The sounds of feet clamoring around brought me from my light slumber. I cursed silently and ran to hide. I knew I shouldn’t have fallen asleep, I could have been caught. If I was caught, there were a dozen punishments that could be executed on me; several of which involved my death. Staying hidden wasn’t a problem for me, I have had to stay absolutely still for entire nights on end. The problem was getting hidden in time.
I found a spot to hide in at the same time as the other people began to open the door, which was bad news; I got to my spot just after the door was opened. I ducked and then I heard a yell. Too late, they found me. Feet pounded on the floor of the room in the ship that I was in. I knew I had nowhere to go; I was in for a ton of trouble. I thought of all the possible stories that I could use to get out of trouble. None of them seemed likely to work.
Rough hands seized me and yanked me to my feet. My situation was worse than I thought it was. There, standing in front of me, was the person that I wanted to see the least; Sir Francis. I thought even faster, I needed to come up with a good reason for me being on the ship.
“What are you doing here?” Sir Francis asked, “And why did you get on my ship?”
“Well sir, I was on my way home from the palace that I work at, which is quite the distance from home, and I got mugged,” I started my voice getting softer and sadder at those last three words, “when I woke up, I couldn’t remember where I was and I had lost all my stuff, so while I was wandering, I found your magnificent ship here and thought that maybe you could help me get home and maybe even restore some of my belongings if you were feeling charitable. I didn’t plan on staying for the voyage, but I needed some rest, so I came below deck to get some rest. When I awoke, the ship was rocking and you were coming into this room.”
“So you snuck onto my ship, appealed to one of my crewmen for help, took advantage of the space on my ship then when I found you, you tried to hide.” he started, “Why were you hiding from me and what is your name? Answer honestly and I just might let you stay.”
“I was hiding because when I got on the ship I found your name and I knew that you would be furious if you found a stowaway and I honestly didn’t mean to stowaway.” I started feeling the pressure building up inside. I knew I had to use my real name; I couldn’t use a new name. “My name, sir, is Preston.” I finished.
