52 pages • 1-hour read
The Wish
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Chapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Third Trimester: Ocracoke, 1996”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.
When Maggie gets home from her date, she can tell her aunt knows that something more happened between her and Bryce. However, she does not tell her about it, and Linda doesn’t ask. That night in bed, Maggie is overwhelmed by feelings of insecurity, as she begins to doubt whether Bryce can like someone as “ordinary” as she is. She barely sleeps, instead laying with Maggie-bear for most of the night.
Over the next few weeks, things continue like normal for Bryce and Maggie. They kiss a lot but also continue to work on Maggie’s schoolwork and practice photography. Through it all, Maggie feels as though her “life was as perfect as it could ever be” (288).
Maggie has an appointment with her OB-GYN as she enters the third trimester. During the ultrasound, Maggie avoids looking at the monitor as she tries not to become too attached to the child. The doctor allows Gwen to monitor Maggie throughout her last few weeks so she doesn’t have to take the long trip to the office.
Maggie begins to feel a distance growing between her and Linda, as they both avoid talking about Bryce. One night, Maggie brings it up, admitting to Linda that she’s in love with him. Linda admits that she already knows. When Maggie asks how she can know it’s love, Linda tells her that it “comes down to the past, the present, and the future” (295). She insists that, with love, Maggie shouldn’t need to “calculate”—quoting Sister Thérèse of Lisieux. Maggie wonders whether she will even be able to stay with Bryce after she gives birth.
As Maggie’s pregnancy continues, she avoids thinking about the future. Instead, she focuses on the idea of not “calculating” her feelings for Bryce and instead enjoying her time with him. Bryce doesn’t seem to notice her body changing, insisting that she continues to look “beautiful” despite how Maggie feels. Despite Maggie’s uncertainty, he insists that, because they love each other, they will figure out how to make it work after the baby is born. He tells her that they can call and write each other, and that his parents managed to survive their relationship while his father was deployed.
Maggie and Linda decide that it isn’t safe for Maggie to take the ferry ride to church. Instead, she stays at home to call her parents, who don’t ask about her life or photography. When she talks to Morgan, she’s shocked that Morgan knows nothing about her schoolwork, photography, or when she is coming home, making her wonder if her family ever even talks about her.
During the week, Maggie feels like something is wrong with Bryce. He’s distant, often getting distracted, but at the same time acts “clingy” whenever he has to leave her. When he goes fishing with his grandfather, Bryce’s mother visits Maggie. She too is worried about how Bryce has been acting. Because of his mother’s accident, at the age of nine Bryce had to grow up quickly, taking care of his younger siblings and his mother. As a result, he has always been more mature and certain about his future. But now, Bryce’s mother admits, Bryce has begun to question whether he wants to go to West Point. He’s stopped working out and has been asking his grandfather a lot of questions about his fishing business. Maggie promises Bryce’s mother she will let her know if she learns anything. She begins to question whether she was too harsh with Bryce when she talked about her leaving after her pregnancy.
Bryce asks Maggie on another date. Because Maggie is uncomfortable leaving the house, he cooks for her at Linda’s and they watch Dirty Dancing. Maggie asks him about fishing, but he reveals nothing about how he is feeling. When Bryce shows up a few days later all dressed up, Maggie thinks how different he is and wishes that he would go back to “Old Bryce,” more open and comfortable. He tells her he wants to show her something.
Bryce drives Maggie away from the shore to a secluded, rundown home. When she sees the “for rent” sign, she realizes what he is doing. Bryce tells her that he wants her to stay in North Carolina, marry him, and even keep the baby. He insists he has enough money for them to afford the home and that he can work with his grandfather for a few years and go to college in the future. He tells her that he loves her. Overwhelmed, Maggie tells him that she loves him, too.
Back at home, Maggie explains the situation to her aunt. She admits that she was unable to tell Bryce the truth—that she does not want to give up high school or raise the baby. When Linda asks what Maggie wants for Bryce, she tells her that she wants him to go to West Point and to be successful and happy.
That night, Maggie lays up all night with Maggie-bear. She questions whether Bryce can be happy with her. They will rarely be able to see each other over the next several years, and even letters and phone calls would be difficult. She’s also adamant that she does not want him to stop pursuing his dreams for her.
