Ghost Ship in a Bottle

	"Whee!" eleven-year-old Julie exclaimed as she was lifted 
up by a medium sized wave and carried up the beach.  She had 
never been swimming in the ocean before, and once she got used to 
the sting of the salt she found herself enjoying it.
	"Ahhh..." Anne Hendrix, Julie's older sister, sighed, 
stretching out luxuriously on a beach towel and enjoying the warm 
early summer rays that played over her too-light-in-her-opinion 
skin.  Naturally pale, Anne liked to be tan and had been looking 
forward to the opportunity to both quit her hated summer job and 
finally get some sun.  
	"Ahhh..." sighed several young male admirers from a short 
distance as they watched the free show.  Anne was seventeen and 
in good shape, wearing a two-piece red bikini.  Their trip to the 
beach was definitely worthwhile.
	Both their father and grandfather sat quietly alert in twin 
lounge chairs just up from them, letting the summer rays warm 
their bones and relaxing during the last days of their vacation.
	Dad, never one to miss an opportunity to girlwatch, had 
called in several days from his vacation time and rented two 
hotel rooms overlooking a nice stretch of beach.  They would 
spend the remainder of their time there.  
	It wasn't all sunshine and sea salt, though.
	"At least put on a shirt?" Julie's dad asked his father.  
Although phrased as a statement, it was definitely a question.
	"Nope," came the terse reply from the elderly man.
	"A towel?" he asked, trying again.
	"Nope."
	"Please?"
	"Let me see...  No."
	Mr. Hendrix sighed and averted his sight, looking back to 
the far more inviting scene of the beach.  Hopefully, no one 
would connect him with the skinny old man in a loose pair of 
Bermuda shorts beside him, calmly sipping at a glass of lemonade.  
	Those knobby white knees were practically blinding!  To say 
nothing of the pallid chest and stomach.  It made him squeamish 
to even think about it.
	Farther down the beach, Julie stopped to examine yet 
another bright white seashell that had somehow managed to avoid 
being collected by the droves of beachcombers and other children 
that regularly scoured the beach.  Julie wasn't the kind of girl 
who liked to collect things, however, and she lay it back down 
after a close scrutiny. 
	She flipped her long dark-brown hair back over her 
shoulders for the umpteenth time, grimacing as the wet hair clung 
to her swimsuit and tugged at her head when she looked around, 
occasionally watching the white seagulls dive from the blue sky 
and snatch someone's snack from the ground.  Their cries mingled 
with the low murmur of countless people dotting the sand and the 
whistling breeze blowing in from the sea.  The crash of the waves 
on the shore and the squeals of other children were much less 
common, but still very much a part of the experience.
	With a childish cry of delight, Julie plunged into the 
water once more, using all her swimming skills to fight the waves 
and head into the deeper waters.  
	Farther out, several surfers could be seen on their 
colorful boards, riding the waves in for as long as they could.
	"Julie!  Don't go too far, okay?" her dad yelled warningly, 
his words barely reaching her through the breeze.
	"I won't!" she called back, waving with one hand before 
striking out again.
	"Ah, kids.  I bet she gets over her head, though," Dad 
said, then sighed.
	Anne, who had also been keeping an eye out, struggled to 
sit her relaxed body up.  "Don't worry, Dad.  I'll go swim with 
her, just in case."  Ever since their mother had died many years 
earlier, Anne had learned to look out for her younger sister.  
For whatever reason, they never developed the tendency to 
squabble as siblings often do.
	The young brunette bounded merrily toward the sea.  She 
slipped into the pounding surf like a fish, losing no time as she 
strove to catch up to Julie.
	Julie, meanwhile, swam strongly through the slightly rough 
waves using a variation on the overhand she'd been taught by her 
father when she was younger.  The salty water stung her eyes and 
tasted foul, but it was fresh and cool.  She reached the limit 
she had set for herself and stopped, treading water and raising 
herself out of the water so she could look around, particularly 
back up the beach where the others were.
	Anne was an excellent swimmer, and arrived at her position 
quickly.  "Hey, Julie!  Having fun?"  She shook her mass of 
sodden hair to get it out of her face, sending water flying.
	Julie giggled.  "Yep!  Let's go out farther, okay?"
	"Sure!"  Anne loved to swim, and while the sea wasn't as 
nice as the local pool back home, it was still water.
	The two continued their way out to sea, Julie feeling much 
bolder with her sister on hand.  Anne slowed her pace, staying 
within ten feet of Julie in case she ran into trouble.  She 
alternated between the backstroke and a dogpaddle so she could 
watch the younger girl.  
	Julie stopped again, looking back up the beach to the now 
small figures of the others.  "Wave to them!" she prompted, 
stretching her arm up high and following her own advice before 
spluttering and pushing herself back above water.
	The two men sitting in the beach chairs waved back, but it 
was hard to see from that distance.
	Julie spun around, looking out to the surfers.  The waves 
had calmed and now they were just sitting patiently astride their 
boards, waiting for the next big one.
	An unnatural sparkle between her and the surfers caught her 
eye.  It wasn't very much farther out, not compared to the 
distance she'd already traveled, but she was starting to get 
tired and the beach was looking more and more inviting.
	Julie kicked her legs, raising herself halfway out of the 
water as she strained to see what it was.  She was rewarded by 
another flash, this time with a hint of other colors to it.
	"Anne, can you see what that is?" she asked, turning to her 
sister.
	A stream of bubbles was her only answer, as Anne had chosen 
that moment to dive beneath the waves.
	Julie shrugged and prepared to head back to shore, but 
again she saw it, this time closer, but still an unknown.  She 
just had to know what it was.  Sighing and mustering her 
strength, she kicked in its direction.
	"Julie!  Come back!  You're too far out!" her dad bellowed, 
drawing the attention of everyone on the beach, but not Julie, as 
she was too far out to hear.
	Julie turned at the sound of a splash, looking back in time 
to see Anne surface with a gasp.  "Anne!" she called.
	"Huh?  Hey!  You shouldn't go out so far," chided the other 
girl.  "Come on, let's go back."  She beckoned Julie with one 
hand, clearly about to go that way herself.
	"Wait, I saw something just a little farther out.  I want 
to see what it is," she protested.  
	Anne stopped, indecision on her features.  "I don't know, 
you look tired."
	Julie was tired, the waves making her use more effort than 
normal swimming.  "I'll be okay, and I'll go in as soon as I find 
out what it is," begged Julie.  Without waiting for an answer, 
she quickly turned and swam on, masking any protests by splashing 
in an excessively noisy manner.
	Anne shrugged and followed, far from the limits of her own 
strength and endurance.
	Julie continued on, occasionally raising out of the water 
to get another look.  Each time she could see a sparkle, but 
never could she see what it was.  She had half convinced herself 
that it was just an old glass bottle thoughtlessly tossed into 
the ocean, but she hadn't came this far to give up now.
	"Julie!  We should go back now!" her sister called, 
pointing ahead when she looked back.  "Big wave coming up!"
	"Oh, no!" she cried, looking up as the surfers finally 
found their ride in.  The sparkly object forgotten, she turned 
and swam in with all her might, fearful of the pounding the big 
wave would give her.  
	Anne reached her quickly, grabbing on with one arm so they 
wouldn't get separated.  "Take a deep breath!" she commanded, 
filling her lungs with air after the statement.
	Julie breathed in as deep as she could, preparing for the 
worst as the sea swelled beneath them, carrying them up inside 
the curl.
	Anne resisted the urge to whoop as they slid down, knowing 
she'd need that air later.  They bodysurfed for a moment, then 
the wave crested and curled in on itself, sending them tumbling 
end over end before they emerged gasping on the other side.
	They both fought for air after the wild ride, tired by 
their efforts, and Anne stretched her hand high and waved to show 
they were all right.
	"Are you okay, Sis?" she asked, concerned.  She had an arm 
under Julie's arms and was holding her head above water.
	"Pbtth!  Ick!" she replied, spitting out water and wiping 
at her eyes.  "Yeah, I'm okay."  Suddenly she batted at her neck 
as something smooth brushed underneath her chin.  The object came 
into view as she pushed it away; a simple glass bottle, but 
inside was a tiny, incredibly intricate sailboat.  The sunlight 
caught it just right to send a flash of amber hued light into 
Julie's squinted eyes as she snatched it out of the water 
quickly.  "Hey!  I found it!" she cried, clutching her prize.
	"Great!" her sister replied with some exasperation.  "Now 
let's hurry back to shore."  Julie agreed wholeheartedly, and 
Anne helped support her as they both paddled in.
	If the trip out was long, the trip in was even worse, as 
they swam hard to outrun the next big wave gathering out beyond 
where they had been.
	Their father met the exhausted pair at the shore, standing 
chest deep in the water and waiting anxiously for their arrival.  
Anne was struggling by that point, and Julie had long since given 
up and allowed herself to simply be towed in, devoting all her 
remaining effort to keeping hold of her hard-earned prize.  
	"You shouldn't have gone out so far!" he scolded as they 
got within reach, allowing him to dig his toes into the sand and 
pull them both in.  "Anne, you should have known better!"
	"Sorry," she gasped, staggering out of the water.  
	"Don't be mad at her, it was my fault," Julie replied, 
supported by Anne's strong arms.  "I saw something out there and 
I just had to see what it was."
	"And did you?" her dad asked in his best warm fatherly 
voice.  He scooped up his little girl and simply carried her back 
up the beach, letting Anne, who was already getting her breath 
back, walk alone.
	"Yep!" she chirped happily, holding up the bottle with the 
ship for him to see.
	"Ooh, that's quite a treasure you've got there.  Why don't 
you show it to Grandfather?"  He carried her over and sat her on 
the foot of his lounge chair before resuming his own seat.  
	Anne was just behind them, quickly moving to lay down on 
her towel.  The distance hadn't been all that great, but she had 
been swimming awfully hard to outrun the waves and Julie had 
slowed her down.  
	"Have fun?" Grandfather asked mildly.
	"Yeah, but I'm tired now," Julie replied.  "But I found 
something," she said, holding out her find.
	Grandfather accepted it carefully, turning it over in his 
hands.  "Ahh..." he said appreciatively.  "And you found this 
floating out in the ocean?"
	"Ummhmm!" she replied.
	He chuckled softly to himself.  "Well, I'm sure someone is 
very disappointed to have lost this."  He held the bottle up for 
all to see.  It was quite clear, with no markings on the bottom 
or sides, and it was plugged solidly with a cork.  The truly 
remarkable thing, however, was on the inside.  A small wooden 
sailboat with a single mast was attached to the side, intricately 
and accurately rigged with two sails, ropes, and gear on the 
deck.  The bottom of the hull was glued to the glass as if it 
still floated on the ocean and the keel was keeping it steady in 
the water.
	"What is it?" Julie asked eagerly.
	"This," he replied seriously, "is a work of art.  I'm sure 
you've seen ships in bottles before?" 
	Julie nodded.
	"They used to be quite common, and you still see the cheap 
ones in shops.  But old sailors used to spend months crafting 
them, piece by piece, and no detail was too small.  I've seen a 
few good ones in my time, and this one is one of the best I've 
ever seen."  He handed the bottle back to her, where she cradled 
it gently in both hands.
	"Wow...  I've never seen anything like this before," she 
said reverently.  "I'll put it somewhere safe when we get back to 
the room."
	Mr. Hendrix yawned widely.  "Speaking of rooms, why don't 
we head back now?  Julie can put the float away, and we can all 
shower and go get something to eat.  How about it, are you girls 
hungry?"
	Anne nodded quickly.  "My stomach's been growling.  I get 
hungry fast when I've been swimming."
	They grabbed their towels and chairs and went back to the 
hotel, intending to come back later in the evening.

