Sandy

A thick English mist rolls in over the bustling quay, muffling the shouts and clatter of dockworkers while two great liners sway at their moorings. Amid the hurried crowd lies a ragged, sun‑kissed boy named Sandy Kilday, his oversized sailor’s blouse and missing shoe a testament to a life lived on the edge of the tide. He watches a weather‑vane wobble indecisively, his mind a storm of dreams, memories of an Irish hearth, and the restless urge to choose his own direction.

Sandy’s thoughts drift back to a tiny white house on a heath, where a laughing mother sang songs of fairies and a silent father kept a steady gaze. Those distant images fuel his longing for freedom, a taste he’s chased ever since he fled home two years ago. Now, with the record‑breaking liner Great Britain docked and a rival steamship poised to depart, Sandy faces a pivotal choice: stay ashore or slip aboard as a stowaway and let the sea carry him toward the unknown.