When Bryce comes over the next day, Maggie tells him how she feels. She admits that she loves him, but that she is too young to give up the rest of her life for him. She insists that the person he loves—a pregnant teen estranged from her family—is not the same person she will be over the next few years. Bryce is heartbroken, but Maggie assures him that, after they have pursued their lives, there is a chance they can still be together. They promise to send each other a single Christmas card each year to stay in touch, then, on Maggie’s 24th birthday, meet on the Ocracoke beach where they had their first date.
Bryce asks if he can see Maggie the next day. She assures him that they can still spend time together until she leaves. However, she ends this part of her story by saying that she didn’t even get the chance to tell him goodbye.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Merry Christmas: Manhattan, December 2019”
When Maggie finishes talking, it is nearly 11 o’clock at night on Christmas Eve. She tells Mark that she went into labor that afternoon after the conversation with Bryce. Gwen and Linda took her to the hospital by ferry, while Maggie laid in the back seat clutching Maggie-bear. The delivery was smooth, but, after, Maggie laid in her bed with Maggie-bear and cried for several hours. She slept until late morning the next day.
As she talks, Mark prods her with questions. She notes how he is “rapt” and attentive. She also realizes that she feels no pain from her cancer while she tells her story.
After Maggie woke up in the hospital, she asked Linda to give Maggie-bear to the baby. She then learned that her mother was there to take her home that day. Devastated, Maggie realized that she wouldn’t get to go back to Ocracoke and say goodbye to Bryce.
Mark asks what happened after she returned to Seattle. Maggie explains that she went back to school and continued to do photography, with her time in Ocracoke eventually feeling like a “dream.” However, she wrote to Bryce every Christmas, and he wrote back, each time expressing their love for each other and counting down the time until Maggie turned 24. Maggie went to community college and took some photography classes, then started pursuing photography full-time. She admits that part of her wanted to make Bryce proud of who she was when they ended up together, so she worked even harder.
When Maggie was 23, Bryce wrote in his card that he was stationed somewhere secret. He had joined the special forces. He assured her that, if he wasn’t back in the United States for her birthday, he would find a way to let her know.
Maggie then pulls out a letter that Aunt Linda wrote her. In it, she explains that Bryce died in Afghanistan while deployed. As Mark reads, she fights the urge to cry, having not thought about that letter since she read it years ago. She tells Mark that she didn’t ever get any more information about his death.
After Bryce died, Maggie moved to New York City. She dated several guys in a row, stopped going to church, and tried to suppress her heartbreak—yet eventually realized that it wasn’t something she could get rid of but instead had to learn to live with.
Maggie is exhausted as it nears midnight. She tells Mark that she only visited Ocracoke once, several years after Bryce died. His parents had moved, and Aunt Linda had died. However, she went and visited each of the places she had been with Bryce.
Mark thanks her for the story and for spending the week with him. He asks her what she wants most for Christmas, and she admits that all the things she wants—to stop Bryce from dying, to see Aunt Linda, to travel again—are not possible. However, she wishes she knew whether the baby had a happy life, which would make everything worth it.
Mark gives Maggie a Christmas present. It is a shoe box. When Maggie opens it, she is shocked to find Maggie-bear inside. She looks up at Mark and realizes that he was born in 1996 and is from the Midwest—where Linda’s convent had been. As she realizes that Mark is her son, he wishes her Merry Christmas and holds her hand.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Mark: Ocracoke, Early March 2020”
Mark goes to Ocracoke with Abigail a few months later. He thinks about his decision to pursue his birth mother. Although the adoption was closed, his parents knew Maggie’s last name from her hospital room, as well as her first name from Maggie-bear’s foot. They also knew she was from Seattle, and Mark was able to find Maggie on the Internet. He became sure it was her after he watched several of her videos. The photograph of the lighthouse that Bryce gave her was hanging in the background, and Mark found the lighthouse online and knew it was in Ocracoke.
After finding out this information, Mark realized he had three choices: let Maggie die without meeting her, go to her and introduce himself, or go to her gallery without identifying himself. He decided on the third option because it gave him the chance to back out if he decided to, then he went to New York and applied at the gallery.
Maggie lived for a few more months after Christmas. Mark’s parents came to meet her, and Mark realized how difficult it was for them that he sought out his birth mother. However, after Maggie referred to Mark as “their” son and expressed her extreme gratitude for raising him, they were happy with Mark’s decision.
