Beyond the Bright Sea

by Lauren Wolk

“You start looking back now and you might not see where you’re going.”

Nobody strands himself on an island unless he’s finished with the mainland.

“Not a thing,” he said. “I’m just looking at you. Exactly as you are right now. And not because you’ll change, though you will, of course. Treasure or not. But because if I could have built a human being, I would have built you. Just so.”