By Mike Blackwell

Page 1
Jamie was a wisher.
She lived in a big city, and wished for the sea.
She wished to be standing on a rocking boat, with water as far as she could see.
She wished to feel the ocean wind in her hair.
She wished to feel the ocean waves beneath her feet.
She wished for Saturdays, when she rode with her family to see her grandfather.
Jamie called him Papa.

Page 2
Papa was a man who lived near the ocean all of his long life. He loved to sail, but his eyes weren't as sharp as they had once been.
The sea was often a blur. And sometimes when he lost sight of the shore, he had trouble finding it again.
Jamie would run and leap into her grandfather's arms, and he always laughed and said, "My little Jamie, what makes you so want to visit me?"
And she always answered, "I love you, Papa, and you know I love the sea."

Page 3
And then Jamie and Papa would slowly walk on the dock toward the sea, her small hand holding tightly to his.
One wooden plank after another passed under her feet. The cool mist of ocean spray brushed her face. Jamie liked to take deep breaths as she stepped along the dock. The ocean smells were different than the smells of her city.

Page 4
Jamie closed her eyes tightly as she walked, trying to keep the sounds and smells locked in her mind.
when she and Papa reached the end of the dock, they sat on an old wooden bench facing the ocean. Papa's old sailboat bobbed in the water.
"Papa, please can we sail?!" Jamie pleaded.

Page 5
"I can't see as well as I should," Papa said, looking at the sea through his thick glasses. "My little Jamie, I can still feel the waves of the ocean. But my eyes are old and worn from the sun and the wind and the salty waters of the sea . . .
"If we sail, you must be my eyes."
This was what Jamie wished for most of all!

Page 6
"I can do it, Papa!" Jamie said, and the two headed toward the wooden vessel.
Papa no longer sailed much now that he was older. But he loved Puget Sound, the seaport where he had lived for almost eighty years. The area had beautiful flowers and forests. The trees were tall and green.
Papa loved watching his fish net fall on top of the rolling sea.
He loved the salty wind against his face.
Most of all, he loved sailing with his granddaughter, Jamie.

Page 7
For months, Jamie had wished to be with Papa while he guided his ship toward Puget Sound, with mountain rising high above the horizon. She had wished to stand next to her Papa with the sea gulls flying overhead.
She had wished she could taste the salt in the air. She had wished to follow the ray of sun that touched the water. Now they would do as she wished!

Page 8
Papa looked toward the ocean, and the wind caught the sail. The day was right, and the seas were calm.
Jamie stood next to her Papa as they sailed away from the mountains and past the old lighthouse, whose beacon was not nearly as bright as the sun.
Jamie wished today would never end!

Page 9
Papa and Jamie sailed for hours, leaving home far behind.
Neither saw the cloud. Neither saw it turn dark. They were happy.
Why should the sky be angry?
Papa felt a sudden surge of wind.
The boat began to rock.

Page 10
Rain began to fall.
A quick light flashed in the sky!
BOOM! BOOM!

Page 11
Thunder shook the boat.
The wind was harder, the rain heavier.
The sky was dark and gray.
The water around them became dark and gray.

Page 12
Papa's knuckles whitened as he held tightly to the boat's old wooden wheel.
Rain pounded against the faded yellow hood of his jacket. Papa tried to hide his fear from Jamie.
When he was young, storms like these barely grabbed Papa's attention.
He wasn't young anymore.

Page 13
The small boat spun around and bounced on the sea.
The rain fogged Papa's thick glasses. He wiped them with the sleeve of his short. He squinted through the rain and wind.

Page 14
Boom. BOOM!
The thunder seemed to be pounding against the boat.
A wave rolled high into the boat. It hit Papa and sent him falling on the deck.
"PAPA!" Jamie screamed.

Page 15
Papa's glassed were tossed from his wrinkled face. "There they are!" shouted Jamie, diving to catch the glasses as they washed toward the edge of the boat.
Papa scrambled to his feet.
His head was bleeding.

Page 16
BOOM!...BOOM!
Jamie held Papa's glasses in her hand. But the thunder made her jump, and the glasses fell into the roaring sea.

Page 17
"I wish we were home!" Jamie yelled, holding on to the ship's wheel. "I wish the rain would stop! I wish I could see the sun again!"
"No time for wishing, Little Jamie!" Papa said through the driving rain. "Now you must be the eyes I don't have anymore."

Page 18
Papa couldn't see the land.
He couldn't see the stars.
He couldn't see the Admiralty Head Lighthouse.
He couldn't see at all!

Page 19
Jamie was scared as she watched Papa search for the light, as scared as she had ever been!
She wished she were asleep again.
She wished the storm would go away.
She wished the winds could calm. She wished she could feel the earth beneath her feet.
She wished her Papa could see!

Page 20
"No time for wishes," thought Jamie.
"Point us to the mountains!" said Papa. "Point us to the mountains, Little Jamie, and we will find the shore!"

Page 21
Jamie looked all around for the mountains.
But the darkness and clouds and rain hid the horizon.
The mountains were gone.
She was Papa's eyes, and she couldn't see, either.

Page 22
Jamie was soaked, and her lips were trembling. The waves and wind and rain chilled her. She shook from the cold.
"I can't see the mountains," Jamie shouted.
"Then look for the lighthouse!" Papa said.
"It's so dark," Jamie said.
"There's always a light in the darkness," Papa told her.

Page 23
Papa held tightly to the wheel.
Jamie squinted, and looked to her right, and then to her left, searching the dark sky for the lighthouse.
"Hurry, Jamie!" Papa shouted. "We're near the rocks!"
Jamie looked, but she couldn't see the rocks, either.

Page 24
Jamie looked hard, then she looked harder, as far as she could see.
Nothing.
That was all she saw.
Nothing.
Nothing and the rain.

Page 25
Jamie heard the boat scrape against the rocks.
She thought she was crying.
But maybe it was only the rain against her face.
"Papa!" she shouted. "We're lost!"
"You'll get us through," he said.
But she didn't hear another word. The thunder was too loud.

Page 26
Suddenly Jamie's eyes grew big.
A light!
she could not believe what she was seeing.
There it was. Far in the distance.
A light.
So small. Just a splinter of light. So hard to see.
It was, Jamie thought, the most beautiful light she had ever seen.

Page 27
"Just to the right, Papa," she said. "There's the lighthouse, Papa! It's not lost anymore."
"I must take your word for it, Little Jamie," Papa said. "Take us home, girl!"
Jamie directed Papa past the rocks that rose above the sea.
The wind died, and the rain became light.

Page 28
Jamie looked at Papa. She had never seen him like this.
His hair, usually thick and white, was now wet against his head. Water fell from his nose and ears.
His skin, usually dark from the sun, seemed white against the dark sky.
His eyes were on her.
Jamie had been his eyes.

Page 29
The land grew closer.
The sky was not so dark anymore.
A ray of sun touched Jamie's face.
And the sailboat slipped safely into post.

Page 30
Jamie took Papa's hand and guided him from the boat onto the dock.
The two walked slowly toward home, her small hand holding tightly to his. Jamie closed her eyes as one wooden plank after another passed under his feet.
Jamie was a wisher.
She had always been a wisher.
She would never be a wisher again.

Page 31
Today, she had learned her lesson, and Papa said, when he hugged her tightly, that she had learned it well.
Wishers only hoped for things.
Jamie did not need to wish anymore.
Jamie could make them happen.
She knew it was true. Papa said it was.
Jamie had always believed everything her Papa told her.