Maggie’s parents also came to visit. Her mother spent the entire time by Maggie’s bedside but constantly complained about her decision to remain in New York, while also being uncomfortable with Mark’s presence. The interactions made Mark realize why Maggie always had such a difficult relationship with them.
In their final moments together, Mark expressed his fear at Maggie dying. However, Maggie insisted that “love” would help him through as it is “stronger” than fear—just as love helped her through Bryce’s death (382).
Mark walks on the beach on Ocracoke. He has an urn with part of Maggie’s ashes, which she requested that he scatter on the beach. He pulls out a letter that Maggie wrote to him near the end of her life. In it, she thanks him for becoming part of his life and asks him to scatter her ashes—which she feels are part of her “heart”—in the place that made her happiest. She also writes that she feels like Bryce is part of Mark and that the love Maggie and Bryce shared during her pregnancy helped Mark become a great man. She also put her seashell necklace in the envelope.
As Mark scatters Maggie’s ashes, he thinks about all the memories that she had on Ocracoke. He also thinks of his last few months with Maggie and the memories they made together. He tells himself that he truly does believe that love is stronger than fear.
Chapters 8-10 Analysis
While largely absent from the text, Maggie’s mother serves as an antagonistic force throughout the narrative, representative of the life Maggie was born to but never truly wanted. As Maggie grows and matures during her time in Ocracoke, she constantly compares and contrasts her new life with her old. For example, She thinks of how much better Christmas is with Linda and Bryce. Her aunt supports her through her pregnancy without being judgmental or making her feel uncomfortable, and Maggie becomes more successful in school outside of a traditional high school structure. Maggie’s relationship with her mother grows more strained the longer that Maggie is in Ocracoke. The longer Maggie’s away from her mother and their life in Seattle, the happier she becomes and the more she feels like herself. Maggie’s mother’s decision to remove her from Ocracoke immediately after her pregnancy, refusing to allow Maggie the time to say goodbye, underscores her antagonistic role as she attempts to pull Maggie back from the autonomy, independence, and wider perspective she’s achieved on the island.
Sparks emphasizes the contrast between Maggie’s healthy relationship with her aunt and the dysfunction of her relationship with her mother, positioning the two women as foils for each other. When Maggie’s mother visits, she shows no interest in Maggie’s photography and feels bothered by the fact that she spends so much time with Bryce, reminding her that a relationship with a different boy is what brought her to Ocracoke in the first place. In direct contrast, Aunt Linda’s supportive, non-judgmental nature is prevalent throughout the final section of the text. As Maggie notes, Linda sees her changing relationship with Bryce, yet does not interfere or pass judgment; instead, she allows Maggie the space to explore her feelings while offering support and guidance when Maggie asks for it. After her mother forces her to leave Ocracoke, Linda consoles her, understanding how truly devastated she is to be leaving. While Maggie’s mother keeps her distance and refuses to address Maggie’s pregnancy, her relationship with Bryce, or her newfound love of photography, Aunt Linda serves as a source of support to help Maggie cope with her rapidly changing life, exemplifying The Importance of Human Connection When Coping With Difficult Experiences.
Sparks utilizes a surprise twist in the narrative climax, revealing that Mark is actually Maggie’s son—a reveal he foreshadows throughout the text. For example, Maggie has a “gut feeling” that Mark is at the gallery for a different reason, believes he’s “leaving something out” during their interview, and draws a parallel between Mark and Bryce, implying that there is a deeper connection there that she is unable to identify (14). Mark and Maggie’s reunion provides a happy ending consistent with popular romance fiction as a genre despite Maggie’s eventual death. Reuniting with her son ensures that her story and her memory of Bryce will live on through Mark, as symbolized by the passing of her shell necklace to him after her death. In her final moments, Maggie finds peace in the knowledge that her son, whom she views as a child “of both” her and Bryce, will continue to live a happy life after she passes.
In her final letter to Mark, Maggie reaffirms the important role that the setting of Ocracoke has played throughout the novel, pointing to the novel’s thematic interest in The Transformative Power of Love. She writes, “And, I’ve come to believe, Ocracoke is an enchanted place, where the impossible sometimes becomes real” (385). Upon her arrival in Ocracoke, Maggie was sad, alone, and without direction in life. She felt disconnected from her family and was scared of how her pregnancy would impact her life—both the physical changes as well as the further isolation it would cause from her friends and family. However, through Ocracoke and its loving community, Maggie discovered the person she wanted to be and the life she wanted to live.
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