War

For every good thought I have, I draw my rifle, adjust the scope, and shoot a bird down. When he lands the into the water, I dive in to retrieve him and then begin the process of plucking the feathers and cooking. This is our only meal, seeing how we’re on sail on a giant shoe, so I must get a lot of good ideas to be able to feed us daily.

The Shoe is a large boot with the foot slightly curved upwards. The sole peels back a little bit, allowing us to sail. We use the laces as paddles and we’ve never found a problem, the three of us all sleeping together on the same part of it.

As far as the other two, the extra passengers are Beatrix and Claude. Beatrix is a storm calmer and sings away all of the tidal waves, hurricanes and rogue waves away from us. She wears earthy clothes and her glasses hang low to about the tip of her nose, only to raise slightly towards the bridge of it when she smiles. She enjoys wading in the water with her bare feet and couldn’t be happier with or without the food I fetch, as long as she has me and Claude.

Claude is my age, but acts much only. He wears clothing from the Victorian period, though it seems a bit tattered. He has a short coat that reaches to about his thighs that is blue with white buttons. He looks at the world mostly through a gold telescope that slides out, but when he isn’t doing that he’s looking at maps to get an idea of where we’re at. He talks about getting home, to land but I don’t think he cares either way, as long as it’s an adventure with us.

Me I scout the food. I wait on good ideas to pop into my head and use them as my good luck charm. When I think good thoughts, then it guides my bullets to never miss. Then the residue from my bullet reaches the inside of the bird and always makes us think positively.

Together, we sit while the bird cooks in the opening of the shoe, at the heel. Smoke floats to the top as I lay flat, Beatrix hums, wading her feet, and Claude shouts captains commands, blond curly hair blowing in the wind. My rifle lay inside the toe of the boot and my mind lay inside a deep sedative sleep.

Please, nobody ever wake me up.