				****************

	Julie awoke, gasping and clutching at the sheets.  It took 
her a moment to calm down, her view of the rather ordinary hotel 
room reassuring her that she was on vacation and not...  Wherever 
she had been.
	She silently looked around the hotel room, she shared with 
her sister.  Her father and grandfather were sharing another 
double room right next door.  Anne had insisted that she would 
not share a bed.
	Julie sat up straighter, rubbing the sleep from her eyes 
and pulling her white nightgown straighter.  She didn't like the 
way it had bound around her tightly as she tossed and turned.
	Anne stirred, twitching repeatedly and mumbling something 
too faint to hear.  She was sprawled out, her head toward the 
foot of the bed and one leg dangling from the side wrapped in 
sheets.  Her face was visible in the dim moonlight streaming 
through the large sliding glass doors at one end of the room.  
Her mouth moved slightly as she breathed rhythmically.  Anne's 
breath and Julie's heartbeat seemed to be the only sounds in the 
room.
	Or maybe not.  Julie strained her ears, trying to catch the 
faint sound she thought she had been hearing while she recovered 
from her nightmare.
	Was that...
	Singing?
	She cupped her hands around her ears and turned her head 
back and forth, but couldn't hear it anymore.
	Maybe it was someone outside?
	Julie eased herself out of the bed, taking care not to wake 
Anne.  Soundlessly, she crept on bare feet to the room's door, 
gingerly turning the lever and opening the door a crack.
	The hall was softly lit by yellow bulbs, the carpeting 
covering the floors and the spongy wallpaper muted the echoes 
produced by the faraway hum of an ice machine.  No, no singing 
was coming from there, at least not now.
	Julie ducked back into the room, blinking to readjust her 
eyes to the dimmer light.  A small travel suitcase lay open on 
the table, and she walked over to it.  Inside was a carefully 
wadded up shirt, and laying atop that was the ship in a bottle 
she had found earlier that day.  She removed it carefully, 
leaving the shirt laying half out of the suitcase as she held it 
up to the light.  The little sailboat looked dark and ghostlike 
in the dim room, its warm colors reduced to shades of grey in the 
moonlight.
	She looked around again, thinking of her dream.  Gasping 
for breath, water closing in, held away from everyone by...  
	She couldn't remember.  It was probably just a fear of 
drowning brought on by the earlier swim.
	Anne had told her that if you named a fear, you could 
conquer it.   Grandfather had said something similar.  
	Julie sighed, looking out the window at the few fluffy 
clouds hanging in the night sky, speeding out to sea on the wind.  
They were dark patches in a black, starry sky, but the moon gave 
them light halos, adding detail.
	Maybe fresh air would do her good.  She closed her hand 
tightly around the glass bottle, feeling it warm to her touch, 
and opened the locks to the balcony doors.  She winced as they 
clicked loudly in the silence, but slid the doors open wide 
enough to accommodate her small body.
	Whistling wind filled her ears, and she quickly closed the 
doors behind her before it woke her chaperone up.  The wind was 
chilly, odd since it was blowing from the land out to sea, 
heavily laden with the smell of cars and factories, dirt and 
plants, all the smells of land.  She wondered what it would be 
like to be on a ship out on the ocean.  Would she still be able 
to smell, to taste the land?  Or would the salt spray be the only 
thing in her nose?
	A sudden chill swept over her with the speed of the wind, 
making her pull her nightgown around herself tighter.  There were 
scary things out there, dangerous to little girls.  She'd best 
stay on land, where it was safer.
	Julie smiled at the idea, placing her hands on the railing 
and looking out to sea.  Those dark waters held no terrors for 
her.  Daddy and Big Sis had been carrying her swimming for as 
long as she could remember.  Sure, it was dangerous if she wasn't 
careful, but she already knew that there were more dangerous 
things elsewhere, and she had no intention of being careless.
	Oddly, she felt astonished at her thoughts.  She wondered 
why.
	Again, she heard something just at the edge of her hearing, 
the voice of another young girl like herself, a voice that seemed 
not to be affected by the whispering of the wind, or perhaps it 
was borne on it.

		o/~  A pretty thing will shine and gleam, 
		to better catch their eye.
		So close, so near, or so it will seem,
		They may claim it if they try.
		And though their friends may shout and scream,
		No matter how they cry,
		The child is lost into a dream, 
		And pulled down from the sky.o/~

	Julie listened raptly, gradually getting better at hearing 
the words.  She hummed along softly, something which the singer 
seemed to appreciate.

		o/~I watch it pass, 
		from within the glass,
		A tool of the evil spell.
		Young girls so brave, 
		hit by a wave,
		and drowned in its swell...o/~

