By Popular Demand

Tales of Adventure now presents the second grand-prize winning entry.

THE SAILOR GHOSTS

By Nellie

One day, I asked my mother if I could take a walk.

"Sure," she said. "Just be back by 2:30. I think it's going to rain." So I decided to go to the park, because it has a creek, about a million trails in the woods, and I thought I could do some good in the world by killing a mosquito or two. I wasn't at all interested in the playground, because it was under renovation to make it safer. Playground renovators seem to be more interested in making sure [you won't] get a 1mm bruise, instead of making sure you have fun.

So I got to the park, and it turned out that the renovations were done. I decided to check it out, just to see how badly those evil renovators had destroyed the playground equipment. Was I ever in for a surprise. Instead of 2 foot slides or sandboxes, there was simply a huge model ship.

This, in case you haven't picked up on it, was out of the ordinary. I decided to explore the ship. I ran home and got my flashlight, just in case, and then I came back and boarded the ship.

Twenty pale, transparent, sunken-eyed men moved towards me, their arms
outstretched.
I froze.

Suddenly, all the men lunged forward and attempted to grab me around the neck. Lucky for me there's only enough room on my neck for about two pairs of hands. In my panic, the only thing I could think of to do was turn my flashlight on and scream at the top of my lungs. It worked. The ghosts fell back, shielding their eyes from the light and, luckily, letting go of me. I ran home. My mother was surprised to see me back so early, and she looked like she was about to give me a chore to do, so I said I just wanted to get something. I then sprinted up to my room, grabbed my book entitled GHOSTS AND WHAT TO DO IF YOU MEET THEM (RUN AWAY), and was out the door in forty-five seconds.

I arrived back at the ship determined to figure out more about the ghosts. It didn't take long for the ghosts to come up and try to strangle me. Hmmm. The first time, I'd screamed and they'd gone away. I screamed again. Nothing happened, except a couple of the ghosts looked at each other in disgust. Oops. Hmmm. I'd also turned my flashlight on. I shut up and turned my flashlight on. Nothing happened. Oh dear. By this time, it was getting hard to breathe, but then I remembered that last time I had screamed at the same time as having my flashlight on. I turned my flashlight on and shrieked as loudly as I could. All the ghosts dropped me and shrank back as before. I realized, now that they had started to let me breathe, that they were sailor ghosts, ghosts who were once sailors before their ships sank. Sailors who died differently never became ghosts. Uh-oh. Sailor ghosts are the most dangerous kind of ghosts that roam this earth. They travel around, often on sea, and do nothing but drown people. On land, they begin to strangle people until they're barely alive, then drag them underwater and drown them. Wait a second... How did they get the water to drown people? I'd learned about sailor ghosts from GHOSTS AND WHAT TO DO IF YOU MEET THEM (RUN AWAY), but it hadn't said anything about how they got water when they weren't on sea. Suddenly, the bottom of the ship collapsed. I found myself in an underground lake. So THIS was how those ghosts did it! I concentrated on saving my life.

I grabbed a plank of the collapsed floor and pulled, trying to get myself onto the floor of the ship. Slowly, I managed to get myself up. I sat there panting and reading my book to try to find out how you got rid of sailor ghosts. Well. The book said you had to lob pine cones at them. To make matters worse, you have to hit them with ten cones before they vanish, and then they only disappear for six months. Here goes, I thought, and dashed out of the ship. I then began picking up pine cones and throwing them into the ship. After ten minutes, I ventured timidly in to see how many I'd hit. Not bad-- nine of the twenty were gone. I went outside again and picked up ten cones. I came back inside. One! Two! Three! Pop! One of the ghosts disappeared. What? Oh-- I'd hit him seven times already. One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Pop! Ha! A ghost I'd hit three times. Run out side, gather more pine cones, run back in. One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Pop! Run outside, gather more pine cones, run back in. Over and over. Finally, finally, the ghosts were gone, and the ship disappeared with a Pop!

My mother met me at the door, frowning, her hands on her hips.

"You're late!" she snapped. "It's 3:15!! Where've you been?"

"You wouldn’t believe me if I told you."

"Try me,” she said.

"Alright, I will." I told her everything. She didn't believe me, and
grounded me for a month. Stupid old ghosts.

All this happened a week ago. I've spent my grounded time so far writing this (heh, heh heh, don't tell my mother I've been sneaking downstairs at night and using the computer!). I've also been preparing myself for five months and three weeks from now, when I'll have to get rid of the ghosts again. I don't want to be responsible for any innocent civilian drownings.

The End