He swung his Lantern three times and slowly the schooner appeared.  It emerged from the night fog, like magic.  The schooner swam through the waves effortly, making not a single sound.  I felt my father squeeze my jacket. With gentle eyes he gazed at me, his face barely visible in the darkness.  With the dim lantern light shining on his face he spoke to me, reading my mind he asked. “Where shall we go boy, Where shall we venture?”  I grabbed onto his fragile hands, holding onto them tight.  With tears in my eyes, almost afraid to say it, “Into a world of dreams.” 

I slowly opened my tired eyes.  The seagulls cries awoke me quickly, but my eyes still hung low snapping up whenever a bird squawked.  I sighed stretching my arms and legs out like a cat.  I might as well get up, I thought.

 I crawled out of bed lazily, to look out the small circle window. The sun was creeping above the horizon, flaunting its’ orange light.

 Slowly I slithered into my clothes, the old board floor squeaked under my feet, tired from holding the boat above the rocking waves.

Curious to see if Papa was awake, I stepped onto the front deck.  It was a beautiful day, the sun's rising rays warmed the boat's deck and my bare feet.  I ventured into the captain's room, staring at the washed away letters above the door.  It was hard to tell, with the letters P and Y washed away but it read, Captain Tory.  Ignoring the weird words, I pushed the itching thought in the back of my mind, and knocked on Papa’s bedroom door.  His voice quickly replied, “Coming!” I stepped out of the doorway, to avoid the opening door. I immediately held my head high and saluted.  Trying to hold in my laughter, I snickered “You look like president Washington!”  His clothing was a captain's suite, littered with some dirt but some how clean, at least what they wore decades ago! 

“I knew you would say that!”  Papa chuckled. 

“Where are we?”  I asked, wondering when we would meet our destination. 

“We’ll be there soon.”  He said with a sigh. 

“Why so down?  We are going somewhere magical, somewhere unimaginable?!”  I asked, barely able to hold my excitement in.

“You're right, in fact I think I know a detour.”  He’s head picked up and he smiled but sadness still lingered in his eyes.  “Come on boy, I’m going to teach you how to fly a ship.”  He smirked and walked to the helm of the ship.  The wheel was waiting for hands to take control. 

 Papa’s hands gestured me over to the steering wheel.  My eyes opened wide and my mouth hung wide open . He wanted me to steer a ship! “What exactly do you mean by fly?!”

 He laughed “Just come here!”  I gingerly walked to the steering wheel, almost afraid to set foot near the wheel.  Papa slowly nodded as I placed my shaking hands onto the wheel, and looked up at him with fearful eyes. “There is nothing to be afraid of,” He looked up at the endless sea of calm blue waves.  “You can do anything out here, you have all the room in the world.”  I closed my eyes and for the first time I really felt the steering wheel, the smooth wood, almost soft to the touch. “Which way are we going?”  I asked still wondering how I was going to fly a ship. 

“Continue straight ahead and make sure to not steer of path, I need to get something.” Just like that Papa walked back through Captain Tory’s door, whoever Captain Tory was anyways, and shut the door behind him.  I wonder If he’s getting the lantern, I thought.  As I kept the boat steady a erry thought, that had been itching my brain appeared again. Did Papa really just find the lantern? I tried to put the thought away storing in the back of my brain. But one thing led to another, and as I kept the ship ahead more thoughts arises from the depths of my brain. How did Papa know how to work the teleporting ship. 

Finally Papa returned from the captain's room, with a bright smile on his face. “Now it’s time to fly a ship, my boy!” 

“Uhh, What exactly are you talking about, I just learned how to steer a ship!” I was filled more with fear than the ocean was filled with water.

 Papa walked over to the steering wheel and looked at me just the way he did when we first discovered the shooner. Something about that look reminded me of my mom. She could persuade anyone into doing something without saying a word. I missed that look, I missed her. She had died from cancer years before. I can still remember her last exhausted words, “Captain will lead the way.” I don’t understand what she meant by that but I have a feeling I’ll find that out sooner or later. 

I took a deep breath and tried to wash most of the fear away. “Ok just show me how to fly a ship.” I laughed at the weird statement. Keeping my hands on the wheel, I looked up at Papa. “Ok.” He put his hands on my shoulders. “Just focus on the sound of the waves, push everything else of that crazy mind of yours away.” 

I sighed, focusing, concentrating on the soft splashing sound of the waves against the old boat. Hiss shhp the waves were snakes trying to slither to the top of the boat. I slowly closed my eyes focusing on the sound of the deep blue. The sound of the waves bumping on the schooner started to disappear it was only a sound of something hitting from above.

I opened my eyes one by one afraid to of what I would see. The boat was rising above the water! Seeing the fear in my eyes Papa spoke “It’s ok.” And with that statement he convinced me that it was. All the sudden I started to laugh, just laughing. Papa joined in chuckling as the boat soured higher above the ocean and the sun flew down. With the sky orange and the water dark blue. I landed the boat down to the water. It was silent like the boat only weighed a feather. Are laughs slowed to a whisper and my father sighed acting like he was about to say something important. Instead he grabbed something out of his captain's suite. It was a emerald necklace that shimmered against what was left of the sunlight. It wasn’t smooth but jagged. “It’s your mother's, I found it on this ship and gave it to her for our first anniversary.” With that one sentence I understood everything. What my mother meant by Captain was Papa, he was Captain Tory. The sun gave up and fell down letting the full moon rise shining on the emerald necklace I now held in my hand. I could feel my mother's presence in the necklace as Papa told me sweet stories of when they were together. As tears gathered in my eyes the ocean glowed with spotted blue light giving the necklace a reflection of my father's face, his face too filled with tears. “ I am Captain Tory, but I need to tell you something about this ship,” He sighed and as a tear fell to the schooners floor Papa began to glow like the blue ocean fading away. “When I found this ship I knew that in order for me and your mother to use it we would have to make a sacrifice. I told her that I would do it, but she refused. Until she got cancer after having you she accepted the fate that I wouldn’t let her die sacrificing herself for this magical ship, so I decided when the time would come you will be the captain and I could be with your mother. You are Captain Tory now my son.” 

Papa began to fade away as I tried to plead him not to go. I grasped onto his blue glowing body, my arms gliding through him like he was a ghost. He faded away with a smile on his face into the ocean. 

The next foggy morning with the necklace hugging me something emerged from the fog. A island with tall mountains and wide planes a creature flew above the mountains. Cries of unknown creatures ringed my ears. I, Captain Tory was in a world more than magic I was in a world greater than dreams.