Ghost of Ocean Cove

by R. David Anderson

  Natalie became very angry. “Why did you do that, Logan!” She demanded. “Annie, are you okay?”

  Logan looked upset. “It was an accident, mom…. I spilled the hot chocolate on my arm and I couldn’t hold onto it! My arm is burned, too!”

  “What about me!” Annie screamed. “You scalded me, and now I have it in my hair and on my shirt! And you made me spill my hot chocolate on the ground!”

  “It looks like you both got scalded,” Natalie said. She grabbed a towel and poured some bottled water on it. She wiped the sticky sweet liquid out of Annie’s hair. She examined the red scalded skin on both of them. “I think that both of you will be okay. The burns are not too bad. I packed a first aid kit in the SUV and there’s some salve in there that I can put on the burns.”

  Natalie pulled the first aid kit out and dressed their wounds with some salve. Annie started to cry as her mom rubbed the medication onto her skin.

  “Annie, the burns are not all that bad. No worse than if you got a sunburn,” Natalie said reassuringly.

  Annie looked at her mother and then lowered her eyes, filled with tears.

  “Nothing is going right on this camping trip!” She wailed. “It’s too cold, our tent almost blew away, and now this!”

  “Oh, chipper up!” Her mother chided. “It’s not always going to be easy. We’re tough and we can take it. Why, just think about those pioneers that you learned about in your History class this year…. they came out west in covered wagons. They did not have it easy either…. they had to face all kinds of danger, and the wind and the cold, dust storms, rain and hail. No, life is not always easy out in the wilderness. But believe me, things are much easier for us today than it was for the pioneers back then…. we are fortunate.”

  “Yes,” added Logan. “We’ve got to be tough!” He hit his chest with his fists. “See, tough as leather.”

  Annie stopped the sobs and looked around her. She began to imagine people who lived over a hundred years ago and how difficult things must have been back then.

  “Okay, so I’m a big cry baby,” she grumbled. Then she grinned. “I’ll show you how tough I am!” She promptly went over and hit Logan on his arm. “That’s for throwing hot chocolate on me!”

  “Ow!” Logan yelped. “I said that I was sorry! Okay, I guess that I deserved that,” he giggled.

  The evening sky grew dark overhead and the strong ocean winds began to subside. A few brilliant stars made their appearance above. Annie made a wish on the brightest star that shone in the western sky.

  It now felt warmer since the winds had died down. Logan and Annie made a small fire in the fire ring. They sat in folding chairs, watching the flames dance and flicker between the wood. Every so often they would hear a loud crack and a spark would shoot upwards.

  Natalie helped them to make smores. They roasted the marshmallows on long skewers. Logan’s marshmallow caught on fire and fell off the skewer. Annie laughed as she placed her perfectly roasted ‘mellow’ between two honey grams with a broken piece of Hersey’s chocolate underneath. Logan finally succeeded on his next attempt to make one.

  As they sat around the camp fire eating the delicious snack, Logan asked almost whimsically, “Hey, you guys want to tell some ghost stories?”

  “Oh, Logan, knock it off, you know that you are just trying to scare your sister!” Natalie chided.

  “Logan, you can’t scare me with your ghost stories,” Annie shot back, with a little bit of uncertainty in her voice. “Go ahead!”

  Logan stared into the fire. “Well,” he began. “I read this book that I checked out of the library called “The Mysteries of California”. There was a chapter about ghosts, haunted houses, graveyards, and even a few ghost ships….”

  “Ghost ships?” Natalie said. “What are ghost ships?”

  Logan seemed pleased that his mom was interested in this. “There are places along the coast where there were shipwrecks. It is said that the ghosts of the dead sailors haunt these places.”

  They watched the fire burn down, their imaginations now active with scenes of haunting at sea. Logan told them more about the book, but Annie was beginning to act uneasy.

