The beach stopped where the jagged boulders established their mighty domain. The seascape was completely dominated by these outcroppings of dark gray giants, with crevasses and ledges on all sides. These imposing and time worn craggy protrusions invited the visitor to come and explore.
There were bits of wood strewn all over the beach. Annie and Logan began to gather the wood that was up above the water line, where the sand was dry. They placed it in a neat pile. After they had gathered as much as they could possibly carry, they rested for a while, admiring the view.
“Wow, this is a great place!” Logan said.
“Yea,” agreed Annie. “And this beach is real nice, too. I bet that not too many people know about this place.”
“I wonder if that shipwreck that Captain Saunders was talking about is around here somewhere?” Logan reflected as he scanned the rugged shoreline.
Annie thought about Logan’s suggestion, then added, “Well, this would be a likely spot for a shipwreck to happen, with all of these sharp rocks everywhere.”
“Yea, if a ship hit one of those rocks its bottom would get ripped apart.” Logan added.
Annie and Logan watched the ocean surf crash against the jagged rocks, making a roaring sound as fingers of white water splashed upwards. Watching the endless crashing waves caused Annie to recall her dream of the previous night.
It was so vivid and real. She could see the ship from her dream: swamped by the turbulent waters churned up by the terrible storm. She could hear the shouts of the men once again, and hear the alarm in their voices as the ship became engulfed in waves.
The sun began to sink low towards the west. The daylight was waning fast. Annie looked at her watch.
“It’s almost 8:30! We better get back now…. mom’s going to start worrying about us….”
They gathered up as much of the wood as they could carry. The ascent back up the sandy, twisting path was not an easy feat with the wood in their arms. By the time Annie and Logan had reached the cliff tops they were out of breath. They rested for a moment.
Annie looked at the ocean again. The sky in that direction began to turn a brilliant orange accented by a dark purple haze. Suddenly she noticed that they were not alone. Out on the point, on a high cliff top above the cove, stood a tall figure. It appeared to be a man wearing a full cape. He was looking out at the ocean, so Annie could only see his back. He was wearing a beret style hat on his head. The cape was gray and pleated, covering most of the man’s torso.
Some of the wood fell from Annie’s arms. She reached down and picked it up.
“Logan, look, there’s someone over there….” She pointed towards the spot where she had seen the man. Logan looked where she was pointing.
“There’s nobody out there!” he observed.
“What! I don’t believe it! There was a man standing out there on the cliff wearing a cape. I swear that I saw him! He was there just a few seconds ago…. now he’s gone!”
“You’re seeing more ghosts, Annie!” her brother teased. “Yea, right!”
“There was a man standing out there! He was wearing a long gray cape. Where could he have gone? He could not have walked away so fast…. unless he jumped over the cliff into the ocean!”
Logan scanned the horizon along the cliff tops. “I don’t see anyone, Annie. Come on! This wood is getting heavy! Let’s get back now!”
Chapter 9
A Shipwreck
Annie and Logan walked as fast as they could with the wood bundled in their arms. The day was fading into twilight. The brightest stars were now visible above.
Natalie watched as Annie and Logan approached carrying the wood. “Hey, look mom! We found some firewood!” Annie yelled as they walked into camp.
“Well, good for you!” Natalie exclaimed. “It looks like we will have a fire tonight after all….”
Logan piled some of the wood into the fire ring. He blew on the coals, making them turn a brilliant red. All this accomplished was to create a heavy white smoke that made him cough. Annie grabbed some paper towels, and wadded them up, then she threw them on the hot coals. Logan blew on the coals again. The paper towels acted as tender, bringing the flames back to life. Logan threw in a little bit of dry brush, and the fire sprang back to life, the flames licking at the edges of the wood.
Natalie and the kids sat around the fire, appreciating its beauty and warmth. This fire was more colorful, with blue and yellow flames leaping up over the wood like darting fingers.
“Where did you find this wood?” Natalie asked.
We found it down by the ocean, on a small beach that’s in this little cove,” Annie explained. “It was just laying down there all over the beach.”
“How did you get down there?” Natalie inquired, with some sense of concern in her voice.
“We found a path that went down to the beach,” Logan answered. “It wasn’t all that hard to get down there…. it’s a really great place. Annie and I want to go back there again and explore it.”
“Well, I don’t think that you two should go down there, it may not be a safe place to go,” Natalie warned.
“Oh, come on, mom! It’s safe…. it’s just a beach!” Logan pleaded.
“Yea, it’s a really nice place, mom,” Annie added. “Please let us go back, Logan and I were really looking forward to exploring it.”
“Well, I guess that you can go back there as long as I’m with you next time,” Natalie conceded. “We can go there tomorrow morning and check it out if you want.”
Annie glanced over at her mom. The glow of the fire was reflecting from her, its flickering radiance revealed the fine contours of her young and attractive face. She stared at the fire thoughtfully as Annie watched her.
“That wood is unusual!” Natalie mused. “It looks like boards. I wonder if it was part of a building or something. Or…. you don’t suppose that these boards were part of a ship?”
