The New Noah's Ark

The table was just right for four and no more, and so the father, mother, daughter and grandson were just right for the table.

"Granddad," Noah said after the prayer. "You didn't say 'Dear Lord'."

"God knows his name," said Little Mac.

"Nor you didn't say 'ah men'."

"Your Granddad's got his own ways," said Noah's mother, Delilah.

"He knows," said Big Bertha, Delilah's mother, "that if he says 'ah men' then he has to say 'ah women'. And that don't sound very thankful."

"The main thing," said Mac, "is to wish that everyone should have as good as we've got here. Now, dig in! Let's get some gravy on our chin!"

Given the provocation, a somewhat perplexed Noah took his grandfather at his word and abandoned that little of the etiquette Delilah had instilled in him. The affection this inspired in his grandfather, at seeing the gravy literally dripping off the boy's chin, gave birth on the spot to a plan.

"Right," said Little Mac. He wiped his mouth with the paper towel that was his napkin, squeezed it into a ball and with an expert toss over his shoulder sent it sailing into the kindling box by the woodstove. "Now, I think it's time that the four of us, being recently reunited and with no formal consecration of the fact, I think it's time we all had an adventure together. What say you?"

Big Bertha's hand went up, Noah shouted approval and balled his own napkin up and threw it over his shoulder into the sliding glass doors to the porch, while Delilah, sighing in acquiescence, said, "Yes, Dad, sure, why not."

***

No sooner had Little Mac awakened his grandson than he put a blindfold on him. "What would we be without surprises?" he said. "Now me, I've had my share for a lifetime but still I'm always wantin' more. And you, you need some better ones I reckon than what you've been getting. So for our adventure today, just you keep this on until we get to where we're going. Then you'll stretch your eyes or my name isn't Mac the Knife."

***

"I heard you," Bertha said as she guided the Cape Islander out of the harbour. "And I'm surprised myself. You ain't let no one call you Mac the Knife since you was in the service."

"Well, as it turns out," said Little Mac, "I'd like to kill something again, even if it's only a boy's grief for his poor flighty dad as up and left him in the night."

In that dawn, the sea and sky seemed as fresh as if born for the very first time and the cold air a delightful elixir the mere breathing of which could cure the breather of anything. So Big Bertha would describe it later in her diary. As for her daughter, Delilah felt her misery disengage for the first time since that morning of the empty space beside her in the bed.

"Dad," she said, "Won't you please take Noah's blindfold off? I want him to see this. He needs to see this."

"Oh, girl," said Little Mac, "sure and you can do it yourself. Only wait till we have sunk the land. I want the first thing he sees to be water and sky, nothing more. Won't you do that for me? I mean him. You know, do it for him. I promise it will be a good thing."

***

When the time was right, however, Delilah deferred to Little Mac, who promptly said, "Little brother, here you go," and lifted Noah's blindfold.

"Whoa!" said Noah. "This is what it's like on Noah's ark?"

"This is it!" said Little Mac, and he and Big Bertha and Delilah lifted their joined hands around the boy.

The boat idled on the gentle swell. The early sun made a shimmering blue robe of the folds of the ocean. The only colour other than blue was in the thin band of diaphonously pinkish clouds on the horizon and among the four of them in the little white box of the boat. No land could be seen anywhere. Noah turned and turned again but there was none to be seen.

"Wait," he said, and the tears welled, "does this mean my new home's gone too?"

Delilah would have broken the circle to hug and console and enlighten her son, but her father held fast to her hand.

"Now this is an adventure," Mac said, "and in this adventure, that is summat like a story or a game, yes, everything is gone. The flood has covered all the world and only Noah's ark is left. And Noah's courage. He was brave, remember?"

"Yes, but..." Noah wiped his eyes. "But ... where's all the animals then? Where's Noah's animals?"

"Well, there's only this one," said his granddad, handing him a piece of paper, "and it will have to do for now."

"But this is only a paper dog," said Noah.

"A paper dog, yes," said Little Mac, but not 'only' a paper dog. You see that writing on the other side?"

"Yes, but I can't read yet, Granddad."

"I know. Your mother can, however. What's it say there, Dee?"

"It says, 'Once you find land again, you may exchange me for a real dog. One you get to keep."

***

"Never was a watchman more watchful," Bertha said to Mac as they lay in bed that night. "When we raised Hopson Island, I thought he'd fall overboard hollerin' 'Land ho! Land ho! Mount Airy Hat!'"

"I hope it helps," said Little Mac. "It isn't much."

"It's a lot. It's a start, anyway. And it was good for Dee too."

"Well, I reckon. And Noah can't wait to help me paint the new name on your boat. That was purely inspired."

"Well, Minnie the Moocher was good while it lasted. But Cousin Minnie, she'll understand."

"Well, it's the right name, Bertie. At the right time."

"Well, well, well," Big Bertha said and laughed. "Well, well, well."

"Well, well, well," Little Mac echoed quietly, snuggling up against her. "A voyage to remember."

"For a little while, anyway," Bertha whispered to the dimly moonlit ceiling, when her husband was asleep.


1 March 2018
Texas Jim
Prospect, Nova Scotia
www.granitecoast.ca