Bob, or Man on Boat

There is a story about Bob that, one night in April, the wind turned on Bob and came all of a sudden blowing from out of the south and the river, it turned all of a sudden into more like a big lake with seas as big as Bob is tall and that night, Bob’s boat, it turned over, but unlike other boats that turn over, Bob’s boat, it did not into the river sink.

There is no one I know who was on the river that night to say if this story is made up.

It was not the kind of a night that people other than Bob were out on the river fishing.

The river that night was all Bob’s.

The next morning, Bob was seen bailing bucket after bucket of muddy river water out of his boat.

Need a hand, Bob? a few river people called out.

Bob did not look up from his boat.

Bob did not stop bailing the muddy river water out of his boat.

That night, Bob was back, in his boat, out on the river fishing.

The river, that night, was back to being a river and not like being a lake.

When Bob came back in, the next morning, Bob’s boat, it was filled up, not with muddy river water, it was filled up with muddy river fish.

You won’t ever hear Bob call out, the way some fisher people call out, Fish on!

When Bob fishes, if his lips are moving at all, Bob is whispering to the fish.

What does a man whisper when he whispers to fish?

What does a man like Bob whisper when he is whispering to fish?

What does Bob whisper when he moves his lips to whisper to the river’s fish?

Only Bob, and only the fish, know the answer to this.

Some people who fish kiss the fish that they fish out of the river.

Some people who fish say to the fish that they fish, Come to Papa.

Bob is not one of these people.

Bob is Bob.

Bob takes the fish that he fishes out of the river and he fishes them into his boat.

Bob takes the fish that he fishes out of the river and Bob sells the fish, but not so that he can eat.

Bob takes the fish that he fishes out of the river and Bob sells the fish that he fishes out of the river so that Bob can keep on fishing.

So that Bob can continue to live.

Fish on.

Sometimes, at night, when the fish are slow to bite, Bob looks up from the river and looks up into the sky for stars.

Some nights, Bob sees how many stars in the sky he can count.

One night, Bob counted up to two hundred and twenty-two.

That was a bad night for fishing.

That was a good night for counting stars.

Most nights, the fish start biting before Bob can count up to ten.

On a good night of fishing, on a bad night for counting stars, Bob can fill up his boat with more fish than there are stars up in the sky.

Nights like this, Bob’s boat is no longer just a boat.

It is a constellation of fish.

Out on the river, out where the river runs out and turns into lake, there is a lighthouse out there to light the way for boats to see by.

There is a man out there who works this lighthouse light.

Actually there are three men out there who work this lighthouse light together.

None of their names are Bob.

None of these men live in the lighthouse there at the edge of the river where the river runs out and turns into the lake.

The lake is big, it is bigger than the river is, and there are ships out there that come from places faraway.

Germany.

China.

Russia.

Duluth.

I don’t know how these boats get from over there to over here.

It is a long way.

I would have to look at a map to find this out.

I don’t have a map right now for me to look at.

Oceans are crossed.

Canals.

Locks.

Lakes.

Rivers.

Some of these ships, freighters, they come into the river, in from the lake, loaded down with ore.

Others come carrying coils of steel.

There are men who live on these ships.

There are men who work on these ships.

Just like Bob.

When Bob sees these ships coming in from the lake, cutting upriver through the dredged up channels, he knows enough to steer clear of these ships and these ships’ big wakes.

Boats like Bob’s have been known to turn over in the wakes made by these big ships.

This is not to say that Bob does not fish in the channels made for big ships like these.

These channels are sometimes where the big fish are waiting, and where the fishing is sometimes best.

On nights like these, when the fish are in the channels, Bob goes out there to fish.

There is a light shining out on the front of Bob’s boat.

It is green and red.

There is another light on the back of Bob’s boat too.

This other light is white.

These lights are not lights so that Bob can see where the river is.

Bob knows where the river is.

Bob can see this without these lights for him to see the river by.

These lights are so that Bob can be seen by ships like the big ships who come in from the lake.

The lighthouse men all know Bob’s boat when they look out to see what there is out there at night on the river for them to see.

Sometimes Bob can be seen going out to the lake to fish when he knows the fish are out there waiting.

But even though Bob will go and fish the lake, it’s the river that Bob knows best.

Bob is not a lake man.

Bob is a river man.

But even so, Bob knows the lake better than most.