	"But I didn't drown," Julie protested, although to who she 
didn't know.  "See, I'm right here.  My sister saved me."  
	"Yes, I'm glad. That really throws my song off, doesn't 
it?" the words asked faintly, full of hope and happiness.  The 
voice giggled, and perhaps there was a hint of a sharp sound, 
like two hands clapping together.
	"But where are you?  Who are you?"  Julie looked around, 
especially at the other balconies around her. 
	"My name is Emily Adams, and as for me, hold the bottle up 
to the moonlight."
	Julie did as she was bade, peering through the glass at the 
boat within.
	From the angle she was holding it, it looked like the boat 
was still sailing across the sea, with the moon dipping low to 
touch the horizon beyond.  And there was something, something 
faint on the deck.  It was hazy, like looking through a very 
dirty window, but it looked much like a tiny doll on the deck, 
something she'd never noticed about the sailboat before, despite 
the time she had spent staring at it.
	It was a girl, she decided, and after much scrutiny she 
could make out that it was a girl kneeling next to the rail, 
holding on with both hands.  Then, as she watched, one of the 
arms moved, reaching up to wave at her!
	Julie wasn't as startled as she would have thought to be, 
but she still flinched in surprise.  Somehow the bottle slipped 
from her fingers and fell toward the hard tile floor of the 
balcony.
	A frightened little girl's shriek startled her even more as 
she dropped it, and she feared that it would shatter into a 
thousand tiny splinters of glass, but the bottle merely bounced 
twice.  She breathed easier after that, and crouched to pick it 
back up again.
	An errant gust of wind hit it, spinning it slightly and 
sending it rolling toward a gap in the railing.  It was quick, 
but she snatched it back before it took the plunge.
	"Oh no you don't," she muttered, holding it in both hands.  
She glanced up as a cloud covered the moon, briefly removing what 
little light she had.
	"Thank you," the girl on the boat said.  "For a moment 
there I was afraid that I'd never see you again."
	"What are you?" she asked quickly, still startled but not 
quite ready to scream and run.  She'd seen Caspar cartoons 
before.
	"I'm a girl, like you."
	"Uh unh."  Julie seemed somewhat indignant that this, this 
ghost would claim to be like her.  "You're a ghost, aren't you?"
	"I guess I am, now.  I don't know how long I've been in 
this bottle.  I used to be alive, though."
	Julie nodded.  That made sense.  Ghosts used to be people.  
"So, um...  How'd you get in there?"  She stared at the rippling 
ocean as the cloud finally moved away from the moon, lighting up 
the white-caps of the waves as they rolled in.
	The tiny little girl sighed, although Julie wasn't holding 
it up to the light to see.  "A long time ago, how long I don't 
remember, I was a young girl like you, living with my parents in 
New York.  We had lots of money, and Dad liked to sail for fun.  
I liked to go out on the boat with my father, and he would let 
me.  I didn't have any brothers and sisters and Mom didn't like 
to sail, so he would let me go with him if the weather was good."  
She paused, and Julie thought she might be crying silently.
	"If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay," Julie 
said comfortingly.
	"No...  No, it's alright.  I've just never told this to 
anyone before.  You're the first person I've talked to in I don't 
know how long."  The voice seemed to be stronger now, warming up 
from long disuse, or possibly just because Emily was getting used 
to speaking this way.  "I was out sailing with him one day.  It 
was beautiful; the waves were small, the sky was clear, and the 
wind was warm.  We had been sailing all day, and a big storm came 
up.  Daddy said he'd never seen anything like it.  It came from 
the shore, heading out to sea where we were at.  Daddy didn't 
want to try to sail through it, so we sailed away.  We were out 
there a long time, a couple of days I think.  We missed the 
storm, but then the wind stopped, and we were stuck."  She spoke 
faster now, the words coming in a rush.  "Then something bumped 
the bottom of the boat.  We couldn't see what it was, but it must 
have been big.  Daddy told me it was a whale.  It wasn't."  There 
was a faint sob.  "It kept hitting the bottom of the boat.  Not 
hard, just enough to tip it back and forth, over and over again.  
It stopped, and the wind came back, real strong.  Daddy was real 
happy, and we started sailing back home, but it hit the boat 
again, real hard.  We almost turned over, and Daddy fell in."  
Emily stopped at that, unable to continue any more.
	"That's scary," Julie offered, unable to say much more.  
"I'm sorry."
	"No, no, it was a long time ago," the ghost replied 
quickly, getting herself under control.
	"What happened next?"  Julie yawned and glanced down at her 
feet, wishing she had put some shoes on.  The balcony floor was 
cold.
	Emily shook her head, but again Julie couldn't see.  "I 
cried a lot, and called for Daddy, but I couldn't find him.  I 
tried to sail the boat by myself, but I wasn't big enough.  The 
storm came back, and I saw what had been hitting the boat."  She 
paused, then continued very quietly, as if mentioning it could 
summon its presence.  "It was a monster."
	"A monster?" Julie asked in a high voice, her body 
shivering but not from the cool breeze.
	"A sea monster," the ghost agreed.  "It was big and scary, 
and a wave rose up beneath it.  A big wave, bigger than the boat, 
and it came down on me.  I don't know what happened then, I guess 
I died.  I woke up, still on the boat, this boat, but I was in 
the bottle."
	"Wow..." Julie breathed, impressed.  
	"I've been out there for years and years."  She stopped.  
"I think," she added.  "Nothing looks the same now."
	"Did you ever see the monster again?" Julie asked, 
wondering if she could ever go swimming again.
	"Unh huh."  Emily sounded frightened.  "He even talks to 
me, sometimes."  She admitted this terrible secret quietly, as if 
afraid of who might overhear.  "I hear him in my mind.  It's evil 
and scary, and he only does it when someone dies.  I think 
there's some sort of magic spell on this bottle that makes girls 
like me want to get it, but it never gets very close to shore.  
And every time one of them tries, they drown."
	"Except me," Julie reminded softly.  Her eyes burned and 
teared, and Julie didn't know if it was because she was tired or 
because she felt so bad for Emily.
	"Except you," Emily agreed softly, still somewhat stunned 
by what had happened.  She had been afraid to hope for so long 
that she didn't know how to act now that she had actually been 
saved.  
	"That's so sad."  Julie held the bottle close, the best 
form of hug she could offer.
	"It's okay.  The hard part is watching people drown like I 
did."  Resolve crept into her voice.  "I don't ever want to see 
anyone drown again.  It's horrid."
	"Don't you want out?"
	"Un huh, I sure do.  But I don't know how.  I'm trapped."
	Julie inspected the glass critically.  "What if I opened 
the cork?  Wouldn't that let you go?"
	"It might.  Would you please try it?"
	Julie nodded, then looked around.  "Umm..." she said in 
indecision, then shrugged halfheartedly and grabbed the cork in 
her fingers.  It was hard, as if petrified, and try as she might, 
she couldn't pull it out.  "It won't move," she said finally, 
frustrated.  "I guess I could try breaking the bottle."
	"No, it's okay.  I want to talk to you for a while first.  
What's your name?"
	Julie blushed.  "Oh, I'm very sorry.  I'm Julie Hendrix.  
And that was my big sister, Anne, who saved me."
	"She was very brave and strong," Emily said approvingly.  
"If it hadn't been for her, you would have drowned."
	Julie nodded seriously.  "I know, it was scary.  Sis has 
always looked after me, though."  A sudden chill gust whipped her 
thin nightgown around her, and she shivered.
	"It's very late at night," Emily reminded gently.  "Do you 
want to go back to sleep?  We can talk in the morning."
	"Can we?" Julie asked.  "I didn't hear you say anything 
earlier."
	"I don't think it matters.  Now that I know how, I think I 
can talk to you anytime.  I wonder if others can hear me?"
	Julie considered that, realizing that she wasn't actually 
listening to Emily with her ears.  "I don't know...  But we'll 
see," she assured the ghost, then yawned.  "And I think you're 
right.  I'll talk to you again in the morning, okay?"
	"Okay!  Sleep tight!"
	Julie slid the door back as quietly as possible and stepped 
inside right as the curtains flapped for the first time.  After 
getting used to the chilly, whistling wind outside, the room 
seemed supernaturally quiet, making her glance around warily at 
the shadows as she carefully replaced the glass bottle back in 
its padded box, making sure the ship was right side up.  After 
all, there were ghosts about, and if Emily was to be believed, 
there were things much worse than ghosts lurking about for unwary 
little girls.
Anne snerked loudly through her nose, breaking the silence and 
almost making Julie giggle.  Nearly waking herself up after such 
a loud snore, her sister rolled over and buried her head under 
the pillow.
	Julie smiled.  With her big sis looking out for her, who 
could worry about monsters?  She climbed back between the sheets 
quietly, so as not to wake Anne.  And as she drifted off to a 
dreamless sleep, she heard a faint whisper on the edge of her 
mind.
	"Good night, Julie."

