โIsabel woke to a warm orange glow on the horizon and a silver sea stretching out before them like a mirror. It was as though the storm had been some kind of feverish nightmare. Seรฑor Castillo woke from his nightmare too, parched like a man whoโd been lost in the desert. He drank almost half of one of the few gallons of water they had left in one long chug, then laid back against the side of the boat.โ
Isabel worried about her mother. For Mami, the nightmare was just beginning. The illness sheโd felt as the storm began had gotten worse in the night, and now she had a fever hotter than the rising sun. Lito dipped a scrap of shirt into the cool seawater and draped it across his daughterโs forehead to cool her, but without the aspirin from the lost medicine box there was no way to bring the fever down.
โThe baby โฆ โ Mami moaned, holding her stomach.
โThe baby will be fine,โ Lito told her. โA good strong healthy baby boy.โ
Lito and Seรฑora Castillo took care of Isabelโs mother. Papi and Luis got the engine restarted, and bathed it with water to keep it cool. Amara, at the
rudder, steered them north now that the sun was in the sky. Everybody had a job, it seemed, except Isabel and Ivรกn.
Isabel bumped shoulders and stepped on toes as she wobbled her way over to Ivรกn in the prow of the boat. She sat down beside him with a huff.
โI feel useless,โ she told Ivรกn. โI know,โ he said. โMe too.โ
They sat for a while in silence before Ivรกn said, โDo you think weโll have to do algebra in our new American school?โ
Isabel laughed. โYes.โ
โWill they have political rallies every day at school in the US? Will we have to work in the fields all afternoon?โ His eyes went wide. โDo you think weโll have to carry guns to protect us from all the shootings?โ
โI donโt know,โ Isabel told him. Their teachers told them all the time how homeless people starved in the streets of the US, and how people who couldnโt afford to pay for doctors got sick and died, and how thousands of people were killed by guns every year. As happy as she had been to go toย el norte, Isabel suddenly worried that it wouldnโt be as magical a place as everyone in the boat believed.
โNo matter what, Iโm glad you came with us,โ Ivรกn said. โNow we can live next door to each other forever.โ
Isabel blushed and looked at her feet. She liked that thought too.
Castroโs face was even more submerged now, which meant they were taking on water. Between the tanker and the storm, the little boat had suffered a poundingโand it had never been very seaworthy to begin with. Seรฑor Castillo had only expected the boat to be on the water for a day, two at the most. How much longer would it take them to get to Florida?
And where exactlyย wereย they? โHey, is that land?โ Ivรกn asked.
He pointed over the side of the boat. Isabel and the others scrambled so quickly to see that the boat tipped dangerously in the water.
Yesโyes! Isabel could see it. A long, thin, dark green line along the blue horizon. Land!
โIs it Florida?โ Ivรกn asked.
โItโs on the wrong side of the boat to be the US,โ Luis said, looking back at the sun. โUnless we got blown into the Gulf of Mexico overnight.โ
โWhatever it is, Iโm steering for it,โ Amara told them.
Everyone watched in silence as the green line turned into hills and trees, and the water got clearer and shallower. Isabel held her breath. She had never been so excited in her entire life. Was it really the United States? Had they made it? Amara brought them close to shore, then turned and ran south along it. Isabel searched the shore. There! She pointed to red and yellow beach umbrellas with chairs underneath them. And in the beach chairs were white people.
A woman in a bikini lifted her black sunglasses and pointed at them, and the man with her sat up and stared. As the boat rounded the beach, Isabel saw more people, all staring and pointing and waving.
โYes! Yes! We made it! We made it!โ Isabel said, shaking Ivรกnโs arms. Ivรกn hopped up and down so much the boat groaned. โFlorida!โ he cried. A black man in a white suit hurried down the beach toward them,
waving his arms over his head to get their attention. He yelled something in English, and pointed for them to go farther south.
Amara followed the shore around a bend, and the open ocean gave way to a quiet little bay with a long, wooden pier. The pier had a little cafรฉ on it with tables and chairs. Fancy two-man sailboats were parked on the beach next to volleyball courts, and more umbrellas and chairs dotted the sand.
Isabelโs heart leapedโthe US was even more of a paradise than she ever imagined!