  Natalie cleared her throat. “Okay, that’s it Logan. You’re beginning to scare us out of our wits! I think that it’s about time for bed. We need to get our sleep because tomorrow is going to be a busy day….”

  “Yea, we might go to the beach tomorrow, right, mom?” Logan asked.

  “I was thinking of driving to one of the beaches nearby.”

  Annie giggled. “All right, the beach! I always wanted to go swimming with sea urchins!”

  They got ready for bed by the light of a battery powered lantern. Once inside the tent they unrolled their sleeping bags and pumped up an air mattress. Their bed was ready.

  Snug inside their sleeping bags, they began to joke about feeling like hot dogs inside a toasted bun.

  Annie and Logan played with their flashlights, shining the light beam on the inside of the tent, making shadow creatures with their hands. The battles of the shadow creatures raged relentlessly for about 15 minutes, when Natalie ordered “all lights out now, get to sleep….”

  It did not take them too long to fall asleep in their warm and cozy sleeping bags. There were a few noisy campers playing music and games, but after 10:30, with quiet hours in effect, the sounds of the waves crashing upon the rocky shore below lulled them gently to sleep.

  Chapter 7

  The Visit

  The ocean looked threatening. Huge waves were slamming against the jagged rocks, which seemed to turn into giant teeth that would devour anything that might come within range. The shouts of fear and anguish pierced the walls of surging water that crashed upon the rugged shoreline.

  The screams of men in peril at sea….and then there it was, emerging out of the rain and mist…. a ship, riding the waves swell after swell, rocking violently from side to side. It was a wooden ship with tall masts, now broken by a ravaging storm that was bearing down on it like a lion on its prey. On the deck, somebody cried, “We must abandon ship,” then the call went out. “Abandon ship! Abandon ship! To the lifeboats, men….” Men scrambled to a lifeboat, alarm written on their faces.

  Annie opened her eyes. The light of morning danced about on the tent walls as the leaves swayed in the ocean breezes outside. The dream came back to her in vivid details as she lay there watching the patterns of light moving across the tent’s roof each time the leaves outside rustled in the wind.

  The dream had seemed so real. She could even remember the look of fear on the men’s faces as the ship was being hit by huge waves that crashed over the deck. It was an awful nightmare. Annie shook her head and rubbed her eyes. She wanted to get that terrible image out of her mind.

  Annie got up first, followed by Natalie. They both put on matching grey hooded sweatshirts.

  It was quite a cool, nippy morning. The winds were calm, though, so it felt much warmer than the previous evening. The skies were clear except for some low clouds that were in the distance out over the ocean.

  Natalie finally had mastered how to operate the camp stove. Soon she was frying eggs and bacon in a large skillet. Logan finally emerged from the tent, wearing his sweats.

  After breakfast, Natalie washed the dishes as Annie dried. Logan drew with a stick in the sandy soil. Once their camp was tidy and secure, they were ready to go exploring.

  Logan and Annie were anxious to explore the ocean. “I’m ready to go!” Logan hollered.

  Natalie smiled. “I thought that we could hike some of the trails along the ocean. I heard that there are some fantastic views here.”

  They filled their water bottles and packed some snacks in a backpack, then took off down the park road towards the Pacific. The camp road curved to the left as they neared the coast. They discovered a marked path there with a sign that read ‘cliff top trails’ with an arrow pointing left.

  They took the trail to their left. The scenery was spectacular. The
land ended abruptly at the cliff’s edge, with a 300 foot drop off. The ocean opened like a wide vista below, sparkling in all its splendor. Wave after wave crashed against the boulders on the shore. The boulders were so numerous, intermingled with the rocky cliff ledges, that there was not much of a beach.

  A gentle ocean breeze hit their faces as they scanned the scene below them. There were a few other campers sitting on the rocky ledges and outcroppings. Sea gulls made their high pitched shrill calls as they circled above, looking for mussels for a quick meal.

  “Mom! There’s no beach here!” Annie complained, very disappointed with the rugged, rocky shoreline.

