As the evening wore on, Neville Nordstrom felt decidedly bored. With no computer to distract him, time passed very slowly. There wasn’t even a television in his room. He’d checked everywhere, thinking that perhaps it was well concealed in an antique piece of furniture or a recess in the floor or something, but no amount of searching had revealed any form of technology.

Henderson had appeared with a delicious plate of lamb loin chops, fillet steak, jacket potatoes and an array of salads, exactly as he said he would. Neville’s response to his questions consisted of nods or shakes of the head.

Neville currently didn’t have any friends on dry land – well none that he hadn’t imagined – so he couldn’t imagine he’d have any more luck making them at sea.

But the longer Neville spent with his own thoughts, the more diabolical they became. He pictured his father and mother arguing over whose fault it was that their one and only offspring was such an oddball. His father, a football-mad owner of a large earthmoving company, would never understand Neville’s fascination for the natural world. Especially seeing as he made a living out of bulldozing it. His mother just wanted him to fit in. She was forever asking about his friends and who he sat with at school and who he talked to on the bus. He knew it made her anxious when he told her the truth, so he’d learned to make things up. It was easier that way. It hadn’t always been like this. Back at home he had friends. It’s just that being shy and not speaking the language made it twice as hard to meet people and Neville found the whole process exhausting.

Just before 9 pm Neville made the decision to leave the relative safety of his cabin and seek some air on the decks above. With his trumpet case in-hand, he walked the twenty or so steps along the corridor to the stairway. Ascending two flights of stairs he found himself at the end of a long deck. There was quite a commotion coming from above and he was keen to steer clear of the crowd. Neville gazed out to sea while edging his way slowly along the starboard side of the ship. The ocean was calm, like a sheet of glass, and there couldn’t have been any swell. In fact, if he hadn’t known they were steaming for New York, Neville might have been fooled into thinking that the ship was not moving at all.

He walked as far as he could without having to ascend to the busy deck above. There was music playing – the type his father liked to listen to on a Saturday afternoon following a particularly successful game of football. Neville glanced up and saw that there were people dancing. There were women in colourful frocks and men in smart suits calling out and laughing as if they had all known each other for twenty years. Neville was too anxious to socialise with anyone during the journey. He just wanted to fulfil his mission – and work out how he would get his parents to forgive him.

He had to stick to his plan. Once he’d completed his trek from New York and explained himself, surely his friend would understand. More than that, with Neville there in person, he’d have to help. The two of them would be hailed as heroes (he wasn’t looking forward to that part) and written up in Scientific Scientist magazine (that would be okay as long as he didn’t have to talk to anyone too much).

Neville was lost in his thoughts when suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he spotted the girl from the hallway crouched down behind a lifeboat. She was staring straight towards him.

‘Shh.’ She raised her finger to her lips. ‘I’m hiding. Please don’t tell them I’m here.’

Neville really hadn’t wanted to talk to her when he met her earlier and he especially didn’t want to talk to her now.

‘Come here.’ She waved her right hand. ‘If you hide too, then you won’t give me away.’

Neville sniffed. He would rather have fled back to his cabin. There was a shuffling sound on the deck above and a boy’s voice.

‘I saw something – over there – come on, Sep,’ the boy shouted. 'I think Alice-Miranda’s up near the pool.’

The two lads raced away and Neville, who had held his breath, let out a shallow sigh.

‘Come on,’ Alice-Miranda whispered again. ‘They’ll be back soon.’

Neville clutched his case to his chest and made a dash across the open deck. He ducked in beside the girl.

‘Hello Neville,’ Alice-Miranda smiled at him. ‘I thought it was you. I recognised your case.’

Neville gripped it tighter.

‘You must be very dedicated to your instrument,’ Alice-Miranda commented.

Neville didn’t know what to say.

‘Isn’t this the most delicious party ever?’ she asked. ‘Would you like to join our game? We’re playing hide and seek and I think I might make a run for it back to “bar” in a minute. You can come too, if you want.’

Neville shook his head.

Alice-Miranda had a strange feeling about young Neville and his case. There was something that just didn’t feel right but now was not the time to investigate.

‘Oh, all right then, perhaps I’ll see you later.’ And with that Alice-Miranda stood up and sped along the open deck, up the nearest flight of steps and towards the stanchion the children had decided would be ‘home’.

A sound like gunfire punctured the still night air and a starburst of silver rained from the sky, then another and another. Neville jumped like a startled cat. He promptly decided that he’d had enough fresh air and scurried back down to his cabin, where he changed into his pyjamas, dived into his freshly turned-down bed and fell asleep reading the latest edition of Scientific Scientist.