Chapter 10

We started work that morning right after breakfast. Saturday was demolition day. Sunday was restoration day—dare I say, resurrection day? It was a flurry of activity as the entire family pitched in to help. Eva and Ned coated the new plywood decks with marine spar varnish that was mixed with tiny rubber pieces for anti-skid footing.

Eileen brought her mechanical talent to the outboard motor of Johnny Bruce. Her dad was a mechanic and taught her how to repair lawn mowers, car engines, and outboard motors. Growing up next to Guntersville Lake, she knew her way around marine vessels.

Eileen replaced the water pump impeller, spark plugs, fuel tank, and fuel lines and cleaned the carburetor. Eileen called Eva over several times to give a helping hand and to pass on the mechanic trade to her daughter.

“Eva,” said Eileen, “it’s important for you to learn how to use a wrench, socket set, and screwdriver. I want you to know how to do things yourself. That way, you don’t have to depend on a man in your life to do these things for you.”

“Listen to your mother, Eva,” I piped up. “When I came to pick up your mother for our first date, she was under a pickup truck replacing the oil filter. That was one sign that said, ‘Yeah, she’s special—this is the one.’”

“Ah, Dad,” came the teenage girl’s response to talk about the romance of her parents.

“Oh yeah, Eileen,” I said, “I’ve got an additional part for you to add.” From a zip top bag, I pulled out a small, black box.

“What’s this?” asked Eileen.

“It’s called Green Wave,” I answered. “It’s a little something that the guys at work gave me to test out. Here’s a little oil tank to connect it to, along with the fuel line.”

“Okay,” said Eileen. “Neat! So, I splice the fuel and oil line out of the gas tank and oil tank and then connect them to this valve?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “It’s something Clyde and Herb came up with that they’ve been running on ten other outboards.”

“What does it do?” asked Eileen, her face perplexed.

“It’s supposed to reduce the amount of oil and gas that exhausts into the lake,” I answered.

“Okay, sounds good,” said Eileen.

Rich and Mother worked together on the electrical workings of the boat. They put in new wiring from bow to stern to power the trolling motor, running lights, bilge pump, and live well pump.

Ned was doing a grand job of getting the varnish on the roller and coating the decks. Eva helped him in between moments where she watched her mother at work on the outboard. I could see how much better Ned had become at painting because he had less on himself and more on the plywood.

“Don’t worry, Dad,” said Eva. “I’m checking, and it’s plenty thick with coating.”

“How’s it drying?” I asked.

“Quickly,” answered Eva. “I bet it’ll be dry enough after lunch to install in the boat.”

Everything was coming together smoothly. Our family team had done great work.

As we were munching on a lunch of roast beef sandwiches, Mother said, “You know this day reminds me of a story. Eva and Ned, do y’all want to hear a story?”

“Yeah, Grandmother,” said Ned, and he came and sat down in front of his grandmother. Eva nodded and looked toward her grandmother with a smile.

Mother told the story of Noah building the ark. “Many years ago, there was a man named Noah, who was favorable in the eyes of God. Noah raised a grand family, but the world around him was in trouble. God wasn’t pleased and told Noah, ‘I will clean things up in this world. I want you to build a boat—an ark—big enough to carry all two of my animals aboard.’

“Noah thought this was crazy, but he knew not to go against God. When God wants you to do something, you better go along with it, because God will win and you will lose if you go against God.”

All of us adults laughed because we knew exactly what she meant.

“Noah’s wife and children helped build the ark. Building materials showed up next to their home. God told him the exact length and width to build the ark.”

“Was the ark made of wood or alum . . . almin . . . ammonium, I mean metal like our boat?” asked Ned.

“It was all wood.” Mother chuckled. “The people in the village thought he was crazy and said, ‘Noah says there’s going to be a flood. That God told him to build the ark, even though there’s not that much rain.’ But Noah ignored them and kept right on building.”

