talking, and now she released them, smoothed her hair and reached for a cigarette. She smiled to break the spell, an old woman again. But more than ever, I could see the child she would have been, waiting for our reaction.

‘That’s unreal, Essie.’ Chloe’s rollie had burned out between her fingers, and she lit it again. ‘So what was it like? The ship. Must’ve been immense.’

Essie laughs. ‘Yes, it was. Immense. It wasn’t as grand as some of them. I shared a room with one other – an awful old crone called Mrs Weldon, who smelled of mothballs. But some were four or even ten to a cabin. Women and men separate. My parents were wealthy, you see, so even though they were sending me away there was no question of lowering their standards. I suppose that sounds quite funny, doesn’t it?

‘There were dining rooms, waiters, of course, a writing room, a library, a lounge, games on deck. The food wasn’t bad – by the looks of some people, they thought it was The Ritz. Some of them probably hadn’t seen that sort of spread since the war.

‘I can’t remember everything – oxtail soup, there was far too much of that. Roasts, pies, rice pudding rolls – those I liked. I managed to avoid the children’s dining room. In fact, I suppose when I look back, that journey was my last taste of luxury.’ She laughed again. ‘Perhaps I should have been paying more attention.’

‘What did you do all that time?’ said Chloe. ‘Six weeks – I’d go insane.’

I waited for Essie to tell Chloe off for being a child of the modern age who can’t go five minutes without her iPod, but instead she said, ‘I did go insane, Chloe. It was the most bored I’d ever been. Apart from the first night, when it seemed like the whole ship was in mourning, everyone around me seemed giddy with the whole experience. They celebrated at every opportunity – it drove me mad. I didn’t think I had anything to celebrate. They made costumes on St Patrick’s Day and had singsongs, held table-tennis competitions and parties . . . I was in a bubble. I’d never felt more alone.

‘The first few days I explored that ship – went anywhere and everywhere unless one of the crew told me I couldn’t. I think I was looking for James. Oh dear, what a fool.

‘And what was so strange, and I was well aware of it, was this feeling that I was changing on that voyage. There was something different about me, and it took up all my attention trying to work it out. I’d lie awake at night, listening to the waves lapping against the sides, the incessant creaking of the ship working to take us further and further away from home, and I started to feel that I wasn’t myself any more.

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