young and infinite | a short story

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Some time in August, three years later.

"Murphy," Rose said to herself "I'm taking you on a date."

She was thinking about what to say on her way to the Ship (that's what they called it now).

She wanted him to see a new town she had discovered, and she wanted to make memories. Rose was getting a bit bored of this place.

It was her home, for sure, but it had been her home for three years. She knew every part of the train station. She could tell you how many hop-scotches you could fit on the length of the platform. (42. They had spent the whole day drawing chalk on the tiles, and building, what Murphy referred to as, the World's Largest Hop-Scotch. Or WLHS for short.)

She knew the different plants scattered around the place. Last summer, they had spent two days watering every single one, putting them into groups, and giving each group a name. (It had been a dry summer. Rose didn't want the plants to die; much to Murphy's dismay that it 'didn't really matter')

They had played hide and seek at least one hundred times (once a week for two years running), and had found -possibly all- of the best and worst hiding places.

They had thought of a thousand stories of how the Ship got here, and why Peter Pan was actually an alien (and why that alien was actually Murphy).

Rose had heard a minimum of fifty different books over the past three months, as the boy was learning to read.

"Murphy," she repeated, kicking at the gravel under her feet, "will you leave your beloved ship to adventure into the great unknown."

The girl checked her watch, making sure she didn't come too early. Murphy was at the Ship after three o'clock every day. On Fridays he left at five minutes to seven, and on Wednesdays he came two hours earlier, but only once every month.

Sometimes, he was five minutes early or ten minutes late. Rose had to arrive after him, she hadn't planned what to do if he wasn't there. Today, however, was a Saturday. And on Saturdays, they always met up at nine oclock. Which fit perfectly because on Saturdays Dad was also out buying restocks for the shop.

She was going to walk in, fashionably late, grab Murphy by the hands, and take him out on a 'date'.

They had never left the Ship together. They had never gone to the park on the other side of the woods. They had never walked to school together, or had lunch at the Chinese place.

That bothered Rose. She wanted to take pictures on the camera she got for Christmas. She wanted Murphy to point out different places they [I] have to go. She wanted to travel abroad with him, get out of this town, but they had never even left the Ship or walked out of the ten meter radius around the building.

But the Ship was still her favourite place to be, and Murphy was still her favourite person to have.

She had now made it to where the woods cleared off and the Ship began to show. The butterflies already began to flutter, and a smile already found its place on her lips.

This was home.

~

The girl was so caught up in her own mind, that she didn't bother to wonder what would happen if he saw her first.

And he did.

"Oh, hey Rose," Murphy shouted from across the platform. Rose climbed up the boxes they had put on the tracks, creating some sort of stairs to the platform.

"Wait there," he muffled, already disappearing into the house.

The girl did as she was told, and made her way over to the bench furthest away from her. On the ground by the seat lay an abundance of newspaper, old cloths and paint brushes. An unpleasant smell arose, it reminded her of when they had first bought the shop and Dad had renovated.