She spoke of the animals loading onto the ark two by two. “The rains came. There was a flood. The ark floated through forty days and nights of rain. The sun came out, and a rainbow appeared.”

Mother’s eyebrows raised, and she waved her hands into an arc. “A rainbow appeared as a promise sign to Noah and God’s people that He wouldn’t do that again. God felt sad about all the people who perished in the flood.

“God told Noah, ‘I will start over with you and your family, my faithful Noah.’

“The waters went down. The ark rested atop a mountain, and Noah released the animals back into the wild. Noah was obedient, and the world continued, thanks to the ark.”

Hearing the word “obedient” caused me to look over at Eileen, and our eyes caught each other. With no words spoken, we understood that obedience to God came first.

“Years later, Jesus was teaching by the lakeshore. He was tired, and the sun was setting. Jesus told His disciples, ‘Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.’ So, Jesus and His disciples got into the boat and headed to the other side of the lake. Jesus was napping when a storm came up and the boat tossed about, frightening the disciples, who woke Jesus.

“Jesus awoke, stood on the boat’s bow, and shouted at the wind and waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Immediately, the storm calmed, and the lake became glassy smooth. The disciples marveled at this miracle aboard the boat and said, ‘Who is this man? Even the wind and waves obey him!’1

“Eva and Noah, I wonder what kind of experiences and miracles y’all will see in this boat right here.”

“I hope we see lots of wildlife,” said Ned, “and catch lots of big fish.”

“Me, too, Ned,” I said.

“Thanks for the story, Grandmother,” said Eva.

“Thanks, Diane,” said Eileen.

Suddenly appearing in the open garage doorway was our next-door neighbor and handyman, Ed Bartwell.

“Hey, everybody!”

“Hey, Ed,” we greeted.

“Last week, Dalton told me y’all are working on restoring the boat,” said Ed. “What can I do to help?” He was wearing a toolbelt with a hammer and screwdrivers hanging in the pockets. He had come to work.

“I can use your help getting the floor installed,” I said.

With Ed on one side of the boat and me on the other side, we lifted the varnished plank flooring from the sawhorses into the boat. Together, we bolted the floor onto the boat ribs.

In no time flat, we installed and secured the floor, front deck, and rear deck. We were about to install the side panels, which covered the ribs on the inside sides of the boat, when I noticed two wires sticking out.

“Hey, Rich and Mother?” I asked. “What is this wire for?”

“Oh yeah,” said Rich. “I’ll be right back.”

Rich went over to his truck and pulled out two gift-wrapped boxes and handed them to me.

“Surprise!” said Rich and Mother in unison. “While you were focused on getting replacement parts and wood, we wanted to add two special modern features to your twenty-year-old boat.”

“What is it, Daddy?” asked an excited Ned.

Unwrapping the box, I exclaimed, “Oh, my goodness! You didn’t. It’s a brand-new fish finder! I didn’t think I could get this for a while. Thank you so much.”

“Open the other box,” said Rich. I opened it up, “We got you two fish finders—one for the bow when you are fishing and one for when you are running the outboard.”

“Daddy,” asked Ned, “will this help us find fish to catch when we go out in the boat?”

“It sure will,” I explained. “It’s like having an underwater camera or radar so we can spend more time casting to where the fish are, rather than just casting into clear water.”

“Don’t you think that’s cheating?” asked Eva.

“Not one bit.” Rich chuckled. “You don’t go to the meat section of the grocery store and feel your way around with your eyes closed, do you? Then guess, ‘Hmm, this feels like a chicken, or is it the shelf?’ You want to see what you are getting, grab it, and go collect the rest of your groceries.”

“I used to think the same thing,” responded Eileen. “Growing up around the lake, we used to spend a lot of time trying to find fish to catch. That was our dinner. Then, my dad got a depth finder of sorts—or fish locator, as he called it. We started spending more time catching fish rather than trying to find them.”

Eileen handed me a purple cloth bag. “Got something else for you.”

“Diane and I got these stones for you to keep aboard the boat.”

