Excerpt: Ghostwriter's Diaries

Prologue:

Sky. Clear blue sky stretched far above an endless stretch of blue, a seemingly motionless canvas of infinite proportions. Sky, unbound by visual constraints nor by any physical means. A line of near invisible white marking the boundaries of an otherwise endless expanse.

Sunlight glinted off the rolling wakes of pearly white, the rolling waves with creamy peaks serving to entertain the frolicking patrons of the sea as they pounced through the water alongside their gigantic steel companion. A sleek grey form shot above a large foamy wake, singing in shrill excited laughter as she dove back into the infinitely blue boundaries of the sea. Appearing once more at the surface between the unending sky and sea, she let out a blast from her blow hole and continued to follow the gently giant onwards. A block of white and grey appeared on the horizon, the soundless steel creature of the sea finally moaned deeply to the creatures within its hold.

“Wow~! We’re finally here!”

A young girl eagerly raced up to the front of the ocean liner S.S. Marianne as soon as she heard the captain’s announcement that they would reach their destination within a few hours. Several more of the ocean vessel’s occupants laughed and ran as quickly as their eager little legs could carry, one by one lining up along the front bow to get their first glimpse of land in more than three months out at sea.

“Hey, is that where we’re going to stay?” A young kid no older than twelve was the first to break the children’s wordless awe as he looked up at the young woman who was already there by the time his little gangsters arrived. She glanced down at him with an ambitious smile, as if privately celebrating the occasion on her own.

“Yeah, I think that’s our new home!” She let her eyes roam back to the blocky shape on the horizon, bobbing up and down to the rhythm of the sea. Her eyes remained transfixed upon the goal of her desires, still many long miles away but so close as if she felt it was merely within the reach of her arms.

“What’s it called, Ellie?” A young blonde girl piped up, clutching anxiously to the elder girl’s arm with one hand with another wrapped around her smudged little bunny. The pink rabbit’s short fur was barely visible under the smudges and smears of three months worth of chocolate pudding and tomato soup served aboard on high sea.

Ellie smiled as she put her arms around the little girl and her ragged old bunny, all the while never letting her eyes stray from the barely discernable shape in the distance.

“Our new home, Bella.”

The ocean breeze stirred as if responding to the young girl’s words, gently caressing the tired children’s faces in assurance of life begun anew. Ellie squinted in the bright shining sun, hearing birds of the sea beckoning them to hasten their travels.

The blue sky stretched on forever to their back, to somewhere they once called home far across the ocean’s face. A land they no longer deemed a safe place to grow up and lived as they used to. A land they believed would no longer be there for them to return to live in.

But she looked on forward, wishing with full intent to finally touch the land that would be called her new home. Her hand, hesitantly, reaching into the tiny pocket hidden within the confines of her dull brown jacket. Slender fingers withdrew a slightly worn red book, about half as wide as any other one would find. Smiling to herself, she tucked it back into the safe place by her heart.