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Chapter one

The Story of the Ghost Ship

Kate and Mike Sullivan live in San Francisco with their parents and their pet dog, Lucky. Their home is on Russian Hill and from their house Kate and Mike have a great view of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Their father, Frank Sullivan, is a professor and teaches marine biology at San Francisco University. Their mother, Liz Sullivan, works in a big bookshop in the city center.

Kate is fourteen and her brother Mike is fifteen. Kate goes to Lincoln Middle School and Mike goes to Galileo High School. Kate is a pretty girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She likes school, but doesn’t like math.

She loves dancing and belongs to the Lincoln Dance Club. She is a very good dancer and wants to become a professional dancer one day.

Mike is tall with brown hair and blue eyes. He is in his first year of high school and he always has a lot of homework. He is an excellent swimmer and is a member of the Galileo High School swimming team.

Our story begins on a sunny Monday morning early in June.

“Half past seven!” said Kate, putting on her watch, “time for breakfast.”

“Two more weeks and school is over,” said Mike happily.

“Summer vacation - the best time of the year,” said Kate laughing. Kate was also excited because after the summer she was going to start high school.

“Good morning,” said Mrs Sullivan, who was preparing breakfast. “Kate, remember you have an eye doctor’s appointment today after school with Dr Lee. Please don’t be late.”

“I know, Mom,” said Kate. “But I don’t want to go, I don’t want to wear glasses.”

“Kate, you can’t study well at school; you need a pair of glasses. If you don’t get them, your eyesight will get worse,” said Mr Sullivan, drinking a cup of coffee. “There’s nothing wrong with glasses. I wear them. A lot of kids wear them.”

“Susan Garcia in my class just got glasses,” said Mike, “and she looks better with glasses than without them.”

Kate slowly ate her breakfast and said, “OK, OK, I’ll wear them to see the board.”

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. It was Julie Bennett, Kate’s best friend.

“Hi,” said Julie, a pretty fourteen-year-old girl with short black hair. “I came to pick you up so we can walk to school together.”

“Hi, Julie,” said Kate. “I’m still having breakfast. Just sit down and have some cookies.”

“Hi, Julie,” said Mrs Sullivan, as she turned on the television to watch the weather report and the morning news.

“Another warm sunny day in San Francisco,” said the speaker, “with heavy afternoon fog along the Pacific coast, particularly in the Bodega Bay area.”

“It’s always foggy in Bodega Bay,” said Mike. “Do you remember our adventure up there?”

“When did you go to Bodega Bay” asked Julie, eating a cookie. “It was about eighteen months ago,” said Kate, “and Carlos Gomez came with us. We had quite an adventure.”

“Sounds exciting,” said Julie. “Tell me about it.”

Kate looked at Mike and her parents and they all started laughing.

“Well, Mom and I have to go to work,” said Mr Sullivan. “It’s getting late. See you this evening. Bye.”

“OK, let me tell you about it,” said Kate, looking at her watch. “Mom, Dad, Mike, Carlos and I went to the Farallon Islands on Dad’s new boat, The Pelican. He was studying the sea birds and the fish in the area.

We were all excited about the trip. But the first night I saw the ghost of a boy near my bed. I screamed and was scared, but no one believed me. Then one night Mom and Dad heard a ship’s bell and saw a yellow light at sea.

They thought someone needed help so they took the lifeboat and left The Pelican. The next morning we couldn’t find them and we were worried. We took the boat and went to look for them. In the fog we saw a strange old ship, The Sonora. Later we discovered that it was an old Spanish pirate ship that was lost at sea in 1608.”

“What? A ship that was lost four hundred years ago.” cried Julie, who stopped eating.

“Yes, it was a ghost ship,” said Kate. “We knew Mom and Dad were on that ship because their lifeboat was there. We were scared but we went onto the ship and we had a terrible surprise.

The ship’s crew were all ghosts - ghosts of sailors and pirates. We were terrified because we saw Mom and Dad sitting in a corner. We went to help them, but then the ghost of Captain Salamanca spoke to us. He was terrible: he killed people and they became part of his crew of ghosts.

He said he needed a big crew because he was looking for some lost treasure. He wanted to kill us all. Suddenly Lucky jumped on the table and a big candle fell and a fire started. Ghosts are afraid of fire so they moved away and we helped Mom and Dad get off the ship. Before leaving Mike saw Captain Salamanca’s treasure map on the table and took it.”

“What an adventure” said Julie. “Do you still have the treasure map?

“Mike has it,” said Kate, “but he hid it because it’s a big secret.”

That afternoon Kate went to the eye doctor with Julie. Dr Lee was a friendly young man. He gave her an eye test and said, “Kate, you need glasses to see things in the distance.”

Julie helped Kate choose her new glasses and she gave them to Dr Lee who said, “Good choice. They’ll be ready on Thursday, Kate.”