"The Grey Lady? Who is that?" I asked.

"The Grey Lady isn't a who, it's a what," she said. "It's a boat, or a ship maybe. I never can tell the difference between the two of them."

"Sharon, why are you telling me about a boat. There are hundreds of them here. We live on Cape Cod, you spend your summers at Nantucket, and you can't even tell me the difference between a boat and a ship. It's disgraceful!"

"Can you?" Sharon demanded.

"No," I replied.

"And you spend your summers at Martha's Vineyard," she shrieked.

"I've only done that for the last two years, and before that I lived in Colorado. Remember? You've lived your whole life here," I pointed out. "Now what is so important about some boat?"

"The Grey Lady isn't just any boat, or ship, or whatever it is. The Grey Lady is a ghost ship, Mel."

"Your point?"

"Melanie! The Grey Lady is Cape Cod's only modern ghost ship!" Sharon squawked.

"I didn't know ghost ships were modern," I commented. Sharon just looked at me as if I'd grown another head.

"All of the Cape's ghost ships are pre-1800, Melanie, except for The Grey Lady. I'm obviously going to have to educate you." I sighed and settled comfortably in my chair. I began to eat my sandwich as Sharon started her story.

"Five years ago, right before you moved here," she began. I interrupted her.

"A year before I moved here," I corrected around a mouthful of egg salad. Sharon glared.

"Five years ago, a boy named Bobby Darren moved here with his family. His father worked for some computer company. His mother was dying of heart disease and she was always in and out of the hospital. Bobby acted wild, doing everything he could do to get into trouble. My mom said he just wanted attention. With his mother so sick his father didn't have any time for him. Besides, Bobby's father was always to busy with his job.

Anyway, Bobby cut school, cheated on his tests, although he didn't need to, and he blew up the chemistry lab one day. That was an accident, mind you. One of the science teachers had mis-labeled some of the chemical containers. When Bobby followed the directions to a lab he started a chain reaction. The teacher blamed Bobby. He got suspended with a recommendation for expulsion.

Bobby's father exploded. The school was investigating the incident but they firmly believed that Bobby had done it on purpose. So did his father. He screamed and yelled at Bobby. Mr. Darren told him he was killing his mother and that he was going to military school.

Bobby ran away. Some of the sailors down at the docks said he came there. They saw him as the left for the night. As the sailors left the harbor, they saw The Grey Lady going in.

The Grey Lady originally belonged to some rich tycoon's son. I think his name was Richard but I don't remember. I'll call him Rich.

Well, Rich had sailed The Grey Lady up here for a vacation. He met a boy and they became friends. Now, this boy wanted to sail Rich's ship, but he refused. The boy and Rich had a huge fight and one day soon after that Richard went out sailing alone. A storm blew up while he was returning to port.. The Grey Lady sank and Richard died. A month later The Grey Lady was seen in the harbor with Richard handing the helm over to his friend. After that The Grey Lady disappeared again, until the day Bobby Darren ran down to the harbor.

Bobby sat on the pier on that afternoon and The Grey Lady sailed up to him. A young man handed the boat over to Bobby. Another sailor heard them talking, as he prepared his boat to leave. The sailor had been running late that night.

"Who are you?" Bobby had asked.

"My name is Tim Dalton. This boat used to belong to a friend of mine. Before he went on he gave it to me. He knew I needed to leave home before I killed myself, so he gave me The Grey Lady. He had only one stipulation, that I give her over to someone who needed it as much as I did when I no longer needed her anymore. Will you abide by that condition?"

"Can I share the boat with someone, if they need it and I'm not ready to leave?" Bobby inquired.

"Yes," Tim replied quietly.

"Then I can follow that request."

"The Grey Lady is yours, Bobby Darren. But remember, she chooses her own crew. Goodbye." Tim Dalton walked off the docks and took a bus away from the Cape. The sailor later identified Tim Dalton as Richard's friend, the one who vanished after he died. Bobby and The Grey Lady haven't been seen since." Sharon finished her story.

"Interesting tale," I said. "Is this a hint that all is not well at your house?"

"No, but I do want to know who's going to leave on the boat," Sharon sniffed at me in disdain.

"It might be interesting," I replied calmly while looking at my watch. "We're going to be late for class. By the way, how do you know that Bobby wasn't at fault for blowing up the chem lab?"

"The investigation that the school performed turned up that information. The teacher got fired, Bobby's mom died, and his father still works for the computer company but they transferred him somewhere."

"Oh, let's go," I said. There was nothing else to say really. But it was a fascinating story.

Two days later, I found out that Tonya Simons had been missing. She always had bruises; we noticed them in gym class. Tonya had been gone since the day The Grey Lady had come.

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