the canal

journey into the canal for money; for the 52 week challenge.

The ship creaks and pops as I pull the mainsail around, and pull the rudder to the direction I want it. This unusual canal is my task to sail down and reach the far end of it. The prize for doing so, you might ask? Riches beyond what I could have ever known. The problem is the risk to my own life was just as great as the risk to my ship, and since this is my only way of making money to feed my family, I must be extra careful.
It is dawn, my favorite time of day. It is my favorite because it is at that very second that all of nature seems to have just taken a sudden deep breath and breathed out in relaxation. Dawn always seems to be the most silent time of any day, when everything in nature seems to reset itself and the sun begins to peak its head above the horizon.
I freed my boat from the dock, it drifts a bit away, then drop the sail pull out the oars so I can begin with the need to wait for the wind to pick up. As I begin to get ready to row away, I glance over at the dock, where the crowds have gathered for the send off for the ships embarking on this journey. Some are happy that it has begun, especially that it wasn’t them going on this perilous journey. Some, like my mother and children, don’t look so happy, as they know, with their mother gone; I am all they have left in the world.
The look in their young faces is almost unbearable, but they don’t understand why I am doing this, maybe one day they will, but not here or now.
I turn back to the oars, putting them in the rowing position. I sit in the rowing seat grab hold of the pieces of wood. I begin to pull back on the oars with all my might and strength. The boat responds to my work and begins to pick up speed towards the canal.
Just before I enter the canal, the sails fill with breeze. I knew they would. I retrieve the oars and position myself to work the sail.
“I can do this,” I repeat to myself, “This is for my family, and the money we will have when I finish.”
I look up ahead of me and see the canal as it goes off into the distance, past the guard towers and all semblance of humanity that there is here. In the back of my mind I can hear my fathers voice telling me what he had always told me,” You can do this, not because others tell you to, but because you want to.”