				****************

	Julie woke up quickly that morning, stirred from her sleep 
by the sounds of someone moving about in the room.  She glanced 
at the drawn back blinds and sliding glass door as she sat up, 
rubbing sleep from her eyes.
	"Good morning, Julie," Anne said as she pulled a pair of 
shorts on over her bikini.  "Sorry I woke you up, I was trying to 
be quiet."  
	"Good morning," she replied, looking out the window.  "It's 
early to be going out, isn't it?"  The first glow of sunlight was 
just lighting up the horizon they had such a good view of.
	Anne nodded and pulled on a light t-shirt.  "A little," she 
admitted.  "I'm going for an early swim.  Do you want to go?"
	Her sister considered it, and the events of the night 
before flooded into her mind.  "No, but thanks," she replied, 
sliding out of bed and walking over to the box with her new 
treasure, or friend, depending on how you looked at it.  "Will 
you be back in time for breakfast?"
	Anne nodded.  "I shouldn't be gone more than half an hour, 
and it'll be at least that long before Dad and Grandpa feel like 
waking up."  She picked up her beach towel from the day before 
and waved at Julie.
	"Be careful," Julie warned, placing her hand over the cool 
glass nestled in the padding.  "There's things in the water you 
don't want to meet.  Have fun!"
	"I will, and I'll be back soon."  
	After her sister left, Julie quickly pulled the bottle out 
and held it up to the light.  Sure enough, the faint image of a 
tiny girl could be seen within, sitting on the deck next to the 
handle of the rudder.  "Emily?" she asked quietly.
	"I'm here," replied the young girl's soft voice in her 
mind.  "Did you sleep well?"
	"Yes, thank you.  Let's go back on the balcony and watch 
the sun rise."
	"Okay, if you want to," Emily replied.
	Julie quickly stepped out.  There would be time enough to 
dress later.
	"So, what's everything like now?" Emily asked quickly, 
hungry for any news of the outside world.
	Julie sat on the floor with her back against the side of 
the building.  She could still see the ocean through the bars of 
the railing.  There were a few people already on the beach, early 
risers like her sister who wanted a quick swim.  She looked 
around for her sister, but didn't see her.  She might not have 
made it to the beach yet.
	"I don't really know what you mean," Julie replied 
truthfully after much thought. "To hear Dad and Grandpa talk, 
everything has changed."
	"Everything has changed since I was last on land," Emily 
agreed sadly.  
	"Like what?"
	"Back then, all we had were sailing ships and rowboats.  
Now I see all kinds of ships going back and forth, and big things 
flying through the air that remind me of kites.  I see a lot of 
those, even more that I used to see ships."
	"Airplanes," Julie said, nodding.  "People ride in them 
because they're faster than ships."
	"Even the buildings don't look like they used to," she 
continued.  "They're really really tall and shiny.  I don't know 
how anyone could stand to live that high off the ground."
	Julie laughed.  "Those are skyscrapers.  People don't 
really live in them.  Well, some people do, but most people 
don't.  Our house only has one floor, even if it does have a lot 
of rooms."
	"Is it shiny like these 'skyscrapers'?" Emily asked, having 
trouble saying the unfamiliar word even in her mind.
	Julie shook her head.  "No, it's brick.  We do have one big 
glass window that's kinda like skyscrapers, but not the whole 
house."
	"Oh," Emily replied helplessly.  She had so many questions 
that she didn't know where to start.
	"My dad said that we're going through lots of changes right 
now," Julie commented.  "He said that if you left the city you 
lived in for a few years and then came back, you wouldn't be able 
to find your way around."
	"Really?"
	"Yep."  She smiled suddenly and added, "I think he's just 
making excuses for getting lost all the time, though."
	Emily's tiny, ghostly form walked to the bow of the 
sailboat and sat down again.  She was smiling, but Julie had to 
look really close to see it.
	"I think I'd like to see your home," Emily said.  "Really, 
I think I'd like to see anything besides more of the ocean.  I've 
seen enough of that."
	"Well, that's okay.  I'll take you with me, if you want me 
to.  It's no trouble."  Julie liked the idea.  She'd missed 
having a friend her age, give or take a century, around while she 
was on vacation, and she'd really like to carry that friend back 
home.  She already had lots of friends, but one more never hurt.
	"That'd be great!" Emily replied enthusiastically, then 
fell abruptly silent.  
	"Is there something wrong?" Julie asked.	 "You're acting 
weird."
	"I just don't know what to think of all this," she admitted 
sadly.  "More has happened to me today than it has in so long, I 
don't know what to do."
	"Would you like me to leave you alone again for a while?" 
Julie asked.  "I like to be alone sometimes to think.  We're all 
going to breakfast, anyway."
	"No, no, it's okay," Emily assured her.  "I want to go with 
you."
	"Are you sure?"
	"Yes, I'm sure."  Her light voice was strong and full of 
conviction.  "I thought about everything a lot last night, and I 
think I'd like to just kind of ride around with you for a while, 
before you tell your family about me.  I don't know if I want to 
talk to a lot of people right now."
	"Oh, I'm sorry!" Julie apologized hastily.  "I didn't mean 
to bother you!"
	"No, you're not bothering me at all, honest.  But grownups 
can be so..." 
	Julie nodded.  "Okay, then.  I've been thinking about it, 
and I think I can put you in my backpack.  I carry it all over 
the place, anyway.  Can you still see out if you're covered, or 
what?"
	"Yes, that'll be fine.  I really don't know how I see, just 
that I do."
	"Okay," Julie agreed readily.  "Umm, Emily?  I've been 
wondering..."
	"Yes?"
	"Are you alive in there?" Julie asked in a rush.  "I mean, 
how do you eat?  Wouldn't you run out of air?"
	Emily was quiet for several long moments.  
	Julie squirmed impatiently, then couldn't stop herself any 
longer.  "Well?  Are you?"
	"I don't know," Emily replied in frustration.  "I know I've 
been in here for years and years, but I don't remember any of it.  
I guess I never even thought about eating or drinking.  I've 
never needed to," she said helplessly.  
	"Huh.  I guess you're a ghost, then," Julie said matter of 
factly.
	"I remember drowning, and I don't think the monster would 
save me, so I guess you're right."  Emily sounded lost and 
frightened.
	"Hey, don't be so sad," Julie piped optimistically.  "At 
least you don't have to go to school all the time."
	"I'd like to," she said quietly.
	Julie didn't quite know how to answer that, so she said, 
"Well, it's getting close to breakfast time, and Anne should be 
back any minute now, so I need to get dressed."
	"I'll be quiet in front of everyone."
	Together, they reentered the stillness of the room.  Anne 
still wasn't back yet.  Julie gently put Emily's glass bottle 
back in the suitcase, rubbing it lightly with one finger before 
she turned away.
	Fifteen minutes later, Anne knocked on the door to be let 
in.   Julie's father and grandfather had already called to see if 
the girls were up, and were watching TV in their room while they 
waited for the girls to get ready.  Both dressed simply, Anne in 
slacks and a button down blouse with a jacket thrown over it, and 
Julie in a similar outfit.  She secretly slipped the bottle 
containing the boat into her backpack while Anne was in the 
bathroom.
	It didn't take long for Anne to clean up, and soon they 
were all settling in at a table in the nice hotel restaurant on 
the bottom floor.
	Anne did ask her sister why she was carrying the backpack 
to breakfast, but dropped the matter when Julie just shrugged.  
She had been truthful when she told Emily that she carried her 
backpack with her nearly everywhere she went.  
	Neither her father or grandfather said anything about it 
when they saw her, and she hung the strap around the back of her 
chair so that the backpack was right behind her, only a few 
inches from the floor. 
	Emily used her ghostly senses to explore the room as best 
she could, eavesdropping on conversations and looking at everyone 
in a way that surely would have earned a spanking had her mother 
been present to see such bad manners.
	"Julie?" she whispered as quietly as she could in Julie's 
mind.  "What are you looking at?" 
	Julie blinked, nearly putting down her menu.  Taking the 
ghost's question literally, she raised the laminated paper to 
obscure her face and whispered, "The menu.  I'm trying to decide 
what to eat."
	"You can read?" Emily asked, astonished.
	"Umm, yes," Julie replied, more than a little confused.  
Everyone she knew could read.
	"Wow.  I don't know anyone that learned to read as young as 
you are, except maybe my dad."
	Julie mentally shrugged and decided to ignore it, returning 
her attention to the menu.
	"What's that?" Emily asked again.  "That flat yellow 
thing."
	"An omelet," Julie replied.
	"You want an omelet, Julie?" Dad asked.
	Julie blushed, realizing she'd been speaking too loudly.  
"Um, yes, thank you.  With bacon, please."
	"Sorry," Emily replied quietly.  
	"It's okay, Julie whispered back, very, very quietly.
	"It's just that I don't know what anything is," she 
continued.
	"Did you say something, Julie?" Anne asked.
	Julie lay her menu down and coughed politely into her 
napkin.  "Um, no, Anne."
	"Oh, okay."
	Julie wiped a bead of sweat from her brow.
	Soon the waitress came over to take their orders, which Dad 
gave her.  She quickly left to get their drinks.
	"So, girls, are you going to go swimming again today?  Or 
do you have something else in mind?" Julie's grandfather asked.
	Anne looked at her younger sister.  "Swimming?"
	"Swimming," Julie replied.  
	"Swimming," they chorused together after turning to the two 
men.
	Grandfather turned to his son-in-law.  "I guess they're 
going swimming."
	"Swimming it is," he agreed.  
	Just then, the waitress returned with a big tray of drinks 
balanced in her right hand and proceeded to sit them in front of 
everyone.  Julie got a glass of water and cup of hot tea, and 
everyone else received coffee.  
	As the waitress moved around Julie's chair to pass out 
drinks, she accidentally brushed the little backpack with her 
shin.  Julie hadn't zipped it up all the way, and the brush with 
the waitress was enough to make the zipper fall even further and 
let the bottle fall out onto the floor.  No one noticed as it 
slowly rolled away from the table across the thin, hard-packed 
carpet.
	"Is anyone sunburned?" Anne asked, feeling her own skin 
tingle.  "I know I had a little trouble sleeping last night."
	Dad nodded in sympathy.  "Yeah, I got a little more sun 
than was good for me, too.  But you should really see 
Grandfather's legs."  He chuckled.  "They aren't white anymore."
	Grandfather shifted uncomfortably.  "Mmm, yes, it's been 
some time since I've worn shorts on such a sunny day."
	Dad chuckled again.  "You see?  I told you that you needed 
to cover your legs, but did you listen?"  He made as if to jab at 
the old man's legs, but soon found his wrist twisted in a grip of 
iron.
	"Don't.  Push it."  Grandpa's glasses glinted in the 
fluorescent light.
	"Right...  Right..."  He pulled his hand back and massaged 
it gently.
	"Umm, I'll be right back, okay?" Anne said, standing up.  
"Which way is the restroom?"
	"I think I saw a sign that way, around the corner," Dad 
replied, pointing in the direction.
	"Thanks!" Anne pushed her chair back and hurried away.
	Anne glanced this way and that as she walked, looking at 
all the other morning diners.  Families were quite common, and 
she didn't spot even a single person dining alone.  Suddenly, a 
soft tink sound grabbed her attention and drew it to the floor.
	There, laying on the floor, was a little bottle with a 
tiny, beautiful sailboat inside.  It looked exactly like the one 
Julie had found.  Glancing around the room, Anne quickly picked 
it up and carried it back to the table.
	"Julie?" she asked, holding the bottle for everyone to see 
when they turned around.  "Didn't you leave this in the room?"
	Her sister gasped and reached for the bottle.  "Where did 
you find it?" she blurted.  
	"So it is the one you found?" Anne asked.  "I found it 
laying in the middle of the floor when I was on the way to the 
bathroom."
	Julie pulled her backpack around to look and saw the zipper 
had fell down.  "I had it in here," she explained, "but I guess 
it fell out somehow."
	"You'd better be careful with that," her dad cautioned.  
"You wouldn't want it to get broken."
	Julie shook her head emphatically.  "Unh unh."

				****************

	"Well, it looks like we're all going swimming again," Julie 
noted quietly to the empty air as she picked through her 
remaining swimwear in their room.
	"I know," Emily replied.  "I was still there when everyone 
was talking about it."
	Julie hmmed as she finally decided on a two-piece in green.
	"I don't want to go back to the beach with you," Emily said 
suddenly.
	"Hmm?  Why?" Julie asked.
	"Because I'm scared.  You might lose me again, and I'd end 
up back in the ocean.  I don't want to be lost in the sea again.  
Never ever again."  Her voice sounded frightened and lost.
	"That's okay," Julie replied a little too loudly, quick to 
reassure her friend.  "I'm not going to lose you again, but you 
can stay here if you want to."
	"I'd like that."
	"I'll put your ship back in my suitcase, and I'll be back 
here before we go to dinner.  You'll have plenty of time to 
think."  Julie carefully placed the bottle back in the nest of 
clothes she had made and covered it with a shirt.
	"Thank you," came the reply, soft and sweet as a whisper on 
the wind.
	Emily watched in complete silence as Anne came back into 
the room from wherever she had gone, presumably her father's room 
from the things she mentioned to Julie.  She had argued with her 
father over something that she didn't understand.  They kept 
using words Emily didn't know, and she couldn't follow the 
conversation.  
	Emily liked Anne for some reason she couldn't describe.  
Anne was almost everything Emily thought she wanted to be like 
when she became a woman.  Once she got used to the idea of a girl 
arguing with her father, not to mention describing him with those 
words, she decided that Anne was the most incredible woman she'd 
ever met.  She was tall, beautiful, smart, and utterly confident.  
Emily wished she could grow up to be like that.
	Emily wished she could grow up.  Anything, so long as she 
was free from the bottle.
	"Goodbye, Emily, I'll see you again at the end of the day," 
Julie whispered quickly as she passed the table Emily rested on.  
As she did so, the moment's distraction caused her to put her 
feet wrong and stumble, hitting the edge of the table with her 
side and knocking it back.  Shaking her head at her own 
clumsiness, Julie quickly ran to the door where Anne was waiting 
to lock it behind them.
	The table was small and narrow because there wasn't much 
space in the room, but it had four legs on each corner and was 
stable enough that it didn't rock much when the little girl 
brushed it.  The suitcase sitting on it couldn't have fallen off.  
It shouldn't have slid all the way to the edge of the table where 
it could totter back and forth.  There was no way it could have 
fallen off.
	But it did.
	Emily saw it all happen from the outside, which was more or 
less how she perceived herself.  The long-necked bottle was far 
too small for her to really fit inside, but it anchored her to 
the spot, wherever it might be.
	When the suitcase fell those few long feet towards the 
floor, Emily knew it.  When it chanced to land on one corner and 
bounce, Emily saw it.  Emily watched in horror as the movement 
jarred the bottle out of the box and sent it flying on a short 
arc through the air a rain of clothes falling behind.  It bounced 
and rolled on the carpet, finally stopping in the center of the 
open area of the room.  Emily was more terrified than she'd been 
since she was alive, even more scared than when the monster first 
swam underneath her and bit a girl's dead body in half with one 
bite. 
	Emily was frightened because she knew what had made it 
happen.  
	For the first time in several decades, Emily felt the 
monster's dark presence.  She knew it was still in the sea, 
hiding from human eyes, away from human things.  It was a long 
way away, still in the depths of the ocean, but she knew it was 
coming.  She could feel/see/taste its mind and spirit all around 
her, even though she knew it was far away.  
	It was the monster that had made her slip despite careful 
hands.  Its power was what let her prison fall out of a backpack 
in the middle of a restaurant.  And it was the monster's will 
that she should lay exposed and vulnerable on the soft woven mat 
that covered the floor of the guest room.
	Emily sobbed softly in fear and pain, memories of all the 
other times she had felt the monster's hatred and evil coming 
back unbidden, or perhaps they were deliberately sent by the 
demon to torment her.  
	She whimpered, but that was no defense.

