At six and one half years old Bethany Gilbert often found herself alone. Her mother was divorced, supporting Bethany and her sister June by working in an office. June, three years older, played with friends her own age, leaving Bethany to fend for herself. It was summer and Bethany had lots of time and not much to do. She rode her bicycle around the neighborhood, taking a new street every day, to keep from getting bored.
    Thursday she found herself sitting on her bicycle in front of the Boys' and Girls' Club of the Harbor Area. Bethany walked up to the entrance and saw a lot of girls and boys playing and doing various things inside. A sign over the admissions window next to the entrance read "No Child Under the Age of 7 Years Admitted Without a Parent." Bethany thought about her situation for a moment. The sign seemed to bar her entry, until she realized that the admission window was a good 14 inches above her head. She walked close to the wall past the clerk, unnoticed and into the club. Bethany wandered around, visiting the library, the gym and the pool room. She found the clicking and rolling sounds of the balls on the pool table interesting. The game being played on the table was somewhat intriguing, but it was the sound of the balls rolling down the chutes under the table that was really fascinating. She crawled under the table and watched the balls roll down the wooden tracks to the collection tray on the outside. She enjoyed stopping and starting the entire game simply by grabbing the white cue ball with her hand and preventing it from returning to the tray after it fell into the side pocket from above.
    Bethany grew tired of creating problems for the pool players, so she crawled out from under the table and wandered into the wood shop where the kids were making small wooden boats. Bethany stood in the corner watching until the shop teacher came over and introduced himself.

"Naw, I don't want to make a model boat, I want to make a real boat,"

    "Hello, my name is Archie, what's your name?"
    "My name is Bethany and I'm three plus three!" (She always loved to say that.)
    "Well, very good Bethany, this is a woodshop class and we are making model boats today, would you like to make a model boat?"

    "Naw, I don't want to make a model boat, I want to make a real boat."
Archie paused to think for a moment and then said...
    "All right then, lets make a real boat."
So Archie took a two by four made of pine wood and pushed it through the tablesaw, cutting it in half. Then he did the same with a piece of sheet plywood. He turned the saw off and showed Bethany the sharp teeth on the saw blade that cut the wood and how the metal guard helped keep his fingers safe. Archie took out some tools and demonstrated how a hammer drives a nail and attached one piece of wood to another. They nailed the plywood sheets and corner boards together and made a large box. Archie took a wood plane and shaved the sharp corners to make them round. He then put Bethany's hands on the plane and taught her how to use it safely and they finished the rest of the corners. Before putting the plane away he took it apart and let her see how it worked and how the blade could shave down the wood so easily.
    "Well there you are".....said Archie... "a real boat."

    Bethany was truly amazed. It seemed like only a few minutes ago that she said she wanted to make a real boat and here it was! A truly real boat that she could get inside of! Bethany could see that this Archie guy was really a special person, the kind you would want to have as a friend.
Bethany thanked Archie for the wonderful gift, got back on her bicycle and rode home as fast as she could. It was after five o'clock, her mother and sister would be coming home soon.
    The next day Bethany and her mother picked up the boat at the  Boys' and Girls' Club. They took it home and busily painted it with a can of red paint a neighbor had donated after cleaning out his garage. Bethany wanted it to be a sail boat, so she took an old broomstick to use as a mast and a piece of a bed sheet to act as a sail and tied two corners onto the stick. Bethany was not bothered by the complex and time consuming details like rigging, ropes, blocks and tackle. She also didn't know how to sail yet, but from what she could tell it didn't look too hard. After the paint had dried, Bethany, her mother and sister put the little boat in the car and drove to the bay. They found a sandy white beach that circled the emerald green bay and separated it from the blue Pacific ocean. A channel connected both, allowing boats to travel from one to the other.

    They carried the little red boat down to the sparkling water of the bay that danced with a million points of light, like fairy dust falling from Tinkerbell's magic wand. Bethany stepped into the boat, sat down and held up her broomstick with one hand and the end of the bed sheet with the other. Her mother didn't want to be over protective and stifle Bethany's creativity. She felt that she couldn't get in any trouble in a few inches of water and under her vigilant eye. June and her mother smiled. They couldn't help laughing at such a silly sight, this little girl in a little red boat holding a stick and a rag with a look of great anticipation.
    After a few minutes of nonstop laughter a gust of wind suddenly came up and blew Bethany away from the shore. June and her mother stopped laughing. They became very quiet and still, much like a wind up toy when the spring runs down- except that their eyes got real big and their mouths dropped open.
 

    Another gust carried Bethany further offshore. In the wink of an eye she was in deep water and too far to reach with even a life ring and rope. The stick and rag suddenly, like magic, became a mast and sail, pulling her out into the bay. She began to slowly spin around. She felt like she was on a great merry-go-round with her at the center. She didn't know that she needed a rudder to steer with. As Bethany sailed away, her mother and sister seemed to shrink smaller and smaller until they looked like tiny ants, wiggling their antennas, running back and forth, back and forth along the beach. They were wildly waving their hands and shouting for help. Bethany on the other hand had not thought about death by drowning, she was just having too much fun sailing sideways... backwards and even straight ahead.......sometimes. She loved watching the seagulls soar and dive into the water after fish, like dancers in a ballet of the sea and sky.
    Fortunately for Bethany the bay was not much over one mile wide from the beach she left to the one she arrived at about an hour later. The bottom of her little boat made a scrunching sound as it ran aground. Bethany had just sailed across the bay all by herself. She dropped the mast and sail which were once again only a stick and rag and was delighted with the voyage she had just completed.
    Her mother and sister pulled up in the car shortly thereafter and came running down the beach with tears in their eyes and joy in their hearts that Bethany was safe and hadn't drowned. After a few moments of frantic kissing and hugging that only a mother can give to a lost child, Bethany's mother stopped abruptly and said;
    "Now Bethany.......no more boating until you can swim, wear a life vest and Oh yes, learn how to sail!"