Teddy flipped the gas cutoff to on, turned the key and pressed the ignition button. Olivia fired right up, settling into a gentle purr. There was something about that sound. The sound of a finely tuned engine at high idle, warming itself up, almost as if it were alive... purring. Purring was the right word.
Reversing out of the slip, Teddy couldn't believe how smooth she handled. In spite of her looks, Bones had bought a lot of boat if you considered the driveline.
"Bones!" Teddy yelled. "Take the con, while I go below to chart our course. I want to set up a grid using GPS today, so that we don't miss a beat tomorrow." Teddy simply let go of the steering wheel and walked away confident Uncle Stu would take over before the trawler reverse idled into neighboring shipping.
"No. I do not think so. I am policing the lines." Uncle Stu didn't even look up from pulling bumpers in and coiling ropes to stow away.
"I've got the con." Joshua scampered up the ladder to the bridge and grabbed the wheel in one maneuver, almost crashing into Caleb who'd had the same idea. Uncle Stu looked up and grinned as the two wrestled for control of the wheel.
At sixteen and fourteen, respectively, they were still boys—Uncle Stu watched as Caleb punched Joshua in the solar plexus while Joshua wrapped his muscular left arm around Caleb's head—aggressive boys!
Joshua waited until they cleared the harbor and Uncle Stu was standing on the aft deck coiling the last dock line, before shouting: "All ahead full!" and slamming both throttles to the stops.
Olivia leaped into the air to the sound of Teddy cursing and coffee flying. She took off like a beat dog with Uncle Stu dragged behind by the dock line. Caleb was cackling as he watched Uncle Stu flip onto his back. Joshua moderated their speed as he dodged buoys and other boat traffic begging Caleb for the play by play. Caleb was too busy laughing to respond.
"What's he doing, Caleb?" Joshua screamed over the roar of the engines.
"He's…"
Joshua turned to look over his shoulder when he saw Caleb's face go white. Uncle Stu was up on his bare feet skiing as if he'd grown up water skiing Minnesota lakes his entire childhood... he had. He was holding the dock line in his left hand and miming pistol shots at Joshua and Caleb with his right.
To make matters worse the grizzled old bear, as the boys referred to their dad, was climbing out of his den with coffee dripping from his beard. Both Joshua and Caleb screamed: "Run!" And they ran, but not before Joshua dropped the speed a bit as a last act of contrition.
Papa Bear took one look at Uncle Stu sinking into the water, walked two steps to the con and slapped the throttles forward a notch or two. Uncle Stu popped right up and slalomed from side to side showing off.
An hour later, Joshua and Caleb were using their toothbrushes to clean the head while Teddy and Uncle Stu cracked a few cold ones and poured over the charts.
"Dad?" Caleb asked. "What are we searching for?"
"The truth." Teddy liked to engage his boys' hearts and minds with the deeper questions of life.
"I know, Dad, but what treasures are we seeking?" Caleb screwed up his face into an inquisitive expression.
"Truth is the greatest treasure, Son." Teddy smiled. He was forcing the boy to articulate his thoughts.
"Alien technology." Both Joshua and Caleb stopped scrubbing as Uncle Stu spoke up.
"Keep scrubbing." Teddy had ears on the back of his head. "Yes. Uncle Stu is right, although he has a hole in his head." Teddy shot a glare in his direction. "We have been hired by our employers to find ancient alien technologies."
"Like what?" Joshua shrieked, he loved technology and gear of all kinds.
"You wanna' handle that one, Bones?" Teddy gave him the pistol shot and a wink.
"According to your father… I was not present." Bones cleared his throat. "A very shiny young lady came into his tent and asked him to find cup shaped devices that move megalithic stones using sound waves, Egyptian electric light bulbs and alien spaceships… am I missing anything? Oh, and your dad said: Yes."
"Really, dad? You said: yes." Joshua's eyes were glowing with thoughts of alien spaceships.
"How are we going to find Egyptian light bulbs in Cuba?" Caleb, always the practical one, intoned.
"More scrubbing—less talking." Teddy shared a smile with Uncle Stu. "We are not exactly looking for ancient alien technology, although if we find any, we will definitely share it with our employers, as agreed. What we are looking for will be easier to find because it wants to be found."
"What is it, Dad?" Joshua's voice rose in frustration.
"Truth. The truth always wants to be found. It always tries to come into the light. We just have to be there when it does." Teddy chuckled, imagining the boys' faces.
"How do we know where we need to go?" Caleb was wide-eyed.
"How do you find any treasure, Caleb?" Teddy watched as his pirate-fanatic son worked it out in his mind.
"A map! A treasure map!" Caleb grinned from ear to ear.
"Yes. That's it exactly! We have a map that confirms for us the existence of what we are looking for, tells us when it should appear in the geologic record and how we will find it." Teddy reached for his Bible.
"Can we see the map, Dad?" Joshua asked.
"Sure, I'll read it to you… There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4."
"The good news, Kids, is that your daddy does not believe in aliens. The bad news is that he believes in giants." Uncle Stu reached his hand into a bag of Chicharrones, the spicy fried pork skins that everybody in Cuba ate, and used his teeth to twist the top off his second cerveza.
"That's not a map. That's a Bible verse!" Caleb wasn't about to be fooled.
"Are you sure, Caleb?" Teddy asked. "What is a map? Isn't it information that leads you to find something? Ever heard of Matthew Maury?"
"Pathfinder of the Seas!" Uncle Stu blurted.
"That's right!" Teddy looked back at his two sons. "Matthew Maury read Psalm 8:8 and saw that God declared there were 'paths in the seas' and he used that information to go searching for the great ocean currents that we now know run in pathways all over the globe!"
"How did he know it was true?" Joshua pursed his eyebrows.
"He understood a fundamental truth: if it says it in the Word of God, then we know it's true—we only have to find it."
"So we are looking for giants?" Caleb's voice rose an octave as he ended.
"What do we do if we find them?" Joshua deadpanned with his arms stretched out walking like a zombie around the room..