Her sick father had Elise run to the doctor and when he arrived, there was a grave look on his face.

The doctor, who was so phenomenally ugly he often wore a bird mask, was a short, stout old man. He had enormous spectacles and a large underbite. Loathed by most residents of Prospect Island, he was often the bearer of bad news.

"What does my daddy have?”

“Ghost blight…” he said, almost instantaneously. “It’s been doing rounds on the high seas.”

"Ghost Blight? What is that?"

The doctor adjusted his spectacles to leer at Elise like he was the face of death itself. “Anyone who contracts Ghost Blight will slowly become a ghost over several full moons. I’m afraid your father doesn’t have much longer…” the doctor said, almost gleefully, “before he leads a very hollow existence.

Tears seeped from Elise’s eyes and she let out a whimper. “I’d advise you stop that, doc,” her father growled while glaring at him. “She’s only a child, she doesn’t need to hear all your darkness.”

Her father paused for a second to think. He raised his ghostly hand from beneath the covers. “Surely there is some cure for this accursed blight.”

The doctor, whose teeth jutted out at odd angles gave a swift shake of his head. “None that I can think of,” he said. “It’s best you cherish the time you have left with your child.”

The doctor strolled out, leaving the father and daughter alone together. Elise looked into her father’s eyes. He tried to give her a look of reassurance but there was uncertainty in his eyes too.

“Dad,” she squeaked softly. “I don’t want you to leave me like mom did.”

“Aye,” her father nodded gently, putting his ghostly hand beneath the covers. “I don’t either,” he said. “But I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

Elise gave her father another long-distance hug. He reached his arms out and hugged her back.

“We’ll get through this,” he said. “I promise I won’t leave you. Your daddy is a fighter and he’s going to beat this much like he beat the giant octopus of '27.”

“Is that that the one with nine arms?” Elise said, smiling through the tears.

“He was indeed a Noctopus,” her father laughed back. “If your dad can clobber one of those, he can clobber this disease.”

Elise tried to rub the tears away, but they still kept falling. “Promise?” she asked softly.

“I promise,” her father said back. “Now please, run along and play for the rest of the day. Please don’t worry me.”

Elise gently nodded and turned to go, but her father raised his voice again. “But let me know if you think of anything,”—he smiled at her—”you’re such an imaginative girl.”

Elise sniffed loudly and nodded. She left her father’s house teary eyed and pink faced. She resolved to spend the rest of the day trying to help her father.

The tropic breeze and warming sun did nothing to alleviate the young girl’s woes. She kicked pebbles on the ground, wishing she could send them flying into that mean old doctor’s head. It was only when she smelled the sweet scent of coconut milk frolicking on the breeze, did she remember a place she could go. She walked briskly up the side of the mountain until she reached the hut she passed earlier. She passed through the swinging vines that composed the door and entered.

Sitting in a chair of handwoven straw was an old man. He placed two sliced coconuts upon a table of palm wood.

The bony elder had an enormous forehead as deep as the creases in a tropical tree. His hairline receded, but he still had long wispy white hair. Tiny spectacles balanced on a large, drooping nose in which he squinted. Upon seeing Elisa, his bearded mouth dropped open in a friendly haggard grin. “Right on time, my young friend,” he chortled, placing out the coconuts. “I’m about to have my afternoon coco milk and could use a companion. What brings you to my abode?”

“Hello, old man Sei,” Elise said, looking downcast and she proceeded to explain her predicament to the old man.

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As he listened intently, his sunken eyes widened, and a smile curled on his lips. At last, he gave an elderly laugh. “When you feel down,” he said with age old wisdom. “A nice coconut and an imaginative story will always ease your mind.”

Muddled in her worry, Elise refused to look at her old friend. “You know,” Old Man Sei said to her. “I’d like to thank you for always coming ‘round.”

Elise finally looked up. The old man grinned at her. “Most of the villagers think I’m nuts, but there’s only one thing I’m nuts about…”—Sei scooped up the hard fruit on the table and handed it to Elise—”Coconuts.”

The old man’s silly haggle tooth smile, and his offer, made Elise want to laugh but nothing escaped her lungs. She politely smiled and took a sliced coconut. She didn’t want to tell the old man that it was her favorite drink next to apple juice. “Perhaps a yarn will ease that mind of yours…” Sei said. “Have you ever heard the Tale of the Sea King?”

“No,” Elise said back, but she crossed her legs and sipped the sweet milk from the coconut. “But I’d like to hear it.”

