OCEAN
37
"I'm going to tell your father on you and you know what'll
happen then."
"But Mommy," Stephen conspired, "I found a hand."
"What? What on earth are you talking about? Come out of
there, I said!" This time Stephen obeyed and began to emerge
from the ocean, holding the white hand by its wrist. When Mommy
saw it she shrieked and covered her eyes.
"Shhh, Shhh," Stephen said, not wanting anyone to overhear
or see them.
"What is it?" she asked in pain.
"A hand," he confided, still holding the dripping thing.
"Oh you're awful! Simply awful!" Mommy said, after she
uncovered her eyes. "You're worse than your brother, to play a
trick like that on me! Throw that stupid glove away!" she said, more
annoyed than relieved.
"It's a hand."
"It is
not
a hand! It's a glove. And I'll thank you not to scare
me like that ever again."
At last Stephen examined his catch.... Mommy was right, it
was
a glove, a woman's white cotton glove exactly like the ones Mommy
wore. Anyone could see that, now that the water had drained out of
it, leaving it hanging there, limp, between his fingertips. But what
in the world was a woman's glove doing in the ocean?
Harriet was just as troubled by the question as Stephen. She
thought about the Lindbergh baby. She thought about the dirigible–
what was its name?-that had crashed a couple of years ago, killing
seventy-five boys-the
Akron
!-off this very coast. "Oh how silly
of me," she said, ejecting her pent-up breath as she realized the truth
of the matter. "It's from the
Morro Castle."
...
Tomorrow's Castle .
..
Stephen hurriedly turned to look
at his construction It was still intact, untouched by the tide.
"It must have belonged to one of the passengers. How terrible
. . . terrible," Harriet said, wondering whether she ought not to
keep the glove and turn it in to the authorities. "No. Throw it back,
dear, throw it back, and let's go home. We're late enough as is."
With all his strength Stephen hurled the glove back into the
ocean, but
it
didn't travel very far.
As
he watched it sink out of
sight, it turned into a hand again.