	"Are we going home now, Daddy?" Emily asked from her 
position by the rudder, watching her dad pull on ropes.  He 
trusted her to steer the boat while he fixed the sails so they 
would go faster.
	"Yes, Sweetie," he replied happily, and that made her 
happy.  They had been on the ocean for several days now.  First 
they had run from the big storm, then they had sat in one place 
because there was no wind.  Now that the wind had came back, they 
could finally go home.
	The breeze was strong now, and it whipped Emily's long hair 
forward around her face as she clung to the handle of the rudder.  
The sailboat skimmed over the tops of the waves, each about three 
feet high.  The bright, white sails were clean and pretty in the 
sun, stretched to their fullest as they caught the wind.  They 
weren't sailing directly with the wind, because it was faster to 
sail across the direction it was blowing.  Their little boat 
leaned hard on its left side, and it looked almost like it would 
tip over, but Emily knew better.  This was how it was supposed to 
be.
	Her father smiled back at her and waved as he hauled on a 
rope and wound it around a post.  He tied it off with a few 
twisted loops, looked appraisingly at the sails, and decided it 
was good.
	The wind was even stronger now, and there were dark clouds 
on the horizon to their left, southwest of their position.  Emily 
didn't need to be told that those clouds were almost between 
their boat and land.
	Suddenly the boat lurched, tipping even farther over to the 
side, so that the boom at the bottom of the sail touched water, 
and everything on deck slid to the rail.  Emily shrieked and 
wrapped her arms around the rudder, all but hanging from it as 
she tried to stay on board.  Her father wasn't so lucky.  
	Caught unprepared by the sudden shift and too close to the 
low rope rail already, he stumbled back against it and fell over 
with a splash.
	The boat soon righted itself, leaving Emily looking behind 
the boat, crying and calling out for her father.  Blinded by 
tears and fear, she could barely see the rudder beside her, much 
less spot her father in the water.  
	

	Back in the present day, Emily shook her head and curled 
into a tight ball on the deck, hugging herself with both arms and 
rocking back and forth.  It had been a horrible thing to watch 
her father fall into the sea, never to return, but it got worse 
after that.

	She had nearly given up then, huddled on the deck beside 
the rudder, crying into her arms.  She didn't know how long she 
stayed like that, but when she finally gathered the strength to 
look up, the storm was much closer than it had been.
	That gave her the fear she needed to stay alive.  The 
storm's threat was something she knew she needed to deal with, 
chasing away the heartache that made her want to give up without 
her daddy.
	Emily wrapped a rope around the rudder and tied it off so 
that it would hold its present course.  Then she ran forward on 
the deck, in such a hurry that she didn't even use the handholds 
like her father had always told her.  The tears were already 
drying on her face.
	It was hard for her to untie the ropes her father had 
secured, but her small fingers were stronger than most girls her 
age and she managed.  Emily let the rope slip around the post, 
holding it tight and letting the friction act as a brake to keep 
the sail from jerking free. She didn't know as much about sailing 
as her father, but she had watched him do this hundreds of times, 
and she guessed at a safe course around the storm, setting the 
sails so that all she had to do was steer.
	It was a good effort, but it didn't work.  The storm flowed 
like quicksilver across the water, quickly covering up the bright 
sun and casting the water into gloom.
	The waves got bigger and bigger, and Emily was hard pressed 
not to panic as the boat, only about twenty feet long, sailed a 
long way up one of the big waves, and a long, long way back down, 
going faster than she'd ever sailed before.
	Emily sailed diagonally against the waves, making for a 
safer, gentler ride.  If she had tried to sail directly against 
them, she would have been crushed beneath the massive wall of 
water.  
	Lightening flashed and thunder rolled all around her, but 
only the salty sea spray soaked her hair and clothes, stinging 
madly when it got into her eyes.
	Suddenly, a massive wave loomed up beside her as the boat 
surfed down the side of the one she was on.  It was huge, bigger 
than any she had seen or sailed over before.  It was too big, in 
fact, and the top was already cresting into white foam it would 
be impossible to sail through, or over, or even around.
	And then she saw it, swimming for her.
	There, level with her but rising as she dropped, was 
everything she'd ever pictured in a sea monster.  Its head and 
the upper parts of its scaly, dark green back, arms, legs, and 
tail broke the surface of the water on the side of the wave, 
blending in well with the sea.  The head was almost humanoid, 
except she could easily see the teeth and short, spiky horns on 
its head.  A ridge of spines ran the length of its back and tail, 
and every time the hands or feet broke the water she could see 
webbed fingers and claws.  
	Emily knew that this was what had been hitting the keel of 
the boat.
	High above her it rose with the wave, until she could no 
longer see it when she hit the bottom of the trough between the 
waves.  Her last sight was of the mountain of water crashing down 
toward her.
	

	Emily cried out silently.  It had been awful.  She had 
drowned as the monster reached for her, slipping into blackness.  
She feared she would be eaten, but she woke up soon after, 
floating on the surface on the deck of her father's little 
sailboat.  But now, she realized, she was inside of a bottle, 
because somehow she could see it as if she was both outside 
looking in, and inside looking out.  
	She'd noticed the monster, then.  It hung motionless below 
her, watching her with its huge, bulbous, yellow eyes.  She 
thought she saw it smile before it slowly sank out of sight.
	It had visited her many times that year, and the next, and 
the next.  Emily had nearly gone insane from loneliness, floating 
on the sea, but something within her made her not notice the 
boredom, nor the rising and setting of the sun.  Time passed, but 
Emily only noticed it when something new and strange happened, 
like the first time she saw a ship, the first time she saw a ship 
without sails, the first time she saw one of the big flying 
things, an airplane.  And the first time she watched another 
little girl die, drowning after she'd swam far out to see to get 
the beautiful sparkly thing floating on the ocean.
	That little girl had struggled and cried and fought the 
pull of the ocean until she was less than five feet from Emily's 
prison when her panic-stricken face sank beneath the surface, one 
hand still reaching out for the glass, so strong was the 
compulsion.
	Emily shuddered and cried at the memory.  She hadn't even 
known her name.
	The monster had revisited her, silently praising her work, 
letting her know that it couldn't have lured that girl to her 
doom without Emily's help. 
	She had railed at the evil beast, but it had merely swam 
away, leaving the foul taste of cruel satisfaction in the water.
	Then it happened again, although the girl hadn't really 
been a swimmer.  She had waded into the water until it was over 
her head, then, when she tried to swim for the first time, had 
sank beneath the water and drowned less than twenty yards from 
the shore.
	The monster had came back once again, this time holding the 
dead, bloated body in one monstrous claw and stroking the 
billowing hair in a parody of tenderness.  It bit the head off in 
one bite and silently thanked her for the treat as it chewed.
	Emily didn't want to think about that.  Any of it.  Girls 
had died as they tried to claim her many times over the years, 
and it had all started to run together.  She would look away 
every time, unable to bear seeing their faces, of seeing them at 
all.
	Still, she felt her soul grow colder every time she heard 
the awful silence that meant the struggle was over.
	Emily's attention was jerked back to the present as she 
heard a knock on the door.  There was silence for a moment, then 
she heard the handle click.  

	Tracy Baker hummed tonelessly to herself as she opened the 
door and backed into the room, pulling a small laundry cart with 
her which she left in the doorway so that it was slightly ajar.  
She stepped over the bottle laying on the floor without noticing 
and quickly began straightening the room.  
	New plastic cups, still in their wrap, were left in the 
bathroom, along with fresh soap.  The used towels and washcloths 
were gathered and dumped into a laundry bag, and everything was 
wiped down with a combination of rag and mop.  The beds were 
made, but the sheets of this room weren't due to be changed until 
the next day after these people checked out.
	With the speed and surety of long practice, Tracy quickly 
finished the room.  She even picked up a fallen box of tissue and 
put it back on the table she supposed it fell off of.
	Then, as she started blithely walking out the door, 
something _grabbed_ her attention and _forced_ it towards the 
floor.
	There, laying carelessly in the open like a dropped 
diamond, was the exquisite miniature sailboat in a bottle.
	Tracy looked around warily, but something about that bottle 
made her want it.  She picked it up, holding it so that she could 
look at the pretty thing.  It caught the little light in the room 
and turned it into a rainbow of color, rippling and bouncing it 
off the pretty little boat.
	Looking at little else but the bottle, Tracy took a few 
steps forward, blindly reaching for the handle to her cart.
	"Ahem.  Excuse me, Miss?"
	Tracy's head snapped around, a guilty flush spreading on 
her face.  "Oh, excuse me, Ma'am, you startled me!"
	Anne stood in front of the laundry cart and gave her a mean 
glare made even more frightening by the dark red sunburn that lit 
up her face.  "I'm sure I did.  What's that in your hand?"
	Guilty, embarrassed panic forced her eyes wide.  She'd been 
working as a maid at this hotel for two years, and she'd never 
once even been tempted to steal anything from a guest's room.  
Now she'd fallen from grace, and, sure enough, there was someone 
waiting to catch her.  
	"Umm, umm, umm!" she stammered, unable to say anything 
else.
	Anne sighed, feeling much older than she was.  This was not 
the face of a hardened criminal.  This was the face of a kid 
caught with her hand in the cookie jar.  "I'm sure you just found 
it lying on the floor.  You were going to put it back, weren't 
you?"
	"Yes!" squeaked the maid in a high, thin voice.  "I did 
find it laying on the floor!  I'll put it back, honest!"
	"That's fine.  We appreciate you cleaning up the room for 
us," Anne said, pushing her way through the door and sliding by 
the cart.
	The maid, grateful that the guest didn't seem to be 
inclined to press charges or have her fired or anything, quickly 
pressed the pretty thing into Anne's hands and pushed her cart 
out the door.  "Thank you, Miss!  I'm done with the room!  I'll 
be going now!"
	"Stay out of trouble," Anne said seriously, giving her best 
warning glare to the embarrassed maid.
	"I will!  I will!  I-"
	Anne closed the door in the maid's face, unwilling to deal 
with the pathetic eagerness to please the poor woman had given 
off.  
	Then she smiled despite herself, realizing that she'd 
managed to get inside the room, alone, without using her key or 
showing who she was.  If she was a thief she could have stolen 
everything in the room.  It was a good thing she had decided to 
come back up, anyone could have broken in.  She'd have to talk to 
Dad about a different hotel next time.  One with better security.
	Then she winced.  Despite all the sunblock she'd used, she 
still had a pretty bad sunburn, and felt ill besides.  She put 
the bottle back in her sister's suitcase and climbed into bed.
	It was time for a nap.

