Just a Little Bit of Magick • ONC 2020 • ✓

Smuggled Books and Sneaking B****es

The first day of the voyage was boring.

I had brought as many books as I could, but Katy capped me at five, telling me that there would be plenty to read in London.

I'm heartbroken for you, I really am.

Shut up.

Shut doesn't go up.

Ugh. Anyway.

I spent the first morning  in the cabin that Katy and I shared reading one of the extra two books that I had smuggled in.

At midday, Katy dragged me out to have lunch and to meet some of her fellow nurses.

All of them were nice, normal people who led nice, normal boring lives.

I caught Katy's eye as they moved on talk of cooking, both of us stifling our grin at the thought of my incinerated spam.

I couldn't look at her again for the rest of the afternoon without wanting to dissolve into giggles.

As soon as the first person stood up to leave, we excused ourselves, bursting into peals of laughter as soon as we rounded the corner.

Katy was the first to come to her senses.

'Can you imagine the looks on their faces if we had told them about your little cooking incident.' 

She dissolved into laughter again.

I grinned, wiping tears from my eyes, 'I can just about imagine. Miss whats-her-name? Prissyfoot. She'd be scandalised.

'Alina Ascania,' she put her hands on her hips, 'It was Prisfet and you know it.'

'Eh, it was close enough.'

She grinned and we ran back to our cabin, racing each other down the narrow corridors and dodging the crew members and other passengers walking along them.

»--«

Our cabin was quite small, containing only enough space for our two bunks and a washbasin. The ship itself was larger, carrying medical supplies and crates of weapons and ammunition as well as passengers. Mainly nurses and soldiers travelling to the front lines.

»--«

The second day was much the same as the first. 

I read in the morning, was dragged out to lunch by Katy and sat awkwardly as Miss Prissyfoot- sorry, Miss Prisfet talked about her perfect cooking and perfect nursing track record.

Her eyes kept shifting to the right as she spoke. I hated people who made up good things about themselves to distract people from their assholeness.

One of the others obviously noticed my disgusted expression because she insisted on me accompanying her on a turn about the deck.

The wind was refreshing as we stepped out onto the slippery deck, carefully holding onto each other and the railing.

We couldn't have a casualty before we even got to the war.

I had soon got used to the rolling of the ship, the winter season making the waves bigger and the act of walking in a straight line much much harder.

Still, at least it's quicker than when I made the crossing the first time.

Sixteen- something I think.

That was not a fun six weeks.

The girl grinned at me, the salty breeze  whipping our hair out of it's neat coifs and into our eyes.