The Ghost of the Dunes

By Anne Turner Coppola

This is the story of Mark Carter, a fifth-grader, whose family lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Mark has an obsessive fascination with ghosts, and looks forward to his familys summer vacations on the Outerbanks of North Carolina each summer to visit his favorite relatives, his grandparents. But this year will be special because Mark will be ten years old, and will be able to spend the summer alone with his grandparents. While at his grandparents house, Mark is introduced to the areas local legend of the sightings on the high sand dunes of Jockeys Ridge, which plays an important role in young Marks fertile imagination. According to local legend, the sightings are of the poor souls who perished on the ships wrecked on the shoals off Cape Hatteras. Mark befriends an older boy, and together, they share many adventures, including a confrontation with The Ghost of the Dunes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499049176

Anne Turner Coppola

Anne Turner Coppola (September 17, 1938 – June 27, 2012) was born in Redford, New York. Her father died when she was ten, and when she was twelve, Anne was placed in a foster home after her mother was hospitalized with severe depression. She attended D’Youville Academy, a Catholic school for girls, where she wrote a weekly article for the local newspaper and was valedictorian of her graduating class. While in her first year of college, she met her future husband, an airman stationed at Plattsburgh Air Force Base. She received her teaching degree from the State University of New York at Albany and her master’s degree from Rutgers University. As a teacher, Anne taught children at all levels: elementary, middle, high school, girls’ yeshiva, and special needs children. After battling cancer for eight years, Anne died in 2012. Fly Away Free was one of three stories Anne wrote in 1993, but it wasn’t until 2014 that her husband discovered her manuscripts while he was preparing to sell their home. Believing the stories would appeal to young readers and families of adopted and foster care children, he had them published. Fly Away Free has been Recommended by The US Review of Books, was selected as a Finalist for the 2018 Book Excellence Awards, and was featured in the January 2019 Kirkus Indie Review.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Outer Banks Memories

M s. Harper’s fifth-grade class shouted out the countdown as they watched the big round clock on the classroom wall: fifteen seconds… ten seconds… five seconds… zero.

Blast off!

The entire class exploded like cans of warm shaken soda. The school year at Peachtree Haven Middle School was officially ended. Summer vacation had begun.

The school-bus ride home was a raucous one. All aboard were in high spirits, especially Mark Carter. The bus driver, Mr. Griffin, could hear Mark’s voice clearly above the rest.

What are we finished with? Mark asked the noisy group.

Tests, came a loud voice from the back.

No more tests, Mark cheered.

The rest of the kids immediately picked up the chant, No more tests, no more tests. Homework, school lunches, teachers, and even Mr. Bodkin, the principal, were among the subjects the ecstatic students wanted no more of.

Mark was hoarse but incredibly happy by the time he was dropped off in front of his house. He had definite reasons to believe that this summer vacation was going to be the best one yet.

Mark lived in Atlanta, Georgia, with his parents and two younger sisters. They lived in Peachtree Haven, twenty miles from downtown Atlanta. The Carter family had moved around and lived in many places because of Mr. Carter’s job. Mark felt Peachtree Haven was the best of all the places they had lived in.

There was only one place that Mark loved even more. Ever since he could remember, Mark’s parents had taken the family on vacations for a week each summer to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to visit his grandparents, Gram and Gramps Carter.

Why are they called the Outer Banks? Mark once asked his grandparents.

The Outer Banks are just what the name says, Gramps explained patiently. They’re banks of sand on the edge of the land. They were pushed up here by the Atlantic Ocean. It’s these banks of sand that are named the Outer Banks. They form a long, thin barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and the sound, which is the inland water that separates the Outer Banks and the mainland of North Carolina.

Gram Carter, a well-known local artist, drew Mark a simple picture of the geography of the Outer Banks. A picture is worth a thousand words, she said, handing him the sketch.

Mark believed Gram had a saying to fit every situation, and this one was true. He understood the geography of the Outer Banks of North Carolina much better after he studied her picture.

It was more than the start of summer vacation that made Mark so excited. Gram and Gramps Carter were his favorite relatives. And he was going to visit them on the Outer Banks—alone.

Gram loved to paint pictures (mostly seascapes) and create all kinds of handicrafts related to the sea. When Mark came to visit, they would go for long walks every morning along the beach to collect the gifts the sea had washed ashore.

Look, Gram, here’s a shark’s tooth, Mark said. And another treasure would be added to their basket. Gram was able to identify most of the debris which the tide brought in, and soon, Mark could too.

At home, Gram would use these bits of marine life to make imaginary sea critters. On the surface of the rocks or shells, she carefully painted brightly colored faces. Then she would artfully add a bit of coral or other natural material to create endearing features and fantastic shapes. She sold them to local gift shops, along with her stormy seascapes of the moody Atlantic Ocean.

For over thirty years, Gramps had owned and operated the only year-round drugstore on the Outer Banks. He was retired now, but continued to stop by his old store to catch up on the local news.

Gramps spent most of his time on his boat—the Barney. If Gramps wasn’t fishing or getting ready to go fishing, he could usually be found with his pals at Nags Head Pier, telling fish stories about the one that got away.

Last summer, during the summer tourist season, Mark had gone along once as Gramps’s mate. He quickly learned that being a mate on a fishing boat was more hard work than fun. All Mark could remember about the trip was, Hey, mate, could you help me bait my hook? Mate, my line is tangled. Oh, mate, could you take the fish off my line? The best part of the trip was at the end, when Gramps said, You did a good job, mate, here’s your pay.

Next to fishing, Gramps loved his