The children’s eyes lit up at the suggestion that the wood they had gathered at the cove was from a ship. That had not occurred to either one of them when they had discovered the wood laying in many broken pieces down on the cove beach.
“Part of a ship?” Logan echoed. “You mean from a shipwreck?”
“That’s possible.” Natalie said. “That wood came from something that was constructed…. maybe a house that got swept away in a storm, or it could have even come from an old shipwreck….”
Annie suddenly got a very excited look on her face. “I remember that Captain Saunders said that there was a shipwreck near here,” she recalled, considering the fire, which was beginning to burn down somewhat.
There were red and blue flames licking the charred wood. Lots of sparks shot from the flames, the embers drifting upwards, looking like red fireflies rising above the treetops.
“That sure is a pretty fire,” Natalie observed. “There must be a lot of salt and oxygen inside that wood, probably because it was under the ocean for a long time before it washed up on the beach. That’s what makes the colorful flames and the crackling sounds.”
Annie looked angry. “Mom!” We were talking about Captain Saunders…. stop changing the subject, please!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Annie. What we’re you saying about Captain Saunders?”
“He said that there was a shipwreck right here at Ocean Cove. It was here where he said that he saw some ghosts, too. He told us that the ghosts were dressed in strange clothes, as though they were not from our time. Remember the man and boy that we saw this morning during our walk by the ocean? They were also dressed in clothes from another time. They walked right by us. We all saw them. Then when I turned around they were gone, just like that!”
Logan thought about all of this, looking bewildered. He looked at Annie, saying, “You know, that was kind of weird the way that captain man just disappeared right after he was standing there talking to us, it’s almost like he was a ghost, too!”
“Yea, and then I saw a man in a cloak out on the cliffs tonight.” Annie
added. “He disappeared too, right after I bent over to pick up the wood that I had dropped. This is all just too weird.”
Natalie started to laugh. “Geez, guys, I wonder if everyone we’ve seen out here is a ghost….it seems like they’re everywhere…. or maybe it’s just your over-active imaginations running wild!”
“Mom!” Annie protested. “Even you saw Captain Saunders disappear. He still should have been there walking away from us, but when we turned to wave at him again, he was gone….”
Natalie cleared her throat and shifted in her chair, as though this topic was making her feel uncomfortable. “I think that this is about enough of the ghostly tales for one night,” she said.
“You know, I bet that this wood was from a shipwreck,” Logan observed thoughtfully, shifting the topic a little. He pointed over at the wood pile, and walked over and picked up one of the pieces. “Look at this. It’s a plank; and all of these planks are jagged on the ends, like they were broken. It must have been part of a ship, maybe one that broke apart when it sank.”
Annie and Natalie looked at the piece of wood, then back at the crackling fire. “Yes, Logan, you may be right. This wood must have come from an old ship that went down,” Natalie reasoned.
Annie began to imagine a beautiful sailing ship from long ago. Perhaps it set sail from San Francisco but never made it to its destination, she thought. The ship must have encountered a storm and went down.
She recalled her dream again…. the ship in peril…. lost in a gale, headed for disaster as wave upon towering wave crashed over its deck. In her dream, she could see the fear written on the men’s faces and hear the terror in their voices. Was it possible that she had seen this shipwreck? Could people dream of events that happened over one hundred years ago?
Just as this image raced through Annie’s mind, the fire made a loud crackling sound that was like a fire cracker on the Fourth of July. Sparks drifted upwards from the fire towards the tree tops. The reddish-orange sparks began to spiral for a few seconds, then shot off towards the direction of the cove.
“Wow! That was great!” Logan exclaimed. “That looked like a ghost or something!”
There was a short pause. The fire began to grow dim as the wood turned to embers. Annie began to shiver.
“I think that our imaginations have gotten the best of us out here,” Natalie replied. “It’s about time for bed now.”
It had been a long day. Even Logan was beginning to yawn as they got ready for bed.
As they brushed their teeth by the picnic table, Logan said, “I want to go and explore the cove tomorrow where we found the wood…. maybe we can find more pieces from the shipwreck.”
Annie nodded in agreement. “Okay, Mom said that it’s okay to go there and explore.”
Natalie was inside the tent, getting the sleeping bags unrolled and the air mattresses pumped up. Logan and Annie could hear her moving around inside the tent. Suddenly she screamed.
“Mom, what’s wrong!” Annie yelled.
“There’s a big spider in here!” she yelled. “Logan, come in here and kill it for me! Hurry!”
Logan ran into the tent. He took off his shoe and hit the spider with it. “Eew, spider guts!” he teased, just as Annie stuck her head through the tent door.
“Get a tissue and clean it up!” Natalie insisted. “We are not going to sleep on spider guts tonight.”
“Mom…. I hate spiders. I can’t sleep thinking that there’s spiders in here!” Annie complained.
“Well, that’s the only spider that I saw in here, Annie…. you and Logan need to keep that zipper closed on the door, or more bugs will get in here. I don’t like the idea of sleeping with bugs either.”
