Winner of 2nd Quarter Finals (Qualify for Semi-finals)

Winner of 2nd Quarter Finals: Heng Ying Ting Elisa, 15, Tanjong Katong Girls’ School 

Life Ship

As I lay in the hospital bed, I decided that I hated sailing. It had killed me. A freak sailing accident, they said. I used to be a competitive runner, blazing a trail down the track. And now, I couldn’t even stand. I glared at my now useless legs with no small amount of hatred, before redirecting my eyes to the flowers that cluttered my bedside table. They were bright and beautiful, the sunlight dancing off of their pastel hued petals. I hated them. Why couldn’t they just rot and return to ruin, like my life?
That would be more fitting.
They had told me that rehabilitation would get me back on the track in no time, but the competition was just days away, so what was the point? I was willing to bet that even if I did go through the programme, there was no way I’d truly be able to run again. I drifted off to sleep, my mind swirling with dangerous, suicidal thoughts.
I woke up in a place unfamiliar to me. But what mattered to me most was that I could walk. I could even run. I began running, putting my misery in abeyance as I sprinted. I was knocked out of my own personal heaven when something collided into my waist, sending me sprawling out on the sand. I got up and dusted myself off, displeasure flashing in my eyes as I scoured the vicinity for the culprit.
My eyes met watery blue ones that belonged to a diminutive child. He had yet to lose some of his baby fat and a tangle of fair hair twisted from his head and past his neck. He waved a hand and shyly ducked behind a rocky outcrop protruding from the sand.
“Hi. My name’s Deborah. What’s yours?” I asked him.
“Engel,” he replied softly, stepping out from behind his fortress of rocks.
“Okay, Engel. Do you know where we are?” I asked him, putting on my friendliest smile
“Shipwreck cove,” Engel replied, gesturing to our surroundings.
My eyes followed his hand as it swept across the island in a wide arc. I nearly slapped myself. How had I not noticed the ships? They stood, looming over the two of us, twisted skeletons of what once must have been majestic sailing boats.
Now, the sea faring vessels were merely crumpled heaps, never to sail again. I gave the beach another cursory glance and took note of the various parts that were scattered about the beach, lying forlornly and unprotected against the elements.
I turned a full circle and stopped when my eyes wandered over to a small ship that looked relatively new, yet, it was broken. A hole had been ripped into its side by one of the rock formations protruding from the sea surrounding the island. Turquoise waves swelled and crashed, slopping over the deck. I instantly felt drawn to its alabaster sails and the muted colours that blended together in a maelstrom across the ship.
“That’s your ship,” the boy announced, as if it were a fact.
“It’s a wreckage,” I said, trying to explain to the boy that this lifeless, though pretty, shell could not belong to me.
“No. It’s your ship,” Engel insisted. “It’s your Life Ship.”
I shook my head, determined to believe that the boy was just spouting nonsense.
“This place is a reflection of the lives of every living being, and I am its keeper. You just met with a crippling accident that left you unable to compete in what you do best. Hence the damage,” he explained, flipping a coin he had produced from his pocket.
It was ensconced in verdigris, so much so that the original colour that lay underneath was completely indiscernible.
“I’ve seen too many people give up and simply leave their lives a wreck here, letting them rust and rot away,” his face twisted into an ugly, saddened parody of the boyish one I had seen as he conveyed those words. “Take up the rehabilitation programme and fix the ship. You will not regret it,” he advised, his face softening. He looked up, eyes hopeful, and thrust the coin into my hands.
I woke up to the sterilised environment of the hospital. Was it all a dream? It had to be. All that nonsense about ships and life. I shifted, and a verdigris covered coin fell from my lap and onto the floor, the light dancing off the uneven green shades on the coin. I leaned over to pick it up and stared at it, nonplussed when I had it in my hands.
A faint tingling sensation swept up my arms, the source being the coin, then receded as quickly as it had come. I could do nothing but stare in amazement as the verdigris evanesced to reveal my name etched on the metal with Engel’s name on the opposite side.
Something shifted in me, just the slightest bit of belief, and I decided that maybe killing myself to end it all wasn’t the best idea. A scene flashed behind my eyes, so sudden and vivid that I had to close them. A small portion of the hole in my Life Ship was mending itself, metal shard rushing to fill a small fraction. It was a small fraction, but it was enough to motivate me.
I gave the rehabilitation my all and watched as the hole in my ship was slowly filled in, reflecting my progress perfectly. I was no longer bereft of all hope. Not too long after, I was able to walk on my own, and I felt that I had come a long way, even if I had missed the competition.
The day I was discharged from the hospital, I closed my eyes and saw my Life Ship start off, its sails beating powerfully in the wind like the wings of a dragon. I watched as it sliced through unpredictable waters into the exciting and the unknown, sailing again. Finally sailing again.