Wavewalker: Breaking Free

Lautoka, only a street away, was a town, but Namoli was a village. The roads here had no names and the houses had no numbers, but everyone knew where everyone else lived, coconut trees lined the dirt tracks, and the bushes were weighed down with hibiscus flowers.

After we came back down to India from Nepal, we watched a man sit cross-legged on a ledge by the side of the Ganges river in Varanasi, saffron adorning his forehead and white markings on his arms. Around him, women in shimmering orange and pink saris washed and chattered, and boys jumped into the river from a bridge, their legs and arms wheeling, shrieking with laughter. Burning oil lamps scented the air, which was filled with the sound of brass bells and Sanskrit chanting. When Michael put his arm around me, I closed my eyes and leaned into him. ‘I’m trying to pretend,’ I said, ‘that nothing is going to change.

I’d just glanced at the compass to check our course when I heard a noise behind my shoulder and turned to see a humpback whale in the ocean next to me, its back glistening in the moonlight. ‘Hi,’ I said. ‘Are you a friend of Henry’s? Thanks for coming to wish me luck.’ Still holding the wheel, I started to cry, sobs shaking my body. The whale vented a familiar gust of bad breath. ‘You need to clean your teeth, you know,’ I said, wiping my face. ‘But I’m so glad you came.

However, there were magical moments. In particular I loved the minutes before dawn when the sky lightened and the stars faded while Venus lingered, waiting to herald the sun. A hesitant line of orange developed on the edge of the ocean, becoming a globe hovering above the sea, outlining the waves with gold.

One day we sailed past Kavachi volcano, which is often submarine, but that day had emerged above the waves. Cascades of glowing, orange lava ran down its sides to hit the ocean, generating eruptions of steam followed, after a short delay, by booming explosions; fire trying to demonstrate its might in a world where water ruled.

I also discovered that my chicken had escaped. She kept finding ways to break out of her milk crate, run around the deck pooing and then jump into the sea. This resulted in a lot of squawking, flapping of wings, splashing and me paddling out in our new dinghy Ripplerunner V to save her.

I laughed. ‘I was wondering if any of Orion’s stars have planets with oceans on them. If they do, maybe they also contain girls floating on boats, surviving storms and looking out into the darkness.

Jon put up his hand. ‘Please, sir, where do atheists go?’ ‘They can go anywhere they want,’ Mr Hirst said, turning on his heels and disappearing into his office. When we told my father this story later, he guffawed. ‘He missed a brilliant opportunity,’ said Dad. ‘A much better answer would have been, “To hell, my boy, to hell.

Do you want to hear a secret?' I asked him, leaning closer. 'I don't want to be different — I want to be normal. I don't want to be stuck out at sea away from my friends. I know Mum and Dad would laugh if I told you this, but I want to be like Heidi and Sandy and go to school every day. Do you think I'm ungrateful?

He looked at me, and in his eyes I saw something that I recognised all too well — the fear of being trapped in someone else's dream.

I had no control over my life when I was a child, but as an adult I have the right to tell my story as honestly as I can.