Eileen opened the bag and emptied several stones and a shell into a plastic, waterproof box that was sitting on the workbench. “The mussel shell Eva picked up from Guntersville Lake several years ago—a part of Johnny Bruce’s home lake. See the pearly inside? A symbol of wisdom being born of the water. We have a small nugget of gold Dalton got from a Boy Scout trip to Colorado from years ago. Here is Ned’s pick of turquoise, which symbolizes a shield of protection. The rose quartz is my favorite, representing love, compassion, happiness, and forgiveness. We are placing them in this waterproof box to keep aboard Johnny Bruce.”

“Wow!” I said. “This is tremendous. Pieces of the created world aboard a vessel created by John and now all of our hands, too. I hadn’t thought about this being a spiritual project, but I feel the healing going on here.” I looked at each person there in the garage and smiled. “Thank you for all of your help.”

Eileen announced, “Let’s see if everything works and start this outboard motor.”

We put the batteries in the boat, connected the wires, and flipped the switch. All the lights came on.

We cheered.

I turned on the power to the new fish finders, and they chirped to life.

We cheered again.

“Rich, lower the trolling motor,” I said. Rich pushed the power button on the trolling motor foot control. The propeller spun to life.

We cheered a third time.

Great! The electronics work,” I said. “Thanks, Mother and Rich. Now, let’s roll the boat into the sunlight and hook the hose to the motor muffs.” We rolled Johnny Bruce out of the garage into the afternoon sun.

Ned got the hose and brought it over to the motor. “Here you go, Mom.”

“Thank you,” replied Eileen. She connected the hose to the motor muffs—because they look like rubber earmuffs—to the lower unit. They were used to cover the outboard’s lower unit water pickup.

“Y’all ready?” asked Eileen.

“Ready,” we said in unison.

“Ned,” said Eileen, “go turn on the water.” Ned ran to the outside water faucet and opened the valve. Water started pouring out the side of the outboard’s lower unit to cool the engine once I cranked it up.

Eileen looked at me and asked, “Do you want to do the honors and start the engine?”

I answered, “You did the work on the motor. You start it.”

In a flash, a feeling came over me. This was the last step. As a team, we had come together to restore Johnny Bruce. I dreamed of this moment when it—no, when he—came back to life, fully operational.

We stood back from the boat almost in reverence for what was about to happen. Mother stood near the bow, reached out her hand, and placed it on the gunnel. Eva saw her grandmother’s hand and did the same. Eva reached down and grabbed Ned’s hand to place on the side of the boat. Rich, Ed, and I did the same near the back of the boat.

Eileen was at the stern and pressed the starter button. “Here goes!”

The starter moved to spin the flywheel. The outboard sputtered and then fired up. He was running!

Cheers and applause erupted from all of us.

“You did it, Eileen,” I said. “Back to life!”

The floodgates opened with emotion. I wrapped my arms around the cowling of the outboard and gave it a hug. Tears streamed down my face.

“It’s running! You are running again!” I said as I held on to this hunk of metal. Eileen came up behind me and hugged me. I stepped away and buried my face into her shoulder and wept. “Thank you so much! I feel like we have brought a part of John back to life. I know it’s just metal, wood, wires, and oil; but a piece of his soul is in this boat.”

“And now, ours, too!” announced Eileen as she pivoted her head and looked at our family gathered around the boat.

Everyone surrounded us in a hug. Our family came together, connected through an inherited gift from a friend—a brother—who had passed on to the other side.

“Ah, well,” said our neighbor, Ed. “I’ll join in the hug, too.” Ed wrapped his arms around us, and we laughed.

“You are a part of this, too, Ed,” I said. “You willingly brought your tools and put your hands to work to restore Johnny Bruce.”

In the corner of my eye, I saw a white glow coming from the center of the boat from inside where we placed the box of crystals and gems. I shook it off as nothing, and my mind soaked in this hugging moment.

Soon, I would find out how alive Johnny Bruce was.


1 Mark 4:35-41