				****************

	"Anne?" Julie called as Anne unlocked and opened the door.  
The sound of running water reached her ears as soon as the door 
opened, and she guessed that her sister must be in the shower.  
She walked over and checked the box.  Sure enough, Emily's bottle 
was still inside.  Julie stroked it lightly with one fingertip 
and whispered a soft hello.
	Anne walked out with her hair wrapped in a towel and 
another around her body.  "I think you should hide that thing 
from now on, Julie.  The maid nearly walked off with it.  I 
caught her with it in her hand as she was walking out the door."
	Julie gasped.  "Really?  That's terrible!"
	Anne chuckled and shook her head.  "It's bad that it 
happened, but I got a feeling that that was the first, and most 
importantly, the last crime that girl ever thought about 
committing."  Anne laughed again, then sighed and shook her wet 
head.  "The look on her face," she said with a soft giggle.
	Julie frowned.  If her sister only knew how priceless that 
bottle was, she wouldn't have been so relaxed about it.
	"You should get a shower, Julie."  
	Julie glanced at the bottle, then shrugged.  "Okay."
	Almost an hour later, Julie was wearing a nice dress and 
ready.  Anne had already called Dad and Grandfather to let them 
know that they were about ready, and had turned on their TV while 
she waited on Julie.
	Deciding that being openly honest was better that trying to 
be sneaky, Julie announced her intention of carrying the bottle 
with her to dinner.
	"Do you think that's a good idea?" Anne asked.  "It's 
already fell out of your backpack once.  If I hadn't stumbled 
across it, you'd have lost it."
	Julie nodded.  "I'll be careful with it.  But if I leave it 
here, I won't be able to keep an eye on it."
	Anne shrugged.  "It's your decision.  Personally, I'd just 
hide it in my suitcase."
	There was a knock on the door.  Julie, being closest, 
opened it to show her dad and grandfather, both looking very 
spiffy in tailored suits.  
	"Wow!" Anne enthused.  "You both look great!  I didn't even 
know you owned suits like those."
	Her dad exchanged a glance with his father before he 
answered.  "Well, we don't get to use them very often.  I've made 
reservations, like I said, but we're making an occasion of it.  
It's not often we get a chance to escort two young, beautiful 
girls out to dinner like this."  He grinned widely and nudged his 
father in the ribs.
	Grandfather also had an amused smile on his face, although 
it wasn't nearly as obvious as Dad's.  "Both of you look very 
beautiful as well."
	"Thanks," Anne replied, blushing.  She thought about 
mentioning that both of them were a little old for her tastes, 
but thought better of it.  If they wanted to play this game, she 
could too.
	"Julie?  Are you ready?"
	She nodded, smiling.  
	"Come on, then," Anne said as she guided Julie out the door 
to the waiting men.
	

				****************

	"Wow, that was great!" Anne cried after she swallowed the 
last bite of well-seasoned steak and wiped her mouth with a 
napkin.  "Thanks for the dinner!"
	"Well I'm glad you enjoyed it," Dad replied, not letting 
himself think about how much it all had cost him.  It was money 
well spent.
	Julie was still eating, although she enthusiastically 
mmmhmmed in agreement.  She was sitting between her father and 
Anne, with Anne on her left, closest to Grandfather.  Anne was 
taking care not to get anything on her pale tan skirt and button 
up blouse.  Her jacket had been put across the back of her chair.
	Soon everyone was finished and making conversation, 
discussing the events of the day and of the past.
	Julie suddenly realized that she hadn't checked her 
backpack in a while, and Emily had been awfully quiet, even the 
few times she'd whispered to her.  She pulled her bag around 
where she could reach it and her questing fingers quickly found 
the smooth glass stuffed inside.  Then, without conscious 
decision, her hand closed around it and drew it out.
	Emily's ghostly form was still visible just inside the 
hatch of the ship, crouched on the step with her knees drawn up 
to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.  She looked 
miserable.
	Julie stroked one light fingertip over the glass and 
thought a wordless hug.
	"Julie?  I thought you were going to leave that in your 
room?" her father asked when he noticed her toying with it.
	Julie shrugged.  "I was.  But it was nearly stolen by the 
maid earlier today, and I decided the safest place would be where 
I knew where it was."
	"Stolen?" he asked.
	Anne nodded and told the story as Julie continued to look 
at it.
	Julie kept looking into the glass, watching Emily.  Emily's 
tiny form moved slightly, and Julie thought she saw the girl 
shudder.  "Emily?  Emily, are you okay?" she thought as loudly as 
she could, her muscles tensing reflexively.
	"No," Emily whispered back.
	"Hmm," Grandfather replied.  "Well, the more valuable a 
treasure is, the more easily it is lost."
	Julie jerked, realizing that she hadn't been paying 
attention.  She nodded, thinking about the night before when she 
first met the ghost, and all the other times she'd nearly lost 
it.  "It's almost like it's trying to get away, but that's 
silly," she said in a subdued tone of voice.
	"May I see it again?" he asked.  When she nodded, he 
stretched out his hand and accepted it.
	Emily stirred and looked around for the first time in 
hours, sensing the change as the gentle old man touched the glass 
and Julie's cool, vibrant energy faded.  The man had a warm, 
comforting feel, but a wave of hatred washed over her, making her 
gasp in her mind.  Once again, she felt the monster's distant 
anger, and her vision changed.
	Julie's grandfather no longer looked like an elderly but 
still fit gentleman.  His cheeks sagged and flapped as he talked, 
and the fingers which caressed her prison were like sticks stuck 
through rotten pieces of meat.  His rotten, putrid face loomed 
large in her vision as he held her close, and she could see the 
torn flaps of skin where his nose had been flap as he sniffed 
deeply.  
	Emily understood what had happened.  The monster had 
changed the way she saw things, giving her its own twisted view 
of the world.  Knowing what was happening didn't lessen the 
horror any, and she quickly looked away.
	Grandfather nodded after a moment.  "Yes, I can see how you 
might think that," he said to Julie as he handed it back.  "Have 
you smelled it?  It smells strongly of the sea, despite having 
been washed."  
	The scene was no less horrible for Emily when she looked 
away.  Where Julie had been sitting was a bloated, pasty white 
corpse, the once lustrous hair snarled and tangled as it floated 
around her head, and as she watched one matted clump tore loose 
from her scalp, taking a piece with it as it floated across the 
table.  Her eyes were gaping, bloodless holes ringed by the 
tattered bits of her eyelids, and her nose, lips, and one ghastly 
rent in her left cheek all showed signs of constant nibbling from 
fish.  The fingers on the hand she withdrew back across the table 
were skeletal, ragged things that belonged on a zombie, not a 
vibrant young girl.
	Julie did as he suggested and held it close to her nose.  
She took a deep breath.  "That's right!" she exclaimed.  "It does 
smell like the ocean!"  She frowned and took another breath.  
"And something else...  Kind of like rotten fish."
	Emily shuddered and buried her head in her arms, hoping, 
praying, asking for anyone, anyone at all, to make it stop.
	Granfather nodded.  "Something about that bottle makes me 
think it still belongs to someone.  It has a foul taint to it."
	Julie frowned.  She'd felt nothing like that from Emily.
	"Anyway, I suggest you be careful with it."
	She nodded, still looking at it.
	"So," Dad began, changing the subject to something lighter.  
"What would you girls like to do now?" he asked with a grin.
	The sisters looked at each other questioningly.  "Well, I 
don't know," Anne replied for them both.  "Did you have something 
in mind?"
	Dad nodded and shot a look at Grandfather.  "Dancing?"
	"Dancing."
	"I think we'd like to carry both of you out dancing," Dad 
said as he returned his attention to the girls.
	Anne laughed softly to herself.  "Well, I guess we're going 
dancing." 

