He was drowning
Not in water
but in words
words he couldn't understand
Zephyr
Leviathan
Descry
Presentiment
Inexorable

He had been told he would love this book.
This Moby Dick.
That it would change his life forever
reading about an elusive whale.

But the paragraphs were too long.
The words above his understanding.
Yet he wanted to read it.
So he went to see "Old Jimmy".

Old Jimmy was a negro
and despite the law back then
He had learned how to read.
He was 87 years old,
A former slave who was educated.

He fought all the prejudices.
He was intelligent,
Clever.
Way smarter than most.

He was too old to care if people knew.

The boy's father called Old Jimmy "Uppity".
"Who did he think he was?"
"Claiming to be a lawyer?"
"Pretending he was better than us simple folk."

But the boy wanted to know more.
so once a week he would sneak down the road
to "Old Jimmy's Shack".

Jimmy would read a chapter to him on those days.
He would explain the strange words.
He would read loud and strong and act out all the parts.

And slowly the young boy's vocabulary grew.
Words developed meanings he had never considered.
The plot would take new turns.

Together they would discuss,
Argue,
Act out,
Believe the book.

One day "Old Jimmy" gave him a gift.

A dictionary,

full of unknown words.

He showed him how to use it.
Look up words
in alphabetical order.
He made the boy promise to learn three words a day.

When Moby Dick was almost read,

three chapters left,

"Old Jimmy" died.

Suddenly.
Unexpectedly.

The boy was sad
but couldn't tell his father why
and wondered how he would finish.

That night he opened the dictionary.
There, on the opening page was a note for him.

"Here unlocks the world,
word by word,
dream by dream.
Sail into the worlds you never knew.
I will be with you."

The boy never told his father why he knew so much.
Why he went to school to study law.

He just became a sailor in search of knowledge.

And when he had his own little boy.
He sat him on his knee.
Picked up the book.

Moby Dick,

and began.

"Call me Ishmael."