Falling into Forever by Tammy Turner

Taylor throw her a round life preserver from the boat. She saw Brad jump into the waves. He dragged her to the ladder at the boat’s stern. Then he lifted her out of the water and pulled himself up beside her to the safety of the deck.
    â€œAlex, you scared me,” said Taylor, rushing to her friend’s side.
    â€œGet a towel!” ordered Brad.
    Alexandra shivered in the wind, but soon Taylor was back with a towel that she’d found below deck. Covering her scared and soaking friend, Taylor asked, “What happened? It looked like you leapt into the water.”
    â€œI fell,” stuttered Alexandra, wrapping the towel tightly around her body. “I saw—um—well, I don’t know what I saw. Something was standing behind me,” her voice trailed off. She looked into Brad’s face.
    â€œI think you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said.
    â€œCan we go back now?” asked Alexandra, her hand gripping the necklace around her neck to assure herself that it had not become lost in the ocean during her struggle.
    â€œSure,” he said. “Why don’t you come and stand by me at the wheel?” he offered, helping her to her feet.
    As the boat sailed quietly back to the marina, Alexandra’s eyes scanned the waves, waiting for a fin to break the surface of the choppy water. Safely docked, she glanced back again at the water before stepping up onto the wooden pier. But all she could see was a dolphin, flipping in and out of the waves.
    â€œWe’ll put the top down on the convertible so that you can air-dry on the way back to your grandmother’s house,” Taylor joked as the three of them headed for the parking lot.
    Reaching the car, the girls slumped into their seats. Taylor let down the convertible top, as promised. “Thanks for everything,” Alexandra told Brad as he held the car door open for her.
    â€œNo problem,” he said, closing the door as Taylor cranked the engine. “Do you two have plans for tonight?” he asked.
    â€œWhat do you have in mind?” Taylor asked, winking.
    â€œSome of my friends are getting together for a bonfire on the beach,” he told them. “You’re welcome to join us,” he said, all the time watching Alexandra.
    â€œThanks,” Alexandra said, smiling. “We might do that.”
    â€œCiao!” exclaimed Taylor as she punched the accelerator and squealed out of the parking lot, heading back to Peyton Manor.
    As they drove to the estate, Alexandra was exhausted and subdued from her ordeal. She didn’t want to talk. She tried to relax. She closed her eyes to concentrate and to forget the shark, which was still lurking in her memory. During the drive, to get her mind elsewhere, she thought about what Granny June had told her about her family. It was a somewhat mysterious story that involved a fortuneteller.
    Granny June’s parents, Charles and Martha, had been born in poverty in South Carolina; their parents had been sharecroppers. Granny June had said that Charles never felt at ease among his siblings, as if he had been placed there by mistake. As a boy, Charles had accompanied his father on deliveries of cotton, riding in their wagon through the streets of old Charleston. Charles saw the city’s stately homes and decided that he would never be a sharecropper like his father.
    Charles met Granny June’s mother, Martha, during the four years that sharecroppers’s children were allowed to attend grade school. When Charles was fourteen, he left the cotton fields and ran away to the trading ships in the harbor. There, an aging sea captain took pity on him and let him swab the decks of his vessel in exchange for passage to Europe. For three years, Charles had adventures that led him to the cliffs of Dover, the Eiffel Tower, and the Parthenon in Athens. Along the way, he convinced the sea captain that he needed a loyal partner, a young man to expand the