Must’ve been seven years I’d been working on that boat, damn near worked myself dead. It was my old man’s, before he sailed off all those years ago. “I’ll be back now, you hear? Before you know it, with enough gold for a hundred lifetimes!”

At the time it was no more than a timber frame, with a few beams that had rotted through. My father didn’t leave me with much: just that lousy hunk of wood, and the know-how to finish building the thing. So that’s what I did.

A third of my life I’d spent on that boat, and it was almost done. Just a couple more days and she’d be ready for sea. A thing of beauty she was. You should have seen her back then. Sweeping curves and pristine paint, blue like the summer sky.

I was sitting on the pier when Mike walked up, watching my boat bob in the waves. The sky was glowing burnt orange across the upper decks. The sun off her front window nearly blinded me. But damn if it wasn’t dazzling.

“Hey there, Charlie.” His words shook me, I suppose because I had forgotten about the world for a moment, if you know what I mean.

“Well hell Mike! Can’t just be sneaking up on me like that!”

“Have a minute?” He wasn’t exactly being pleasant.

“Yeah. Sure, but sit down, would ya? Damn neck’s been acting up again.”

“Well, I know it’s been slim pickings lately, and we appreciate the good work you’ve been doing.”

It really had been; slim pickings that is. When I first started fishing for Mike and his pops, there wouldn’t be a day we’d catch less than fourteen barrels. Now we could hardly fill one, most days.

“Oh sure, it’s no trouble. I’m just tryin –”

“But it’s been hitting us especially hard this time bud. I don’t have to tell you though –”

“I hear ya. Believe me, I do. You know, I was talking to the old wife and if ya need me to, I can –”

“Here’s the thing,” he interrupted again. It was starting to get on my nerves. “We can’t afford to keep you anymore. Especially with my father’s health being what it is.”

It was quiet for a moment. I guess he wanted to make sure I was hearing him. I wasn’t though, not really. My brain was all smokey, my face burning, and hell if I could do anything to cool them off I would’ve. I didn’t like much being hot-headed and all.

“You’ve got to be KIDDING me Mike! After ten years? Just like that?”

He paused for a minute – looking a little shook – but his mind was made. “I’m sorry bud. I know we promised your father we’d look after you for the few months he was supposed to be gone, but that was ten years ago. If there was anything I could –” He trailed off.

I stopped talking after that. Or else my anger would sure as hell get the best of me, and I wasn’t gonna wait around until it did. Not with old Mike.

I sat there until my boat was just a pale smudge in the dark, rocking back and forth in the waves.

I couldn’t have known at the time what lay before me, the challenges that would break me and shape me into the man I would become. Didn’t see how lost I was; a lone ship adrift without sails, the guiding winds of life’s ocean blowing over my barren hull.

Agnus wasn’t too pleased with me when I got home. She thought I’d been out drinking like my old man used to, with those strange folk down at the pub – probably where he got those crazy ideas of hidden treasures from. She didn’t believe I wasn’t, maybe cause my face was still red.

We got arguing real good, like we had of late. I’d never lost my mind quite like that though. Seeing the fear in her really threw me. Hell even I was afraid of who I was.

I went to sleep on the floor that night, in front of the fireplace where my old man’s boots sat. They’d been there ever since he left. But something came over me as I lay there. Maybe I was just fed up with the world – or myself, more like – but it did something funny to me. I felt like I was trying to escape myself, if ya know what I mean.

I just couldn’t stop staring at those boots. And I couldn’t tell ya why.

Eventually I slipped them on, and they fit, mostly. Except for them being a little wide; I reckon another side effect of his love for German ale.

My mind wasn’t slowing down much, so I hiked down to my boat. I held my hand against the hull, felt her gentle rocking. I imagined my old man, floating somewhere out there. The thought consumed my tangled mind. I spent that night on her decks, watching the stars as they flew across the sky.

When morning broke, I decided it would finally be the day I took her out on the water. I worked all morning – faster than I ever had – picked up a few things from home, and we were on the ocean by noon. Her rugged sails whipped and slapped in the wind. I hadn’t a destination, or any idea how long my rations would last. I sailed until the sun sank low in the sky, and anchored myself to the nearest shore.

I left a note for Agnus, telling her why I left. Said I’d be back some day, if I ever became the man I needed to be. If I could find a way back to myself. I suppose I thought I was protecting her in a way, but how could I know for sure? All I knew was, I was at the mercy of the wind now.

And hell, maybe while I’m out here I’ll even keep an eye out for some treasure.