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As she tried to right herself, her body kept falling, and she dropped right through a row of benches on the lower deck, not as es of a h him She didn’t stop there The force of her fall left her embedded in the floor of that deck Frantically she tried to pull herself up, but again, only succeeded in sinking farther

She fell through the lower passenger deck, right into the auto deck, where cars sat, their engines off as they crossed the bay Even the steel of cars didn’t stop her, and now she began to panic

"Help!" she screamed, "Somebody help me!"

But of course there was no one to hear her cries, and she cursed herself for not thinking tothis crossing

She fell through the floor of the auto deck into the engine roo all around her, and as she tried to stand up, her feet passed through the hull of the boat

She could feel the icy bay water around her ankles, and then her shins, and she knew that if she didn’t think of soh the bottom of this boat and, as Mary wrote, "that would be that"

"Helpworld, then to some force in the heavens as invisible to her as she was invisible to the living

There was a ray hair, two-day beard stubble; his blue uniform told her he was part of the ferry crew--one of the ferry’s pilots on break He quietly sipped coffee, raising and lowering his eyebrows as if in some silent conversation with his dangling through the botto occurred to her

The preppie girl at the pizza place!

When Allie had "surfed" that girl, she had felt like a kite lifted off the ground by the girl’s thoughts What if Allie could do that again--this ti shot, but she had to try Slogging her way through the steel of the ship’s hull took everything she orth The hull was thick enough to slow her descent, but also so thick that pulling herself through it took a huge effort of will In the end, she had to resort to kicking; her feet in the water below andShe was down to her belly button by the tiot near the man, who sat in his chair, oblivious to her She could feel the cold water of the bay passing through herthe spot where her stomach had once been

Just a few ht

And so with a last bit of strength she leaned forward, toward the man in the chair, and touched hi of a heart, and she becaer feel the cold of the water, and -- --i’ll never win i have to win i have no chance i have every chance numbers numbers which numbers lucky nues of the grandkids thirty-nine years we’ve been hteen o to staten island again -- Allie couldn’t feel her feet, she couldn’t feel her hands, she couldn’t feel anything, and all she could hear were his thoughts It was as if her body had suddenly ceased to exist and she was just pure spirit, cocooned within another person’s being She opened her eyes, not realizing she had even closed them, and nohat she saw seemed very different fro on the table, but now looking at it, she couldn’t tell whether it was green or red Her eyes jerked toward a red light above the engine involuntarily, only the light wasn’t red any on

I ah his eyes, and he’s color-blind

She watched the coffee cup coain She could alotta win nuhts assaulted her mind and he didn’t even know she was there

The next tiht the coffee cup to his lips she could swear she actually tasted the brew, and then in a fewspectacular: she felt hot Hot froine

She could feel fingertips touching the handle of theof the shirt at the back of the neck There was a numbness about it, true -- as if her entire body had been shot with novocaine --but there was no doubting that she was feeling with the nerves of living flesh once again Itwas all so startling, she forgot for a moment why she was there

--nuhts droned on, i have as good a chance as any ten times the chance if I buy ten tickets -- And then it hit her that she had spent at least aShe may have already missed her chance to intercept the McGill’s ship! She could leap out of hih the bottoreat in her that she didn’t dare If only the pilot would go to the upper decks instead of just sitting here, he would carry her with him

--nuether and divide by 7?-- Her frustration kept on building "Stop thinking about the stupid lottery and get up!"

And suddenly the man put down his coffee cup and stood

Was it coincidence? Allie didn’t know for sure

Thefor a htly bewildered

If her thoughts had ain Allie filled herself with the same frustration and deterain the man stood

--nuht Allie This was so new It was clear that the man still had no idea she was there, and he couldn’t tell the difference between her thoughts and his own, Allie tried to take advantage of that

"Go to the upper deck," Allie said "You always take your break down below, and you never enjoy the view"

--it’s too hot down here anyway, i should go on deck--the e, nuainst skin as he rose and climbed the stairs The cold of the auto level hit Allie suddenly She couldn’t actually feel the chill, but she could feel hi cold, and she realized she had pushed hiotten to take his coat