  “There could be some beaches further down the trail.” Logan replied. “Let’s go and see!”

  They began walking down the trail towards the south. This was a cliff top trail; it was set back from the cliff’s edge by several feet. Sometimes the path curved around the sprawling scrub bushes that grew bountifully in the rocky soil. There were brightly colored wildflowers growing everywhere.

  Walking the trail was a bit of a challenge. Rocks were poking through the soil in many spots, so they had to be cautious not to trip and fall.

  They had walked about a quarter of a mile when the moist air suddenly turned into a milky haze. A fog band was rolling out to sea as the morning sun burned off the inland mist. The fog now enveloped them completely, making it difficult to see. It was a thick, heavy fog, laden with moisture.

  Natalie and the kids continued to walk the trail through the dense blanket of fog. Now everything appeared strange and otherworldly as the fog cloaked the surrounding area. It seemed as though the fog were about to lift as the sun suddenly broke through. Then the sun became visible and brightened, as wisps of fog moved across its disk. Rays penetrated the fog layer and seemed to illuminate a patch of ground just ahead along the trail. Now the fog was moving around them in a swirling motion.

  Annie saw two shadowy figures approaching out of the mist ahead. They just appeared out of nowhere, right there where the patch of ground was illuminated by the sun’s rays. One of the shadowy figures was a man, and the other smaller figure looked like a boy. When they were about 20 feet away they became much easier to see.

  The closer they were the more obvious it became that they were somehow different; in fact, they were not even dressed in modern day clothing. The man was dressed in a uniform. He was wearing a double-breasted navy-blue frock coat with the double rows of brass buttons, long black boots that went up to his knees, and navy-blue breeches. The boy wore a white French style shirt with the ruffled sleeves and embroidered frontispiece, brown breeches, and tan boots. He also had long hair that was tied back with a neckerchief.

  The man in the uniform smiled and nodded his head slightly as they walked by in silence. The boy stared blankly ahead with a trance-like expression. There was something about both of them that seemed strange; it was as though they were from another time…. from the past.

  Annie turned and watched as they walked away in the opposite direction down the trail. She gasped as a fog enveloped them. Their bodies seemed to dissolve into the mist. As the fog rolled away from the spot where they had been only seconds earlier, Annie now saw nothing. The man and his companion were gone…. they had completely disappeared into the mist.

  “Where did they go!” Annie shouted in dismay.

  Natalie and Logan wheeled around and peered into the misty depths along the trail where they had just walked only seconds earlier. There was no trace of the man or the boy.

  “That’s strange,” Natalie said. “I wonder if they left the trail?”

  As they stood there, what was left of the fog began to burn off rapidly. Now they could see up and down the trail in both directions. The man and boy were not in sight. They had not been walking very fast, so it was extremely difficult to believe that they were gone so quickly.

  Logan looked at his mom with a puzzled expression on his face. “Who were these guys anyway, and why were they dressed up like that?”

  Natalie looked somewhat bewildered. “I’m not sure, Logan.” She answered. “They were dressed like people who lived over a hundred years ago.”

  “I wonder what they were doing here?” mused Annie. “They looked like sailors.”

  “I don’t know,” Natalie added. “Maybe they are part of a county fair or some kind of festival in the area….”

  “Yes, but what happened to them?” Annie asked, pointing to the spot where she had last seen the man and boy. “I saw them just disappear, like they became a part of the mist. They were there one second, then the next they were gone!”

  “You probably just lost sight of them in the mist,” Natalie told Annie.

  Annie still looked perplexed. “I’m sure that I just saw them vanish, mom…. they were there, then suddenly they just sort of dissolved into the mist!”

  “Come on, let’s go! I want to see where this trail goes,” Logan shouted impatiently.

  They continued their walk. The hike lasted more than two hours. By the time they were back at camp it was almost noon.

  They were famished from their long walk along the ocean. Natalie cooked some hot dogs, which they ate eagerly along with some chips and sodas.

