deleting unwanted page breaks in word 2003 on vista?

i typed '-----' and hit return and now i have page breaks i cannot delete. i've read lots of related posts and answers here, but nothing from those has worked. there are no tracked changes or anything in the document -- just these pesky page-break lines that won't go away, and even come back when i paste nearby text into a new document. please tell me i am missing something obvious...thanks!

oops: it's a line, not a page break. but it is the most persistent line in the history of word processing. when i paste nearby text into a new doc, the line follows. how do i delete it?!