	
				****************

	Several hours later, tired but not exhausted, the men 
escorted the girls back to their hotel room and retired to their 
own for the night.  Both had danced surprisingly well, and they 
all had a wonderful time.
	"Julie," Emily said suddenly, startling her.  "We need to 
talk.  Can you find somewhere where your sister can't hear you?"
	"Yes," Julie whispered under her breath, her laughing mood 
gone in an instant by the intensity of the question.  "I can go 
out onto the balcony."
	"No!" Emily hissed.  "Stay inside.  Stay close to your 
sister."
	Julie looked around.  Her eye fell on the bathroom, and she 
slipped inside.
	"Okay, we can talk now, as long as we do it quietly," Julie 
said as soon as she closed the door to the small bath.
	"Good, because this is important," Emily said quickly.  
"All day, strange things have been happening.  Like you said 
earlier, it's like I'm trying to escape.  I was on the floor when 
the maid found me.  You bumped the table when you left, and I 
fell.  I shouldn't have, but I did anyway.  I keep slipping out 
of your hands when I shouldn't.  And every time something like 
that happens...  I can feel him.  He wants me back."
	"Slow down, please," Julie protested.  "Who?  Who wants you 
back?"
	"The sea monster," Emily said fearfully.  "And I can feel 
him right now.  It's like your grandfather said, he wants me 
back.  I can feel his anger all around me.  He hates you so 
much..."  There was a choked sob.
	"It's okay, Emily," Julie assured her.  "I'm here, and so 
is Anne.  We won't let him take you."  She started to take the 
bottle out of her pocket.
	Suddenly, it jumped rather forcefully in her hand.  Despite 
the surprise, she was able to keep her fingers wrapped around it.  
She held on with all her might as it twitched and jerked in her 
hand, and was forced to hold it to her chest with both hands to 
keep it from getting away.
	"What's happening?" Julie whispered in fear, her arms 
straining with every jerk.
	"He wants you to let go," Emily said, also frightened.  
"He's telling you to let go, that he's going to drown you and 
make fish eat you and, on and on!"
	"I won't let go," Julie replied fiercely.  "Tell him I 
won't let go."
	"Julie, please!"
	"No."  
	And then Julie could feel it, see it in her mind's eye, 
hear the voice that was not a voice, a sound like the roar in a 
seashell, like bubbles in the depths.  She hated herself, wished 
she would die painfully, wished she'd spend eternity alone-
	"No!"
	-she would drift on the currents, watching as fish ate her 
eyes, chewed off her fingers, and stripped her flesh.  She would 
float on the water and no one would care.  She saw something huge 
swimming below her.  Something with dark scales and wicked claws, 
something with malice in its heart, which opened a cavernous 
mouth full of teeth and swam up at a frightening speed-
	Julie shrieked in fright.
	-Anne was pounding at the door, wanting in, but it was 
locked somehow, and even a strong kick couldn't splinter the 
frame.  There was no one who could save her, not now, not ever, 
Emily would be alone again, this time forever-
	Julie sobbed and forced her eyes closed against the 
visions, but it wasn't something she saw, it was something she 
knew.
	The bottle grew hot in her hand, the heat of the hot sun on 
the open ocean multiplied by all the hatred and pain the monster 
had wrought.
	Her skin started to blister, but Julie held on, even 
against Emily's repeated pleas that she let go, that the monster 
would hurting them.  Julie let go with one hand and resisted the 
powerful urge to open the other, choosing instead to turn on the 
water in the sink and plunge her hands beneath it, anything to 
cool the burning glass.
	The water heated in an instant, scalding even more of her 
hand.  The visions were gone, all of the evil power going to make 
her drop the glass.
	Despite it all, Julie knew that she would not let go.  With 
that knowledge came a relief from the pain, and she knew that she 
had won.  "No," she insisted quietly, ignoring the heat of the 
glass which no longer had the power to burn.  "I will not let you 
have Emily ever again."
	The presence faded, leaving her to sag to the floor, 
exhausted by her efforts.  The door burst open a moment later, 
having never been locked at all, and Anne ran in.  
	"Julie, what happened?" Anne demanded quickly dropping to 
her knees to hold Julie, examining her for injuries with a speed 
and thoroughness born of fright and fear for her sister.
	Julie was silent for a moment, then gently sat the bottle 
down and held her hands out for inspection.  "I burned myself," 
she admitted, averting her eyes and wiping tears from them with 
one sleeve.  "I accidentally turned the hot water on and put my 
hands in, see?"  She winced when Anne touched the red skin, 
causing her to apologize and hurry away to find some cream.
	Julie waited anxiously, squirming in pain until her sister 
came back with a jar of coco butter and a couple of pain 
relievers.  Julie obediently swallowed the pills and took a drink 
from a plastic cup of water Anne offered her, then spread the 
coco butter on her hands herself.  The cool cream stung a little 
at first, but quickly soothed her hands.
	Anne walked over to the sink and turned the water off, 
noting silently that only cold water was running into the sink.  
"Well, you certainly scared the bejeezus out of me.  Why did you 
lock the door, Julie?"
	Julie looked at her in honest confusion.  "But I didn't.  
Was it stuck?"
	Anne shrugged.  "I suppose it must have been."  She gently 
led Julie back into the bedroom and put her on her bed.
	Julie closed her eyes and lay back on the bed with a sigh, 
putting one arm over her eyes so that it covered her face.  
	Anne sat on the edge of the bed.  "Does it feel better, 
now?"  
	Julie nodded simply.  She was tired.
	"Tell me, Julie.  What's wrong?" Anne insisted a little 
more firmly.
	She frowned beneath her sleeve.  She didn't want to try and 
explain all that had happened with the ghost, Emily, so she tried 
to think of something more plausible to explain for her odd 
behavior.  "I don't know what you're talking about," she replied. 
	Anne gave her a frank look.  "Julie, you haven't been 
yourself all day.  You've been acting strange, talking to 
yourself, going off alone..."
	Julie shrugged again.  "I'm sorry, I just can't explain 
it."  She decided to go for sympathy.  "I'm really tired, can we 
just go to sleep?"
	Anne's expression softened.  "Alright, if you want to.  But 
I want you to at least try to tell me what's bothering you in the 
morning, okay?  Please?"
	"I will."  
			

				****************

	Julie slept lightly until well after midnight, tossing and 
turning, still plagued by dreams of dark, swimming monsters and 
drowning.  She felt Emily's loneliness, and shared it.  She saw a 
man, tall, strong and rugged, his face lined with equal parts 
hardship and laughter.  He picked her up and laughed, then faded 
away.  He was replaced by a woman, pretty and slender, her dark 
black hair tied away from her face as she worked at some unseen 
task.  She looked up and smiled at Julie, motioning for her to 
come over, but she faded as the little girl ran.  A powerful 
sense of loss filled her, because Mommy and Daddy were gone, and 
they'd been gone a long, long time.
	Julie woke up with tears in her eyes.
	"I think...  I think I'd like to go home now," whispered 
the ghost of the long dead little girl, her glass prison sitting 
on the nightstand beside Julie's bed.
	Julie nodded.  "Before the monster gets you again."
	The ghost silently agreed.
	Slipping out of bed without waking Anne was easy.  Julie 
quietly put on her shoes and snuck out of the room into the dim 
yellow light of the hall.  She wasn't sure why, but she knew she 
needed to do this where it all started.
	The ocean.
	The hotel was quiet at this time of night, with only a few 
dozen people walking its cavernous rooms and long hallways, 
mostly security guards and staff, and a steady trickle of 
partygoers staggering to their rooms.  None of them noticed the 
small girl hurrying behind plants and around corners to avoid 
being noticed as she steadily made her way to the lobby.
	There she almost had some trouble, as she didn't think the 
door security staff would be inclined to let a young girl roam 
the streets alone.  Instead, she found a large group of laughing, 
rowdy people actually leaving the hotel and stuck close behind 
them, looking like child following neglectful parents.  
	This worked well, and she was soon able to get out and 
free.  Julie lost no time running toward the sounds of the waves 
splashing against the shore. 
	A concrete dock extended out into the water from the hotel 
patio, and Julie ran towards its base.  During the day it was a 
place for people to pull up their boats and walk directly into 
the hotel, and even at night people would usually be seen 
laughing and talking as they walked back and forth.  At this time 
of night, though, the restaurant was long closed, and everyone 
with any sense had gone to bed.  Only three small motorboats and 
one sailboat were still tied to the dock, and even they were dark 
and silent as they bobbed against the rubber bumpers between them 
and the hard dock. 
	Once she neared the water, Julie paused to kick off her 
shoes and revel in the cool sand on her feet.  She walked 
forward, and soon the waves were washing in around her, chilling 
her toes and erasing the prints she left behind her.  She didn't 
stop until she was knee deep in the water and the froth of the 
waves almost touched the bottom of her gown.
	"Thank you, Julie."  Emily didn't need to say what for.
	"You're welcome."  Julie stared out over the moonlit ocean 
at a ship's lights, one of several traveling close to the 
horizon.   "I miss my mom, too."
	"The monster is out there, you know." 
	Julie nodded.  "I know.  I can feel him."
	"I think you should hurry and get away," Emily cautioned.  
	"Okay."  Julie grabbed at the material of her gown, 
twisting the mouth of the pocket closed and wadding the material 
up around the glass.  She grabbed it in both hands, then 
hesitated as she brought it back to swing against the concrete 
besider her.  "Emily?"
	"Yes, Julie?"
	"I'll remember you.  I hope you find your parents."
	"Me, too.  I'll remember you, too."
	Julie sighed.  "Goodbye, Emily."  Then she slammed the 
bottle against the dock with all her strength.  
	Despite seeming as thin as a soap bubble, the bottle 
refused to break.  Julie shook it, and hit it against the dock 
repeatedly, anything to break it.  Nothing she tried worked.
	"Julie!  He's coming!" Emily shouted out in warning.
	Julie stopped her futile attempts to bust the glass and 
looked around, noticing for the first time that the ocean had 
turned as flat and still as glass.
	Something big and dark broke the water in the center of the 
patch of water that reflected the moon's image back up at her.  
Something with a humped back, misshapen head, and burning yellow 
eyes.
	"litttlehuman foolissshgirl..." it said in a voice like the 
roar in a seashell, like the bubbles in the depths,  "didyou 
tthink iwould lett myttreasssure go soeasssy?"

				****************

	High up in the hotel room shared by the two girls, Anne's 
eyes snapped open.  "Julie!" 

