Walking on Water

I’ll always remember the day my brother Billy “walked on water,” or so someone thought!

In his youth, Billy built this small skiff with whatever pieces of lumber he could find, which was obviously not quite enough. The sides of his construction gave only about 4 and a half inches of freeboard, but the boat was useful as long as it was “slick cam” (as the old folks used to say).

What he saw was unbelievably spectacular. As Billy moved the skiff, it looked just like he was “walking on the water."

I remember that skiff really well, especially the time my Billy, Cuz Carlton Cornelius and I took it for a cruise out of the John Creek crossing at Satterthwaite Creek. That thing looked like it could sink at any time. I wasn’t sure that we would make it back to the crossing. Well, on this one particular day, a fisherman was coming out of Wright’s Creek and happened to looked up into Satterthwaite Creek. What he saw was unbelievably spectacular. As Billy moved the skiff, it looked just like he was “walking on the water.”

Since the sides of that so-called skiff were so low, he could not see the skiff at all in the distance.

Well, this fisherman was so overwhelmed at the sight he shut his engine off and just drifted for a while, taking in the spectacle. 

Finally, he cranked that engine on and came on up further in the creek, he could then see that Billy was actually standing on a skiff. The mystery was over, and brother Billy once again joined us ordinary people with no special powers — like being able to “walk on water.”

Ben Wilkins, Asheboro, a member of Randolph EMC