Free Maggie on the Bounty by Kate Danley Page A

this dimension.
    "What the what?!?" I
asked.  I pushed again.  Nothing.  Flop sweat started prickling on my lip. 
"Come on!" I grunted.
    Killian folded his arms and looked
at me, "Whom was I talking to again?"
    "I don't need any of your
attitude, elf.  Why isn't this working?"
    "Perhaps because you are
attempting to walk through both time and space?" Killian oh-so-helpfully
pointed out.
    Smart ass.  "Excuse me, I will
have you know that I completely took time into my space calculations."
    "And yet, here we still are."
    "How many portals to other
dimensions have you opened recently, Killian?  I think the answer would be
none."
    "Might I suggest we go down to
the swimming pool instead?"
    "The swimming pool...?" I
repeated, trying again to bust through the dimensions.
    "I seem to recollect,
Maggie," he explained like I was some idiot child, "there was a
natural vortex in the swimming area, which you believed was a doorway between
the dimensions."
    Color me an idiot.
    "Good thinking.  Let's see if
we can remember where it is."
    "And you call yourself a
tracker," he said affectionately.  "Come along, Maggie.  Follow
me."
    We began
walking swiftly along the deck towards a door that would most likely take us
somewhere close to a door that went inside and down.  That was about as close
as I could remember about that pool's direction.  Again, I felt like I was
flying blind.  Direction was completely confounding my mind.
    "Why
can't I remember where anything is on this ship, Killian?"
    He patted
my shoulder bracingly.  "If there are a number of dimensions here,
especially dimensions which fold upon themselves in time and space, you are
probably sensing thousands of doorways and paths."
    The elf made sense.  I think Killian clued in on how freaked out I
was, flying so blind, because he paused for a moment to reassure me.  "I
have traveled the elfin forest in the dead of a moonless night with nothing to
guide me and I made it through.  I might not be a world walker like your
father, but perhaps being blind to the dimensions here shall be useful.  Let me
navigate us and trust I shall not let you come to harm."
    I gripped
Killian's hand for just a second. I didn't want to get too mushy on him, but
there was a part of me that just wanted to let him know, just for a moment,
that I was really grateful.  "Cool," I said. 
"Whatever."
    "So,"
he continued, completely letting it pass without embarrassing me, "do you
believe we have traveled to a ghost dimension or just another dimension of
reality?"
    JUST another
dimension of reality...  I love how he made it sound as exciting as picking
between white and wheat bread at the grocery store.  As we passed another group
of Depression- era people, along with some ghosties of
the 21st Century to come, I said, "It doesn't feel like it's just ghosts,
Killian.  We know that these modern people are real people from our own world. 
We're stuck in some sort of other time."  I stopped in my tracks. 
"That's why my mom can't sense them.  They're not dead."
    Killian put
his arm behind me and moved me along.  "Then it should be easier to return
to our time, should it not?"
    Killian and I turned the corner on
the steps, then walked through a small lobby to get to the next set of stairs. 
That's when a bouncy little head of familiar blonde hair came running at us. 
Up until this point, we had been getting some funny looks, but folks were
giving us a pretty wide berth.  This kid, however, was coming straight at us
like she recognized us.  What was scarier was that both Killian and I
recognized her, too.  She was our little pool protector, our little badass.  I
didn't know whether to hug her or run.  She reached us before I could decide.
    Shyly, she whispered, "You're
real, aren't you?  Everyone said you were my imaginary friends and made fun of
me, but you're really real!"
    "We're real," I replied. 
"Here.  Punch him in the gut."
    Killian
smacked me in the arm.
    "I am
Jackie,"