				****************

	Julie gasped in fright at the demon's appearance, her heart 
thudding in her chest.  This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
	"ohyesss...  thississ how ittalwayss goesss..." the evil 
creature bubbled.  "come littletthing," it crooned, subtly 
beguiling her.  "comeswim witthme."
	Julie took a step forward, trembling.  "I don't want to," 
she whispered.
	"No, Julie!" Emily cried in her mind.  "Get out of the 
water!"
	"come," it commanded.  "you cannottwillnott ressisstt me!"
	Julie stopped.  It was surprisingly easy, once she decided 
to.
	"COME!" it roared, and the sea boiled around her.
	"No," she replied simply.  
	"YOU," it roared again, this time without sound.  
	"You see, Emily?  He's not so scary.  He's just all talk."  
Julie glared as fiercely as she was able at the monster in the 
sea, who still hadn't gotten any closer to shore.
	"isssee..." it said, calming down.  "icannot force you."
	"That's right," Julie said brazenly, nodding.  "You can't."
	The ugly, deformed head rose up enough for her to see the 
water dripping off its foul teeth and rounded chin.  "but ifyou 
wantt my ttreasssure...  youmusttt take itt fromme..."  The 
threat given, it slowly slipped back beneath the surface, not 
even leaving a ripple in the glassy smooth water to show it had 
been there.
	Doubt entered Julie's mind.  She didn't know if she could 
do that.  
	"Julie?" the ghost asked uncertainly.
	"I don't know what to do," she admitted, a little scared.  
She blinked in astonishment as a perfectly smooth bubble grew out 
of the water a few hundred yards out from her, where it was 
deeper.  The bubble grew bigger and bigger, far beyond anything 
normally possible in water.
	And then it popped, releasing the sound contained within.
	"DIE."
	With a horrible sucking sound, a huge area of the ocean 
surface dropped out of sight, leaving a crater in the water two 
dozen feet across about fifty yards from shore.  The surrounding 
water began to rush into the hole, but it, too, disappeared.  
Soon it was a powerful whirlpool, sucking at everything nearby.  
	Including Julie.
	The water rushed away from the shore in a torrent, knocking 
the little girl off her feet and dragging her kicking and 
screaming toward the gaping maw.
	"AAAH!" she screamed.  "Someone help me!"
	"Julie!  Swim hard!" Emily cried encouragingly.  "You've 
got to make it to shore!"
	"I can't!" Julie cried, panicking.  The shore got further 
and further away, no matter how hard she kicked and paddled.  The 
water sucked and pulled at her gown, almost like hands were 
dragging her away.  Salt water stung her eyes and made them cry, 
and the undertow threatened at any moment to carry her beneath 
the surface.
	"You've got to try!  Don't let him get you!"
	"Julie!  Juuuliiiee!" 
	Her heart leapt, and she caught sight of a figure running 
as fast as she could over the beach through her blurry eyes.  
	"Hold on, Julie!" Anne called, running down the now exposed 
sand where the water should have been.
	Hope renewed, Julie kicked even harder, and soon Anne's 
strong hands were grabbing onto her, helping her keep her head 
above water.
	"I've got you, Julie!" Anne said, pulling her back towards 
shore.
	"But who's got you?!" 
	Anne kicked hard toward the dock, having spotted a bright 
yellow inflatable boat, a zodiac, tied to the dock by one rope.  
The whirlpool had pulled it away from the dock, and Anne was just 
barely able to grab one of the side rope handholds as she and 
Julie were swept past.
	"Grab hold!" Anne cried, pulling Julie up so that she could 
reach.  
	Julie grabbed the rope with both hands and held on.  Julie 
pulled and kicked frantically, and, with a boost from Anne, was 
able to scramble inside.  She quickly turned and started pulling 
on her sister, trying to get Anne to safety as well.
	Anne finally climbed in with a splash of water.  Together 
they crawled toward the bow of the boat, intending to grab the 
rope and pull themselves to the safety of the concrete dock.
	Anne reached the front before Julie and started pulling on 
the rope, but the suction of the whirlpool was too strong.  One 
part of her wanted to know just what was going on, but there was 
no time for questions.  She had to save both their lives, first.
	The small rubber boat fairly hummed with the speed of the 
water rushing by it.  So much water was pulled away from the dock 
that the level actually dropped, pulling the zodiac well below 
the level of the dock and putting that much more strain on the 
rope.  The boat slanted sharply upwards, forcing Anne and Julie 
to fall forward and grab the ropes along the sides to keep from 
falling out.
	The strain on the bow rope proved to be too much, and it 
gave way with a sickening rip.
	The girls shrieked in fright as they were pulled out to 
sea.
	"Here we go!" Anne cried as their craft pitched over the 
rim of the whirlpool and started a short spiral down.
	"Whee!" Julie added, caught up in the moment. 
	They dropped ten feet below sea level, then simply stopped 
at the bottom, spinning in time with the water circling around 
them.
	"Hey, we stopped." Anne looked around in surprise and 
wonder.
	"We stopped?" Julie asked, also looking around.
	"But, how?" Anne wondered.
	The water rushed down, nearly to the sea floor, which 
wasn't very deep here, and somehow dissipated.  But the bright 
yellow inflatable boat was far too buoyant to be pulled beneath 
the water, and it simply hung there as the water rushed past to 
foam and disappear just below.
	"Take THAT you stupid monster!" Julie called.
	The water stopped.
	"Uh oh," Anne opinioned.
	With no force to keep it in shape, the water rushed in from 
all sides, nearly drowning them.  But despite now being 
completely full of water, the super light craft simply popped 
back to the surface.
	"Whew!  What a ride!" 
	Anne nodded.  "Julie?  Would you mind telling us why you 
were out here, alone, nearly getting drowned?  And what made that 
whirlpool in the water?"
	Julie panicked for a moment and felt around in her clothes 
for the bottle she was sure she had lost.  But there in her 
pocket, despite everything that had happened, was Emily's ship in 
the bottle.  She pulled it out and showed it to her sister.  
"Well..." she began, hesitating  "To make a long story really 
short, there's a ghost in this bottle.  Her name is Emily.  A 
monster put her in there, I tried to get her out, and it made the 
whirlpool."
	Anne blinked.  "You're kidding."
	Julie shook her head.  "You can talk to her if you want."
	"A ghost?  Does this have anything to do with what happened 
earlier?"
 	Julie nodded shyly.  "The monster is really mean, he did 
it.  Now, can we get back to shore?  Now?"
	Anne nodded and quickly looked around their little boat.  A 
pair of oars were stashed against the side, and she lost no time 
pulling them out and rowing back to shore.  
	Despite Julie's fears, they weren't harassed in any way as 
Anne paddled, and soon they bumped the dock again.  Anne tied the 
two ends of the broken rope together after they were safely out 
of the boat, and they both ran down the long dock for the closed 
café it lead to, leaving a damp trail of dripped water behind 
them.
	The glass doors were locked, but a stairway led down to the 
sandy beach off the left side of the dock, and soon they were 
standing by Julie's discarded shoes.
	"Now, Julie, about this...  Ghost," Anne began.
	"Her name is Emily," Julie said, fishing out the bottle and 
holding it up for inspection.  "She wants to thank you for saving 
her from the maid, and for saving both of us tonight."
	"Hello, Anne," whispered the high, girlish voice in Anne's 
head.
	She jumped.
	"Thank you for saving me.  And Julie.  You're very brave."
	"Oh, err, well," she stuttered, not sure if she liked the 
idea of talking with the dead.  "A real, err, ghost..."  Anne sat 
down heavily on the sand, her sodden clothes squishing water onto 
the beach.
	"We have to get her out of there," Julie insisted.  "She 
wants out."
	Her sister nodded weakly.  "I'd imagine..."
	Julie patted her on the shoulder.  "Come on, I need your 
help!"
	"A ghost needs my help.  Funny."  She laughed, and it 
wasn't a funny sound.
	Julie stamped her foot.  "Anne!" she cried, but her sister 
was still in shock.  "Oooh," she turned away in exasperation.  
"Sorry, Emily, I guess we're on our own for this."
	"It's okay.  She did great," Emily replied in admiration.
	Julie shrugged.  "Then she bailed.  Anyway, hmm.  How can 
we get you out of there?"
	There was no answer.
	Julie thought for several moments, remembering all the 
other times she had tried to break the bottle.  All those other 
times, though, it had proved too tough for her.  This time, 
though, the monster must be tired from making the whirlpool.
	"I have an idea," she announced.  She held the bottle 
tightly as she walked back down the beach to the place where she 
had originally been sucked into the sea.  She stood knee deep in 
the water, looking out to the moonlit ocean.
	"Julie!" came a startled shriek from the beach.  
	Julie turned to look and saw that Anne had snapped out of 
her stupor and was running as fast as she could to save her.  
"Stop, Anne!"
she yelled.  "I'm okay!"
	Anne slowed as she neared, indecision on her face.  
"But..."
	"I have to do this," she insisted.  "Emily needs my help."
	Her sister wavered, then gave up and simply stood right 
behind her, placing a hand on each one of Julie's shoulders.  
"It's okay, you do what you have to do."
	Julie nodded.  "Are you ready, Emily?"
	She laughed bitterly.  "Julie, I've been ready for years."  
Her voice softened.  "But I'll miss you.  You're the best friend 
I've ever had."
	Anne bit back a comment, not wanting to intterrupt the her 
sister and the...ghost.
	"I'll miss you, too.  I'll never forget you!"
	"Well, yeah, of course you'll never forget her," Anne 
muttered sarcastically.  "She's a real, talking ghost.  I mean, 
how creepy is that?"
	"I'll never forget you either, Anne," Emily said with a 
laugh.
	"Goodbye, err, Emily," Anne replied.  "It's really too bad 
you're not going to stay.  I'm sure my future therapist would 
love to meet you."
	"Anne!" Julie cried, and stamped on her sisters foot.
	"Oww!  Sorry, sheesh.  Everybody's a critic."
	"Thank you, Julie," Emily said one last time.  "I love 
you."
	Julie nodded and blinked away a tear.  "I love you, too."  
Then, grabbing the petrified cork in one hand and the bottle in 
the other, she focused all her will on pulling the cork out.
	It came out surprisingly easily, with only a faint pop of 
air.  Then the glass cracked.  Julie glanced at the bottle in 
alarm and saw the ship growing, no longer bound by the spell.  
	"Quick!  Throw it!" Anne exclaimed.
	Julie cocked her arm back and threw the light bottle as 
high and far as she could, well out into the deep ocean.  The 
bottle turned over several times, then burst into a thousand 
fragments which disintegrated instantly.
	The now full sized sailboat hit the water with a splash, 
rocking back and forth with the momentum.  For one perfect moment 
the breeze filled its sails and made them stand out proud and 
white against the moon.
	Later, both Anne and Julie would swear to each other they 
had seen a girl about the same age as Julie standing on the deck, 
waving at them.
	Then the image was gone, and the boat rotten in an instant, 
sinking like a stone into the ocean, finally going to the rest it 
should have had long ago.