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Ryan Hanney

I awoke one morning with tears staining my pillow a dark blue. I asked it why it turned blue and it said, "Because you yearn for the ocean."

I realized my pillow spoke the truth, so I quit my job, and I sold my house, and my car, and I bought a sloop. I didn't know how to sail, but I raised the sail anyway. It carried me out of the harbour, around the seawall, and towards the rising sun. There was no need to touch the wheel.

I sailed for thirty days without a crumb of bread or a drop of water passing my lips, yet I felt stronger than ever. On the thirty-first day, for the first time since I rained on my pillow, the sky came down hard on my dream. Lightning ripped my ship in half, setting the sail ablaze. A length of rope lashed itself around my leg and I tied it tight so that when the sloop sank under the choppy waves it carried me with it.

But I laughed all the way to the bottom of the ocean.




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