“Once upon a time,” the old man began. “There was a great and powerful king of the sea. The king was all powerful…but he was just to beast and man alike…until…”

“Until?” Elise asked innocently.

“Until…” Sei said, his voice growing grave and stern. “The king had something that the people of the Four Oceans wanted. You see, the king had ruled with a Trident of Triumph.”

Sei held his hand out, pretending to carry the weapon. “With the magnificently guided trident, the king commanded the waves, divined lightning and changed the direction of the wind.”

Placing her coconut down, Elise watched Sei intently. “Jealous forces,” he said. “Began to crave the power, and one day, a group of humans wishing to govern themselves, snuck into palace when he was sleeping and…”

Elise watched him in silence. “Killed him?”

Sei gave a solemn nod followed by a loud sigh. “Aye…but with his final breath, the king shattered his trident into three pieces and scattered it over the high seas.”

The old man twinkled his gnarled fingers in a way that represented the shattered trident.

“Now you may be wondering,” the old man said as Elise watched him with amazement. “Why I am telling you this story? It is said that those who return his trident to the Ocean Palace in one piece will be granted one wish.”

“One wish?” Elise gasped. “She sells sea-shells! That’s marvelous,” the girl exclaimed to herself in a fit of happiness. The answer to her problems had come to her in an old man’s yarn.

The old man gave her a knowing wink. “But remember, it’s only a legend.”

“I know,” Elise said, “But a girl can dream right?”

Sei observed her with his sunken eyes. “Now what could a child of your age want with a wish?”

Elise stood up politely. “If I told you,” she said wistfully, “It wouldn’t come true.”

Elise placed her finished coconut back on the table and thanked the old man. At least one senior citizen was being nice to her today.

She marched out with determination in her eyes. She headed back to town, but not to her father’s house. She had a different place in mind.

Elise approached the Land Hotel and entered through the wooden door. She looked around the tavern and saw Archibell sitting alone with his up on the table. “Ah,” he said, extending his arms as he removed his legs from the table. “The prodigal daughter returns, but you’re too late.”

“What?” Elise gasped, taking a step back. “Too late for what?”

“I’ve already got my whole pirate crew right here.”

Elise looked around, completely baffled. The bar was completely empty. Even the two sailors who Archibell was harassing had gone home. “I don’t see anyone here…” Elise said.

Archibell put his arms behind him and leaned back in the seat. “That’s because you can’t see them. I call them my headmates. A man’s heart and brain sails the ship that is his soul.”

“This is making my brain hurt,” Elise said, shaking her head.

Archibell gave an avuncular chuckle. “I kid, kid. Nobody actually wants to accompany ol’ Archie on a magical pirate adventure.”

“I do,” Elise said immediately.

Archibell cocked an eyebrow. “Do you now.”

“Yessity yes,” Elise nodded more. “I want to find the Trident of Triumph.”

“The Trident of Triumph?” Archibell said, putting his legs back up on the table. “That’s an old wives’ tale.”

“More like an old man’s tale,” Elise said, squirming on the spot. “But I want to find it. More than any other treasure in the Four Oceans.”

Immediately, Archibell stood up with a slightly serious expression. He looked down at Elise, his eyes making direct contact with hers.

“Kid,” he said, his tone stern and grave. “You’re crazier than I am.”

Elise slumped her shoulders, gave a sigh and turned to go, but Archibell put a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and he added, “Someone who’s madder than a madman…. That’s the kind of madness I like most.”

“Oh yay,” Elise said. She hopped excitedly up and down.

“Well..” Archibell said, leaning on the wall. “First things first, do you have your parent’s permission? A lot of questionable things can happen on the high seas…”—Archibell closed one of his eyes and made a hook with his hands—“Some of which is rated ARRRRRR.”

“Yes,” Elise said, “I’ll ask him. I know my father would miss me a lot if I was gone.”

“Whelp,” Archibell said, with his fingers in his belt. “It’s time to roll and blow this liquor stand.”

“Good,” Molly said, crossing her arms and glaring daggers at him. “Now you can stop loitering in my hotel.”

“Why does she hate you so much?” Elise asked with saucer wide eyes.

Archibell laughed to himself and placed his hand on Elise’s back. “I’ll tell you when you’re older kid.”

As they exited the bar, Elise waved goodbye to Molly. The barkeep didn’t know that it was her final farewell.

As they walked back to Elise’s unkempt, disheveled house and walked inside, something had happened to her father that was deeply unsettling. He slept peacefully, but as he did, he flickered between the physical and the transparent, seemingly drifting between this world and the next.