Noah's Morning Routine

Noah wakes at five and kayaks up Brices Creek for an hour, as is his custom. After changing into work clothes, he eats a simple breakfast of bread rolls, apples, and coffee. He spends the morning repairing fence posts in the Indian summer heat. At lunch, he eats by the creek, watching mullets jump, and reflects on the constancy of nature versus man's aggression, thinking about the war. He stops working in the early afternoon to fish from his dock. While fishing, he reflects on his childhood: his mother died when he was two, he had a severe stutter that led teachers to think he was retarded, but his father taught him to read poetry to overcome it. He excelled in sports and became popular, but always felt isolated. He thinks about Allie, the only girl who ever made an impression on him. He remembers his friend Fin's prediction that they would fall in love but it wouldn't work out due to class differences. He recalls writing to Allie for two years without reply, then finally accepting it was over. He left New Bern to forget her, working in Norfolk and then New Jersey for Morris Goldman. He rose to run the scrap yard, but never stopped thinking about Allie. He enlisted in the army after Pearl Harbor, and Goldman gave him a certificate for a percentage of the business. After the war, Goldman died, and Noah received a check for almost seventy thousand dollars. He returned to New Bern, bought the house, and began restoring it. His father died of pneumonia shortly after, and Noah visits his grave regularly.