Luis flipped a switch, and the putter of the engine died. The white people got up from their tables at the bar to help pull them to the dock, and Isabel and the others reached for their hands. Their fingertips were almost close enough to touch when black men in white short-sleeve uniforms pushed their way between the vacationers on the pier and the boat.
One of them said something in a language Isabel didnโt understand.
โI think heโs asking us if weโre from Haiti,โ Lito said to the others in the boat. โWe are from Cuba,โ he said slowly in Spanish to the uniformed man.
โYouโre from Cuba?โ the officer asked in Spanish. โYes! Yes!โ they cried.
โWhere are we?โ Papi asked. โThe Bahamas,โ the man said.
The Bahamas?ย Isabelโs mind went back to the map of the Caribbean on the wall of her schoolroom. The Bahamas were islands to the north and east of Havana, directly above the middle of Cuba. A long way east of Miami. Had the storm really taken themย thatย far off course?
โIโm sorry,โ the officer said. โBut youโre not allowed to land. Bahamian law prohibits the entry of illegal aliens into the Bahamas. If you set foot on Bahamian soil, you will be detained and sent back to your country of origin.โ
Behind the officers, a tourist who spoke Spanish was translating for the others. Some of the tourists looked distressed and began arguing with the authorities.
โBut we have a sick pregnant woman,โ Lito said, stepping aside to reveal Isabelโs mother. The tourists behind the officers gasped and expressed their concern.
The officers held a brief discussion, and Isabel held her breath.
โThe commandant has agreed that, due to health reasons, the pregnant woman may come ashore to receive medical care,โ the Spanish-speaking officer announced. Isabel and Ivรกn clung to each other with a glimmer of hope. โHowever, she cannot give birth here,โ the officer continued. โOnce she is stabilized, she will be deported back to Cuba.โ
Isabel and Ivรกn slumped with disappointment, and the boat fell silent. Isabel felt a knot in her stomach. She wanted her mother to recover, but she dreaded the thought of being sent back to Cuba. Couldnโt the Bahamas just make an exception? How could one more Cuban family make a difference? She glanced back at the pier and the inviting cafรฉ. Surely, there was enough room for them!
The situation was explained to the tourists on the pier, and they gasped and waited.
โAll right,โ Lito said. โMy daughter is sick. She needs medical attention.โ
โNo!โ Papi said. โYou heard him! If we step off this boat, theyโll send us back to Cuba. Iโm not going back.โ
โThenย Iย will go with her,โ Lito said.ย โIย care for Teresaโs life more than I care forย el norte.โ
Tears ran down Isabelโs cheeks. No.ย No!ย This wasnโt the way things were supposed to happen! Her family was supposed to beย together. Thatโs why sheโd insisted theyย allย go on the boat. And if her mother went back to Cuba and her father went on to the United States, which one was she supposed to go with?
Lito started to lift Isabelโs mother, but Mami pushed him away. โNo!โ Isabelโs mother said.
โBut, Teresaโโ Lito said.
โNo! I donโt want my baby born in Cuba.โ
โBut youโre ill! You canโt take another ocean voyage,โ Lito argued.
โI will not go back,โ Mami said. She reached up and took her husbandโs and her daughterโs hands. โI will stay with my family.โ
Relieved, Isabel threw herself into her motherโs arms. She was surprised when she felt her father kneel down in the boat and hug them both.
โIt sounds like weโre leaving, then,โ Luis told everyone in the boat.
Before they could get the engine restarted, one of the tourists tossed down a bottle of water to Seรฑora Castillo. Soon the rest of the tourists were hurrying back and forth to the cafรฉ, buying bottles of water and bags of chips and tossing them into everyoneโs hands on the boat.
โAspirin? Does anyone have aspirin? For my mother?โ Isabel begged.
Up on the dock, an old white woman understood. She quickly dug around in her big purse and tossed a plastic bottle full of pills to Isabel.
โThank you! Thank you!โ Isabel cried. Her heart ached with gratitude toward these people. Just a momentโs kindness from each of them might mean the difference between death and survival for her mother and everyone else on the little raft.
By the time they finally restarted the engine and Amara swung them around to leave, they had more food and water than they had brought with them to begin with. But they were farther away from Florida and freedom than they had ever been before.