The Wish

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.

Maggie wakes up late after working on her paper for most of the night. She eats breakfast and is happy that, for the first time, she does not have morning sickness from her pregnancy. When Bryce arrives to tutor her, they sit at the kitchen table. Maggie tells him that she has never been great at school and would be happy getting Bs or Cs. He explains far behind in all her work she is and that needs to work much harder if she is going to pass.

They spend the rest of the day together working at the table. Maggie is shocked at how serious Bryce takes it. She quickly gets over her feelings of being judged and does not even think about him romantically because she is so focused on her work. By the end, she feels like she is finally making progress.

Later that night, Maggie is in her room doing schoolwork. She hears Aunt Linda and Gwen and remembers that they were going to decorate the Christmas tree. She goes downstairs and finds that Bryce has come over, too.

Linda and Gwen go to the store for eggnog, leaving Bryce and Maggie alone. They put the lights on the tree together. Bryce tells her that, since his father was in the military, he spent his entire life moving to different places. Maggie tells him about her older sister, Morgan. Bryce asks why she is in Ocracoke, and she admits that she is pregnant. However, Bryce tells her that he already figured that out. She is shocked at how casual and accepting he is of it.

When Linda and Gwen return, they finish decorating the tree together. They then drink eggnog and eat cinnamon rolls, then Bryce leaves.

Maggie tells Aunt Linda that she told Bryce about her pregnancy. She wonders if other people in town have figured it out, but Aunt Linda insists that it doesn’t matter. They can get her clothes to hide it, if she wants, and Maggie can spend as much time at home as she wants. Maggie asks her aunt if she “ever feel[s] like [she’s] all alone,” and Linda admits that she does, “all the time” (126).

That week, Maggie continues to study with Bryce. On Friday morning, she takes her next geometry quiz. For the first time, she realizes how nervous she is and how much she cares about her grade. She manages to get a “B,” which makes her ecstatic.

After, Bryce asks her if she wants to join him and his family for the annual “flotilla”—an event where people decorate their boats in Christmas lights. She realizes that he is asking her out on a date or, rather, a “family outing.” Even though her pregnancy makes her feel as though she has no interest in romance, she decides that she wants to go with him and agrees.

When Maggie goes to the beach for the first time, she notes how beautiful it is, despite being different from back home. When she thinks about her family, instead of feeling the usual “ache” of homesickness, she realizes that “it had been the right decision to come” to Ocracoke, as her aunt was “exactly what [she] needed at this time in [her] life” (132).

Maggie goes to Bryce’s house and meets his parents, Janet and Porter. She’s surprised to learn that Janet is in a wheelchair. On the ferry, Bryce tells Maggie that Janet was in a car accident eight years before that left her paralyzed. Bryce and his father modified the car so that Janet can still drive, and Bryce is insistent that his mother leads a full life despite the accident. Bryce’s entire family is intelligent, with his twin brothers, Robert and Richard, already working on designing video games and building an airplane at the age of 12. Maggie mentally compares them to her own family, thinking how sad it is that her parents and sister don’t even have any hobbies.

At Bryce’s insistence, Maggie also tells him about her life. She is initially hesitant, but then decides she has nothing to lose by telling him. She talks about her mother discovering she was pregnant, then sending her to Ocracoke, as well as her struggle to adapt to living with her aunt. Through it all, she realizes how easy it is to talk to Bryce, as he listens without judgment.

Maggie travels with Bryce’s family to the town of New Bearn. They watch as dozens of small, decorated boats cross the harbor, with an announcer explaining the owners and the themes. After, they drive to the edge of town to where someone decorates acres of their farmland for Christmas every year. Through it all, Maggie realizes that she would have never imagined herself getting into the “spirit” of the holiday as much as she has with Bryce’s family. She also notes how Bryce knows her better than anyone else in her life.

Over the next few weeks, Maggie falls into a routine of schoolwork and hanging out with Bryce. Her grades continue to improve with Bryce’s help. When they finish studying, they often walk around the neighborhood. When they end up back at Bryce’s house, they usually talk with his mom for hours in the kitchen. Maggie learns that Bryce’s interest in photography came from her. They show Maggie their darkroom and talk about some of the photography techniques they use for their best photos.

On Christmas, Maggie spends the afternoon with Bryce’s family, then he comes over to her aunt’s house for dinner with them. Maggie gives Bryce a card promising to give him the recipe to her aunt’s biscuits from the shop, as well as a promise that they can learn to bake them together. Bryce gives her a photograph he took of a lighthouse with the moon large in the background.

When Linda and Gwen go for a walk, it leaves Bryce and Maggie alone on the couch. She thinks of how different this Christmas is from the ones she has back home. Everyone comes together and is content to be with each other, instead of opening gifts then going to do their own thing like her family does. She reflects on how much happier she is than when she arrives in Ocracoke. She decides to ask Bryce to teach her about photography.