Owen Clark

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Red or Blue? She thought to herself. As the land outside of the window flew past her, she struggled to decide between the two cotton bags she held below in her pale hands. Her feet dangled in the air under her seat while a paralleled woman reached over and adjusted the girl’s hair to rest calmly behind her ears. “You have to pick some day, we’re gonna be there soon. Battleship shouldn't take two weeks!” Quietly, the girl pressed her eyes shut and then extended her left arm over a fraction of the table sitting between them. As the woman emptied her small sack she spoke in a low tone, “you picked red, that’s unlike you.” In silence they arranged their pieces on separate sides of the game board which rose and obstructed one another’s vision at its centre. The landscape out of the window was beautiful, however they liked to play games while aboard to speed up their travels. “Okay, I’m ready.” The girl slowly shifted her head to the side of the blockade, revealing her innocent eyes to her opponent as the sun kissed her face from near the horizon. “B-nine” she said in return as her soft voice struggled to echo in the enclosed cabin they sat in. “Hit.” The girl jumped up on top of her seat, “yes!” For the first time since the game started, her eyes were finally above the other pair at the table, yet still too low to see over the barrier. As she began to sit back down, three men in uniform ran past the transparent door shut to separate them from the hallway outside. The middle aged woman stood straight, flattening her brown dress on her stretched legs before making way over to the door in an attempt to satisfy her curiosity. Sliding it to the right and striking one leg into the flustered hallway, she looked back at the small girl sitting in the corner of her seat. “I need you to stay right here, don’t open the door for anyone, okay?” The girl reached up and wrapped her fingers around a silver heart pendant attached to a thin chain clasped to her neck as she nodded back. “You hold onto that and I'll be back in no time, I promise.” Her hand slid the door shut from the opposing side as the little girl watched her single mother’s silhouette disappear into the long hallway.