The Sad Life of Caleb

Caleb hopelessly stared out of the galleon. He remembered the days he had when he went out fishing with his dad. He remembered all the new things he had learnt about fishing such as when to pull the rod. That was all over now, Caleb was being called for his turn to swab the deck. The pirate masters were very cruel; they would start whipping slaves for no reason, as if they were amused by doing such an evil deed. The poor slaves only got food and water every third day; they were treated like hell but instead they were alive for this.

Slaves were forced to walk the plank if they were to revolt or do anything against the Captain. Caleb’s captain was Captain Moonlight. He was quite nice; in comparison to the other captain. At least Moonlight didn’t whip or murder slaves for no reason, he did if he was too angry with the poor slaves. Caleb returned to his bed after swabbing the deck for five hours. He only got to sleep for 3 hours and then back to his duties. The amount of sleep was killing him since he started to work here, back home he slept for 9 hours straight. Sometimes even those 3 hours were stolen by his longing for home.

“Caleb, wake up!” shouted Jacque, “ you need to finish off your rowing duty.”

Jacque was the supervisor of the slaves as he had been working on the ship as a slave for 28 years. Caleb woke up after a whack from Jacque’s stick; realising that if he were to be late, he would get a much more painful beating from the cruel pirates. He went to the corsair’s hull and took the stairs to the dark galley. The galley slave job was the worst job in the world to Caleb. You would have to row the large vessel for 20 hours straight with almost no break at all. The room was so humid and smelled of sweat and human waste. Caleb began rowing in the galley. He recalled his experience of rowing his dad’s fishing boat that he was an heir to. It was not much but it was Caleb’s life and he was very happy with it. Life was very different now; no more of his mother stroking his hair and telling him stories to bed, no more of his father teaching him fishing and rowing skills and no more of a peaceful life in his little village of Kanjira.

Caleb rowed and rowed till his hands blistered up. The slaves weren’t even given any ointment to relieve their pain, only if they were severely sick and on the verge of death were they given any medication. Caleb whimpered to sleep from his blistered hands and dreamt of freedom and a chance to slaughter his evil masters. He woke up from the sound of the thundering waves and lightning. The ship was in the middle of a life-threatening storm. The storm grew bigger by the minute. Caleb decided to abandon the ship in the jolly boat as it was pierced by the mighty waves and had water flowing in at a great speed. He sped across the wet and slippery deck while trying to keep balance, the jolly boat was very small and had minimal or no chance of surviving over the sky touching waves.

Caleb pushed the boat to the entry door and sat inside. He gave a little nudge to the deck, pushing the boat into a high wave that had just risen against the ship’s hull. The jolly boat caught the wave and had just made it out in time as the corsair collapsed, merging into the dark depths of the dangerous ocean. Caleb remembered his dad when they had gotten into an unexpected and treacherous storm. They both worked together to get out of it. Caleb had rowed very hard and his dad manned the sails to control them in the wild crosswinds. Caleb did the same thing but this time he was alone and weak from the terrible diet and dehydration on the ship as a slave.

The waves rose high while Caleb suffered dreadful limp pain struggling to manoeuvre the jolly boat through the wild gales. They blew strong enough to destroy ships thrice as big the one Caleb had just been on. There was no chance Caleb could have made it out. “I will be at your door God!” Caleb jumped into the sea, hoping for a quick and easy death to free himself from the horrors of slavery and pirates. Caleb closed his eyes and fell into unconscious. The ocean drifted him away to great distances, far away from all the horrible pirates and the agony of slavery. Caleb woke up in a room that he recognised, a room he had been in before he was a slave. It was the room of his village chief, Lainty.

Caleb woke up and saw the face of Lainty as he prepared the ointment to heal his scars.

“How am I still alive?” asked Caleb with a sore throat from all the salt he must have ingested in the ocean.

“You were washed off to the shore, I do not know what happened before,” replied Lainty with a gentle voice.

“I was enslaved by the pirates and-”

“You need rest, lie down and sleep. I have informed your family and they are on their way to get you home.”

Lainty applied ointment on Caleb’s wounds, both from the ocean’s debris and the pirates: but it was mostly the pirates’ cruelty. Katherine, Caleb’s mother, walked in the room hastily. She was followed by Patrick, Caleb’s father. Patrick and Katherine were both overjoyed for their son’s return, but also sad because of the scars Caleb beared. Lainty looked at Patrick and Katherine with a suspecting feeling in his mind. Caleb saw Lainty’s face and also felt puzzled by such happiness. It seemed as if they were overacting with so much joy.

“Can I talk to Caleb in private please?” asked Lainty to Caleb’s parents with an expression that might have just given away what he was going to say to Caleb. Patrick and Katherine exited the room.

“Your parents,” said Lainty with hesitation, “ were the ones who had sold you to the pirates.”

“NO!” Caleb replied with anger, “my parents would never sell me!”

Lainty looked outside the mirror, only to see Katherine and Patrick staring inside to decipher what Lainty was saying.

“Why would I lie?” “What’s in it for me?”

“Come inside!” Caleb yelled towards his parents. “ Why’d you sell me? Was I a burden or were you just hungry for money?!” Caleb stood up on his feet and picked a knife that was used to prepare leaves for ointment. He stabbed to knife into Katherine’s throat. Patrick ran away but Caleb threw the knife and it successfully pierced Patrick’s upper back. Caleb struggled his way up to Patrick while he lay down and suffered in excruciating pain. Caleb took out the knife and stab it into the same place again.

“You were my role model, I loved you. But you return the favour by selling your own son into slavery.”

“You’re not my son, you were kidnapped by me from your original mother” Patrick said that with his last breath and lay down to death.