Annie could not get over the smashed spider for a long time, tossing and turning in her sleeping bag, every few minutes feeling something crawl on her arms or legs. Then she kept thinking about the cove where they had found all the wood, wondering if the wood was from a shipwreck. Annie knew that wooden ships were from a very long time ago. To think that she had handled the broken planks from a ship the had sunk over one hundred years ago! This was difficult to swallow.
“That ship must have sunk right out there in the cove,” Annie reasoned. “It probably wasn’t too far off shore….” She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Birds were chirping loudly everywhere as Annie opened her eyes in the morning. She could hear her mom outside preparing breakfast. Logan was still sleeping soundly in his sleeping bag to her right.
She climbed out of her sleeping bag and put on a blue plaid blouse and jeans. Then she unzipped the tent door and stepped outside, this time making sure to zip up the door tightly (the thought of bugs getting into the tent was enough to make her the guardian of the tent zipper!).
“Good morning!” Annie said pleasantly.
“Good morning, Annie!” Her mom answered in a perky tone. “How did you sleep last night?”
Annie started to set out the paper plates on the table. “I slept like a baby, mom, once I got the picture of that ugly smashed spider out of my mind!”
Natalie laughed as she made pancakes and bacon. It must have been the sweet aroma of the bacon that attracted Logan out of his slumber… he exited the tent like a lion with a ravenous appetite.
“Logan! Close that zipper!” Annie yelled, her face turning red. “I am not going to sleep with bugs in that tent….zip it up now!”
Logan turned around and promptly closed the tent door.
“I bet that you smelled the bacon cooking. That’s why you’re up so early,” Natalie said.
“Oh, yea! Bacon is my favorite for breakfast!” Logan’s eyes lit up with anticipation at the sight of the plate of bacon on the table. “And pancakes, too! Mmm….”
Annie and Logan sat down at the picnic table and enjoyed breakfast. They ate until their tummies were full. Natalie sat down next to Annie and ate her portion.
Logan finished one last bite of pancakes and licked the syrup off his plate. He looked at Annie and announced that he was ready to go back to the cove.
Annie was excited to go there and explore. Natalie was more hesitant.
“I don’t know. That does not sound like a very nice beach the way you’ve described it,” she told them.
“But there is a nice beach down there, mom!” Annie shot back. “Why don’t we go there, and if you don’t like it, we can always go to that other beach.”
Natalie thought for a moment, then replied “Well, I guess we could go and explore the cove this morning, then go to the nice beach after lunch.”
“All right! Thanks mom!” Logan yelled.
He and Annie danced around the table slapping high fives, then they raced to help clean up. Natalie laughed at their antics. “Wow, I’ve never seen you two move so fast clearing off the table before. I’m looking forward to checking this place out to see what’s got you two so excited.”
Chapter 10
The Cove
There was a milky haze in the morning air. Natalie looked down at the steep cliff walls below as they stood at the edge of the cove. She shook her head. “This doesn’t look safe. It’s a long way down there,” she said nervously.
“It’s okay, mom!” Annie exclaimed. “There’s a trail down to the beach. Look, I’ll show you!”
Annie led the way to the trail head. “See, mom!” She explained. “This is how Logan and I got down there last night.”
Natalie examined the trail. “Okay, you lead the way, Annie. You’re our guide.”
They descended to the bottom of the cove to the narrow beach that was still littered with pieces of wood. The ocean surf was battering the faces of the enormous rocks that stood like tall castle turrets out in the middle of the cove. Sea gulls were circling above the rocks, piercing the damp chill morning air with their shrill calls.
“What do you think mom? Isn’t this a great place?” Logan asked, as he kicked off his shoes and socks and sank his feet into the wet sand.
“Yes, it is
, Logan…. I really like the scenic view of the ocean here.”
Annie and Logan waded barefoot along the shore as Natalie watched. Occasionally they would spot a piece of wood that was washing up onto the shore. Logan pulled some of the wood out of the water and threw it up on the beach.
They waded down to the end of the beach. There were large rock outcroppings beyond this point. Annie and Logan climbed up onto the rocks, finding long swaths of mussel shells where the rocks were damp from the pounding of the waves.
Natalie walked over with their shoes and socks. “Better get your shoes back on if you’re going to be up on those rocks,” she said.
As they were putting on their shoes, Annie noticed a narrow trail that went between a gap in the towering rocks. “Look, there’s a trail!” she exclaimed. “Let’s see where it goes!”
Annie bolted for the trail with Logan close behind. She turned and looked back. “Mom, are you coming with us?” she yelled.
Natalie had a worried look on her face. “Well, okay. I don’t want you two going up there by yourselves.”
She stepped up onto the rock shelf and joined the kids. Natalie looked a little excited, as though the explorer instinct in her were beginning to surface. “Go ahead, Annie, let’s find out where this trail leads!”
The narrow trail meandered around several massive gray colored boulders. As they rounded one last bend, the trail became straighter. They could now see the ocean off to their right. Waves were crashing onto the rocks just below; and they could see the spray fan upwards as each wave smashed onto the craggy ledge.
They paused and looked at this awesome display of nature. They could feel the incredible power of the ocean here, where a battle raged between land and sea. Even the most massive rocks seemed humbled by the onslaught of the high surf.
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