To Brave the Sea

2021-22 6th Grade Public Purpose Books

    So she leapt out of bed, and ran out the door. She clambered over the village gate and out onto the shore. She lifted an oar from the ground and ran to the ship. A large one it was, with two sails, and three extra oars. The perfect vessel, she thought, for setting off on a trip.&nbsp;

      Though she saw the waves roll, and toss, and turn, she didn’t see the small dragon that came up from the churn. Though she did not see, she could still hear, and she heard the small dragon as its wings fluttered in fear. She whipped her head ‘round, and turning to look, was shocked at what she saw: it seemed to be out of a fairytale book. The dragon was covered in scales of all colors, blue, green, purple, pink, and loads of fun others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Once upon a time, in a tiny Irish village, there lived a girl. Although, this was no ordinary girl, for this girl had a dream.&nbsp;Once in her life, this had been shown, for she had told of her dream to everyone in her home. She told them of her dream, of the sea and the waves. Of salt air and sea spritz, and watching the sunrise countless ways. And then one day, a man said to her, “No girl sails the sea,” and she believed these harsh words.&nbsp;

That night she spoke to her mother of her time at the loom, and her thoughts circled ‘round her as though she was born anew. 

She pondered these words all night and when the day came, she had made up a plan of all the things in her dream.&nbsp;

      Although three days later, the dragon was still with her on board the boat. He was useful you see, for he cheered her up, and when there was rain he flapped his wings to help the ship stay afloat. So as time went by, dragon and girl became the best of friends, they saved each other countless times, and before long the memory of how they first met was gone, and any bad feelings had come to an end.&nbsp;

Thrusting her oar into the water, she looked back at the shore. Though what she saw now was different than what she’d seen before. For now she saw the houses shrinking and sinking, she realized that there was a world outside her village, and that got her thinking. She turned right around to stare out at the waves, and to contemplate her voyage in lots of new ways.&nbsp;

&nbsp;  In time, she formed her own crew, some dragons, some family, some ordinary people like You. They sailed the sea together, all over the globe, and they helped each other learn to love and to hope. Though most of all, she taught her crew how to dream. To keep dreams, to feed dreams, to let dreams take flight. Like she did, long ago, one Irish summer night.&nbsp;

The words stayed in her head for all day and all night. They grabbed her dream by its tail and pulled it right out of sight. Soon she became like every girl in the village, with no dreams, no future, and certainly, no ambition.&nbsp;As she sat at her wheel, spinning wool into yarn, her dream came to her, like a lost sheep finding its farm.&nbsp;

Parchment

     Suddenly, it looked at her in fright, it flew at her head, just as she was always told a dragon might. Though she was scared, she had hoped to befriend it, so she called to the dragon in the spur of the moment. She called out to him at the top of her voice:

Don’t be scared little dragon, though I can see that you are. I will not hurt you! I will even take you home if it is not too far!

The girl and the dragon, wherever they went, sowed a seed of friendship, of love, of an unlikely relationship. They went lots of places on their well weathered boat, for the girl became the first female sea captain that had ever sailed her own ship, and successfully kept it afloat.&nbsp;

To all those who helped me to write and revise it, to my amazing teacher, Mrs. Wheeler, and to all those children at Head Start who will read it. I hope you will enjoy the story. May you all be inspired to dream.

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