It was one of those sights that your brain has a difficult time accepting. What we saw in the water before us was impossible. And yet, with several sets of eyes serving as witnesses, it was undeniably real.

We were fortunate to come upon the anomaly during the day, when Captain Tinkles could see it in plenty of time to stop the ship from running into it. It was his cry of alarm over the loudspeakers that brought us all up to the front of the yacht to look out upon the hole in the water. And although it made no sense until later, that's exactly what it was.

A hole. An emptiness. An abyss in the water.

The captain pulled up about fifty feet short from the edge of the hole. A sharp and defined point of the hole was closest to the ship, and then it stretched out like a “V” away from us for thirty or forty feet, until both sides turned sharply and came back together again, forming a perfect square, although it looked like a diamond from our vantage point.

The water abruptly ended along each edge of the square, actually lapping against some unseen force, then plummeted downward in perfectly flat walls of water.

It looked like someone had taken a massive, square-shaped tube of glass and placed it into the water, reaching all the way to the bottom of the ocean. The top of the glass would have risen well above the surface, because the waves in the water did not go cascading over the edges of the abyss, but repelled backward, just as if they were hitting a stone wall.

If it was a glass building in the middle of nowhere, it was the cleanest in history, because we could not see any reflections or dirt. It looked for all the world like there was an invisible force-field holding back the water, just like in some old science fiction movie.

“What could that possibly be?” asked Joseph.

For several minutes we stared, craning our necks for a better view. The urge to peek over the edge and see how far down the thing went was nearly unbearable.

I turned to Captain Tinkles. “Is that thing on the IDL?”

“Yes it is,” he said. “According to my instruments it straddles the imaginary line right down the middle. And nothing in my records indicates anything should be here.”

I don't know for sure what it was we were expecting, but that big hole had to be it. This had to be the Tower of Air. I said as much to the others.

“You think that's the Tower?” asked Joseph. “It sure doesn't look like a tower to me. It looks like a big hole into another dimension or something. It's flat out freaky is what it is.”

“Think about it. We're looking for something on the International Date Line. That's where we are.” I pointed toward the abyss. “This just happens to be something that defies any logic or sense from our own world. Do you really think it's a coincidence? This has to be it.”

“Remember what it's called,” said Rayna. “The Tower of Air.”

We said nothing, waiting for her to go on.

“Well,” she said, “maybe that's exactly what this thing is—a tower of air. Maybe it's air pushing against the water, holding it back, like the world's biggest wind tunnel or something. I don't know, but I'm with Jimmy on this one—it has to be the Tower of Air.”

No one argued.

“Well, let's go check it out,” said Joseph.

“Captain Tinkles,” I said, walking up to him. “Do you have a raft or something that a couple of us could take closer to the hole, so that we don't have to worry about endangering the yacht?”

“Yes, yes, we do, of course we do. I'll go and prepare it.”

I turned toward the others.

“All right, who's coming with me?”

Everyone wanted to go. But I insisted that it wasn't the smart thing to do, just in case something crazy happened. I told them that I was going for sure, and that two more could come with me. Everyone else had to stay on the yacht.

“Well, I'm definitely going,” said Joseph. “So the rest of you will have to fight it out.”

“I'm going as well.” This was Rayna.

A chorus of arguments sprang up, everyone throwing out reasons why they in particular should go.

“Hold it!” I yelled. “Come on, guys, if it's something really cool, you can all take turns going to see it.” I walked over to Rusty, and put my hand on his shoulder. “You stay here with Mom—I don't think we should leave her alone in case Dad wakes up or something and she needs help.”

This brought complaints from not just Rusty, but Mom, too. Everyone started arguing again.

“Fine,” I said. “I'll decide. Joseph and Rayna are coming with me. If everything is safe, we'll take others to see it later. Now, let's go.”

Rusty punched me in the arm. “I think you forget that I'm your big brother, Jimmy.”

Wondering why the Shield didn't stop him, then figuring it was because I deserved it, I said, “And I think you forget that I'm the one with the Shield and Ice, and you better be nice to me.”

“All right, you two,” Mom said. “Stop your bickering, and let's get on with it.” She came up to me and gave me her offto-school hug. “Please be careful, son. I don't want to have to take care of you and Dad both.”

“I will, Mom. Rusty, I promise I'll take you out to see it later.”

“Whatever,” he said, and sulked off toward the cabins.

Although I would not say it out loud, I made Rusty stay because I didn't want to take a chance of anything bad happening to him. I could only hope he'd understand eventually.

With a heavy hurt in my gut, I motioned to Joseph and Rayna, and we headed for the raft.