Soothing the Heart of the Sea

Chapter One

Yamuna woke up to the sound of seagulls and the smell of seawater....and frying fish.

She got out of bed and changed into a bright yellow t-shirt feeling too comfy in her pyjamas to change out of them too. She walked out onto the deck and into the kitchen cabin. Her dad was frying fish and Her mom was eating. You must be thinking..who eats fish for breakfast? Well, when you live on a house boat in the middle of the sea, that's the main attraction.

Unlike on Earth, Quile had freshwater seas that were calm in most parts so many of the inhabitants lived in houseboats. The planet had more water than land and so all the land was used for farming and therefore the people lived on boats.

Yamuna was 13 years old. She lived on a houseboat in the middle of a fresh water sea that had no record of ever being 'angry' as the people of Quile called it. Her favourite colour was orange and she had long brown hair that she left loose most of the time.

That morning, she was particularly happy for no particular reason.She skipped around the small kitchen, eating between skips.

'Yamuna.. are you going to practice violin or keep skipping around like a confused rabbit?'' asked Mama sharply.

''Im going mama! jeez! '' replied Yamuna not containing her skipping

She skipped back to her room and took out her violin from its case and opened her book of songs. She began with doing some bow movements and then went on to scales.

After half an hour of this, she played her favourite song. Playing woth perfect tempo and not making a single mistake with the intonation.

Yamuna learned violin from her mother. She had a class three times a week but had to practice everyday. To her violin was fun but that was what she left it at. She never wanted to take the music exams or join the Quile music group.

But she had no idea that playing the violin was going to become very serious indeed.

After another half an hour or so she skipped back to the kitchen. It was time to get ready for school.

Yes, Quile children had to go to school to , but unlike our world, the Quile school was different. For starters, in Quile you didn't have to go to school, school would come to you!

There were assigned school boats that went around a certain area and picked up all the children there before returning to a central dock of the farming islands. All the time that was spent in travelling was spent in teaching. There were around 10 to 15 children per school boat between the ages of 10 and 15.

A day in school was half spent in the class and half in the fields of the farming island they were assigned to.The law in Quile was that every resident above the age of ten had to spend atleast two hours everyday,working in the fields and helping the community. The children often felt that they learned more in the fields than in the class.

The people of Quile looked forward to working in the farms.They found some kind of pleasure in working in the farms.

The people of Earth may find this a bit weird but I'd like to tell then that it is not wrong of them to think that way because they were brought up differently.The Quile children spent so much of their time in the fields that it was almost as though they had learned to love farming and I'm sure that if you were there, you would love it too. The whole feeling of being on land was exhilarating for the m.I guess its only when you lose something you had, you realize how much it means to you.But how the Quile people lost their land is a different,long story.Perhaps I'll tell you sometime. 

Anyway,where was I? ah!

Yamuna went back to the kitchen.It was time to get ready for school.She took off her clothes and ran out onto the deck before jumping into the water. Aah. This was the best part of living on a boat.

She got back into the boat after swimming around a bit and got dried and changed into a pink t-shirt and white beach shorts. She put her toothbrush necklace around her neck(dont ask me why she made that or wears that..I would have to write another book.)

Just as she went back out to the deck,she saw the school boat approaching.It was blue with yellow polka dots ( they had helped paint it).

Standing on the deck was their teacher Mr.Chitram who they fondly called Chitu.But standing next to Chitu was somebody who Yamuna had never seen in her life. A tall woman with straight hair and a nose so sharp that she could see its point even from the distance.

As the boat approached Chitu waved to her.

"Good Morning Yamuna!!",he called," Today is going to be an interesting day!"

Oh no , thought Yamuna feeling a little worried, its always bad news when he says that.