  Annie could not get the image of the man and boy out of her mind. She sensed that they were not ordinary. Their appearance was so sudden, and their disappearance was totally unexpected and mysterious. They were not dressed like modern-day people. Was the man wearing some kind of officer’s uniform? And the boy, with his blank stare, that spooky expression on his face, and his clothes…. definitely not of our own time.

  Who were they then? These thoughts raced through Annie’s mind as she took another bite of her hot dog. The notion suddenly occurred to her that perhaps they had encountered two ghosts. Only a ghost would disappear like that.

  “Annie, you are being so quiet. Anything wrong?” Natalie asked.

  “No, mom. I was just thinking about the strange man and boy that we saw on the trail this morning….it was so weird the way they were dressed, and how they just disappeared.”

  “Oh, they were probably just some people dressed in costumes,” Natalie laughed. “You are beginning to have an overactive imagination. There are many explanations, I’m sure, Annie. They may have been actors here to make a movie, or maybe they were part of a county fair….”

  Logan came over and joined them at the picnic table. “You know, mom,” he said thoughtfully. “Why would these guys get all dressed up like that and walk all the way over here, anyway? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  “Well, they could be camping here, and they might be a part of a ship competition down in Bodega Bay,” Natalie reasoned.

  Annie did not seem very impressed by her mom’s explanations.

  “Annie! We need to clean up now! Are you okay, you just don’t seem your normal self right now….” Natalie observed.

  Annie shook her head, as she snapped out of her daze. “I’m okay, mom, I was just thinking about something.”

  Natalie tidied up the camp. She washed the dishes in warm water from the camp stove. Annie dried and put the dishes away in a box. Logan’s job was to sweep out the tent. This took him only about five minutes of serious work. He came out of the tent acting like work was definitely not the fun and games that he expected to have on a camping trip.

  “I hate sweeping!” he complained as he zipped up the tent door flaps.

  “You need to do your share of the cleaning Logan,” Natalie shot back with an angry look. Logan was always trying to take short cuts out of his jobs, especially the ones he didn’t like.

  “Okay, were almost done with clean-up time,” he whined. “I want to go back to the ocean now. I overheard some other campers saying that there’s a beach around here somewhere…. a nice one.”

  “Oh, a beach, let’s go!” Annie cheered.

  Natalie looked surprised. “You heard other campers saying that there is a beach near here? We’ll have to ask around about that
.” She thought for a moment. “We can ask that friendly lady at the gate house….”

  After they had secured their campsite they drove down to the front entrance. Natalie asked the nice lady if there were any beaches nearby.

  “Oh, there sure are, honey…. you came to the right place! I have a map that shows where all the beaches in the area are located. The closest one is about five miles south from here at Salt Creek.”

  Natalie thanked the woman for her help. After studying the map for a few minutes, they headed south down Highway 1 towards the beach. It did not take long for them to get there, despite the winding road.

  The land seemed more level as they approached the beach. There was a parking lot that had plenty of spaces available. Natalie parked the SUV and rummaged around for the beach bag, which was packed with towels and sunblock. She also grabbed a beach umbrella.

  At the edge of the parking lot a sandy trail led to a wide beach that was about as long as a soccer field. There were some large boulders scattered here and there along the waterfront, but for the most part the beach was good, with fine quartz grain sand.

  Annie and Logan played together in the moist sand, making castles and digging moats that filled with water quickly. After about an hour of playing in the sand and wading out into the ocean surf, they joined their mother under the beach umbrella.

  They all laid on beach towels, feeling comfortable in the warm ocean breeze, listening to wave after wave crashing up on the shore. The relaxing sound of the waves almost lulled them to sleep.

  “Well, hello there!”

  Natalie and the kids were jolted out of their dream state in an instant. They raised to a sitting position and found a man standing in front of them. He had medium length light brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He was wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and dark pants with suspenders. His strange appearance and sudden arrival startled Natalie.