The old sailor comes back to the harbour at dawn. The lighthouse is still burning.
A young deckhand is tying a rope. "Have you been here before?" she asks.
He nods. "I left from this harbour when I was seventeen. I was afraid of the ocean."
He tells her about his first captain, a quiet man who taught him to read the weather.
"I feel nostalgia for that morning," he says. "But I also feel gratitude."
The sun rises. The young deckhand looks at the water. "I am leaving today," she says.
The old sailor smiles. "Then the sea will remember you too."
A thought to keep
The sea remembers everyone who leaves.