Water Ghosts

Linda Collison

165 pages

"I see things other people don't see; I hear things other people don't hear."Water Ghosts is a nautical adventure, a story of the supernatural, and a trip into imperial China of long ago. James, a 15-year-old with a troubled past, must survive a disastrous voyage on a junk which he believes is under the control of malicious forces. Yu, the ghost of a young eunuch who drowned at sea centuries earlier, finds his way inside James' head. When the ship is becalmed, communications fail. One by one the adults aboard come to a bad end. Yu, intent on trading places with James, tells him of his own short, tragic life. As James tries to save his shipmate Ming, an Asian-American girl, so Yu tried to rescue the beautiful concubine Lotus from being buried alive in the emperor's tomb, centuries before. With St. Elmo's fire flickering over the ill-fated junk Good Fortune, the ghosts of Yu and Lotus strive to live again through James and his shipmates.