Jacob and The Boat

Jacob, a wealthy man, didn’t know what to do. He had everything he ever wanted and did pretty much anything he wanted to do. Life was just getting boring. He wanted to help people financially or physically. He was soon going to get what he wanted.

Jacob was going on his morning jog (like always) to maintain his healthy diet. But this time he decided to go a different way. He ran up a jagged hill. Panting, he tried to sit down on a rock. But, before he could, he saw something very unusual and abnormal. A boat with pieces of wood missing from it was lying on its side. Jacob drew closer to the mysterious scene.

“Odd, isn’t it”, said a disembodied voice.

Startled, Jacob nearly tripped on the rock he was going to sit on. To Jacob’s relief, the voice belonged to an old man who was inside the ship. The old man emerged from what remained of the boat.

“Yes” Jacob replied. “How did this happen?”

This brought tears to the old man’s eyes. Quickly he changed the question.

“What is your name”, Jacob asked. “My name is Jacob. Jacob Rick.”

“Well hello Jacob” said the old man.

That is when the shook hands. The old man’s hand was very rough and pleasantly warm.

“I am Randy Granter. Sorry I hadn’t answered your first question. It just brought back sad memories…”

Randy suddenly became silent. For the first time Jacob got a good look at Randy. His clothes were scratched up, his face looked sorrow and had wrinkles. His eyes were blue as the ocean and he was wearing an old fishing hat decorated with various sorts of fish hooks. Jacob now developed a pretty confident idea that the boat belonged to Randy. Randy started to begin his story:

“I used to own a boat rental place. It wasn’t grand, but it was profitable. I spent all my money on it so the only money I had was from the boat rentals. It was my dream to own a boat rental place. It was named FUN-A-FLOAT Boat Rentals. It was located at the harbor and that’s where all the boats were. Everything was going so well until the disastrous day. No one came to FUN-A-FLOAT or any other store. I turned on my radio. The Radio Announcer announced that there was going to be a tornado or a water spout. Either one of them can do lots of damage. And for a water spout it is tornado which is made of water which happens on water. That’s where all my boats were. I can only save myself or the boats. I chose to save myself. And now here I am sitting near the only boat which survived the water spout/tornado. Partly survived. I come visit this old heap of wood every single day. I make a living by working at a Nike company. I can only afford food, clothes and shelter.”

Jacob’s mind was already racing on how the new FUN-A-FLOAT was going to be. Jacob was going to build a new FUN-A-FLOAT Boat Rental and buy 20 boats. It was going to be right where the old one was. And that was exactly what he did. He just made a persons life. He felt very happy. And he helped many more people. He traveled to parts around the world where the needed the most help. He helped people get fresh, clean water, wells, houses, food and people who faced tsunamis or tornadoes. Randy and many other people were grateful for Jacobs help.