Midge and I knew what we wanted to do when we left school…. Become sailors. A captain, an admiral, perhaps one day even a steward. Of course we were only about seven or eight at the time so we thought we’d have a long time to wait. But the call of the sea came sooner than we expected.
It was Wednesday if I remember rightly. I never liked Wednesdays for some reason. Anyway, Midge and I were in trouble at school, I don remember why probably something trivial like chewing gum, forgetting how to read or setting our English teacher on fire. But we were picked on, nagged, told off and all those boring things that grown-ups get up to sometimes. And to make matters worse my parents were in a mood, not with me of course, I was the perfect child: clean, well mannered and obedient. But for some reason I was clipped round the ear and sent to bed for being childish. Childish! I was a child. A child acts his and what does he get. Wallop!
So that night in bed, I decided… Yes, you’ve guessed it. That’s it. We’d run away to sea, Midge and I. I’d tell him the good news in the morning.
The next two days just couldn’t pass quickly enough for us. We had decided to begin our amazing around-the-world voyage on Saturday morning so that in case we didn’t like it we could make it back for our
football match on Monday evening. As you can guess there was a lot to think about, what things to take? How long would we be away for? But
these things seemed minor compared to our excitement about running away to sea.
On Friday night we met round at Midges house to make the final plans. He lived with his granny and his sister, so there were no nosy parents to discover what we were up to. We finished our plans and agreed to meet outside his back door at sunrise or the crack of dawn…. whichever came first. Sure enough, Saturday morning, it felt weird running down the street with our little bundles under our arms. Hardly anyone was about and the streets were deserted except for a few pigeons straddling home after all-night parties. It felt as though we were the only ones alive and the world belonged to us and soon we would be the kings of the seas.
By the time that we had got to the pier a lot more people were up and walking about including a policeman who eyed us suspiciously
“Ello, Ello, Ello, where do you think you two are off to” he said while looking down upon us.
“Fishing” I said without thinking
“Train spotting” Midge said, as I looked at him oddly out the corner of my eye.
“Just as long as you’re not running away”
“Not us” we echoed
“Oic, well of you go then”
We shuffled away as fast as our legs could carry us. We arrived on the landing stage and there was no time to lose as a lot of the ships had already started top pull away. Their sirens blowing, the hundreds of seagulls squawking excitedly all tossed into the air like giant handfuls of confetti.
Then I noticed a small ship just to the left where the crew were preparing to cast off. They were so busy that it was a piece of cake for Midge and I to slip aboard. When walked on to the main deck hustling around trying to find a hiding place. Then I spotted them, the lifeboats!
“Quick lets climb into one of those, they will never look in there”
“Not unless we hit an iceberg” Midge said confidently
“Good to know that you’re positive about this voyage”
So in we climbed and no sooner that we had covered ourselves up with the sheet had the boats engines started and we pulled away. We were away! Soon we would be digging for diamonds in the Brazilian jungle or building sandcastles on a tropical island.
So we waited, waited and waited for what seemed like hours until we decided to eat our rations, which consisted of a pack of digestive, biscuits and a half eaten loaf of bread. Once we had eaten all of that we had
nothing better to do than give ourselves up. We were too far away at sea now for the captain to turn back. The worst that he could do to us is clamp us in irons and shiver our timbers. So we pulled back the sheet and
clambered onto the deck only to find ourselves looking upon the same building as when we had left. Anyone can make a mistake cant they? I mean, we weren’t to know we’d stowed away on a ferryboat. One that goes from Liverpool to Birkenhead and back again, across the Mersey. We’d done four trips hidden in the lifeboat and ended up back in Liverpool. And we had only been away for an hour and a half.
“Ah, well so much for running away to sea then”
We both got the bus home and Midge went back to is house reciting his excuse as he went. As I opened the back door, my mum and dad were having breakfast.
“Aye, Aye” said my dad “here comes the early bird, where have you been?”
“I ran away to sea,” I said deciding not to lie.
“Mm that’s nice,” said my mum, shaking out the cornflakes “That’s nice dear”.
