Shikk liked the warm weather. It reminded him of home, which reminded him of his mommy. What would she think if she knew where Shikk was now, so far from home? She had always taken care of him. Now, Shikk was being taken care of by the scary men, who took care of him with nasty tickles instead of hugs and kisses like his mommy had always done.

Shikk wasn’t sad when they told everyone to stop playing the game. He was bored of it, and glad to stretch his legs when they said so. Unfortunately, on his way to the boat, Shikk tripped over one of the scrawnier men, and got tickled. He was tired of the tickling, but didn’t want to get the men around him in trouble, so he said nothing.

Finally Shikk found himself in a boat, next to some other man. He was annoyed that the loud man was in that boat too, but he couldn’t see him. Shikk loved rowing boats, and was happy to finally find himself in something familiar. He was so excited to be rowing after so long that he pushed the man beside him to the side and took over both oars himself. It was satisfying to feel the boat lurch forward as he pulled the oars. He noticed the dark man at the rear of the boat glaring at the way he was preventing his neighbor from doing any work, but Shikk didn’t care, because the dark man was too busy with the rudder to tickle him.

Shikk wasn’t happy when they reached land, because this land was scary to him compared to the relative familiarity of a rowboat. He and his father had spent countless hours in rowboats back home. They never went across the Bodril Ocean though, so this was frightening to Shikk. He was so hesitant in leaving the boat that the black men decided to tickle him some more. Shikk was really tired of this. He wanted to crush the hand grasping the tickler, but he was afraid he would capsize the boat (he had done that a few times with his father) and decided to let it go. The rowboat lifted a good inch out of the water after Shikk disembarked.

Shikk felt sick on the earth, and wanted to throw up. He didn’t know why, though. He stumbled along, resisting the urge, and eventually found himself holding a big pickax and standing in a small but growing crowd of men. Shikk had never realized everyone else on the boat was so tiny, but the men next to him barely reached his shoulders. He shrugged, thinking their mommies must not have taken good care of them.