One of the soldiers came toward them with a gun.
“No! Wait!” Josef’s mother cried. “I have money. Reichsmarks. French francs.” She fumbled inside her shirt, where she kept their money hidden. The bills fluttered to the ground.
The soldier moved the bills around with his feet and made a tsking sound. “It is not enough, I’m afraid.”
Josef’s heart sank.
At the chance she might really be able to buy their way out, Josef’s mother became hysterical. “Wait! Wait! I have jewelry. Diamonds!” She yanked at Ruthie’s coat, pulling it off over her head.
“Mama! What are you doing?” Ruthie cried.
Josef’s mother ripped at the seams, the way his father had when he’d rent his garments for old Professor Weiler on the ship. From Ruthie’s coat she pulled something that glittered in the light of the electric torches.
Earrings. The diamond earrings Josef’s father had bought her for their anniversary one year. Josef remembered Papa giving them to her. Remembered the smile on Mama’s face, the light in her eyes, both long gone now. Mama had sewn her earrings into the lining of Ruthie’s coat! That was why she had never let Ruthie take it off.
The soldier took the earrings from Josef’s mother and examined them in the light. Josef held his breath. Maybe they would let his mother buy their way out of this after all.
“Everything I was able to keep,” his mother said, “it’s all yours. Just please—let us go.”
“These are very nice,” the soldier said. “But I think there is only enough here to buy freedom for one of your children.”
“But—but that’s all I have left,” Mama said.
The soldier looked at her expectantly. At first Josef didn’t understand what he wanted—they didn’t have anything else to give him. But then the Nazi pulled Josef and Ruthie to him and turned them around for Mama to see, and that’s when Josef understood. The Nazi didn’t care how much money they had, how many jewels. It wasn’t about that. He was playing with them. This was another game, like a cat playing with a mouse before he ate it.
I think there is only enough here to buy freedom for one of your children.
One of Rachel Landau’s children would go free, and one of her children would go into the camps.
The Nazi soldier smiled at Josef’s mother. “You choose.”
Here, in this boat that had been her home for four days and four nights, Isabel’s little brother was born.
Not right away. First had come her mother’s frantic pushing, pushing, pushing to bring the baby into the world, while the rest of them paddled, paddled, paddled. All but Se?ora Castillo, who sat on the bench next to Mami, holding her hand and talking her through it. Behind them, the Coast Guard had finished picking up Isabel’s grandfather and was headed their way, lights flashing.
Their little blue boat was close to the shore. The waves around them were breaking with white caps. Isabel could see people dancing on the beach. But they weren’t close enough. Weren’t going to make it. That’s when Mami’s cries had mixed with Amara’s yell to “Swim for it!” and Luis and Amara hopped over the side, half swimming, half tumbling toward shore.
“No, wait!” Isabel cried. Her mother couldn’t swim for the beach. Not like this. They had to paddle in or her mother would never make it to the US.
Isabel and Papi and Se?or Castillo rowed as hard as they could, but the Coast Guard ship was faster. It was going to catch them.
“Go!” Isabel’s mother told her husband between pants. “If you’re caught, they’ll send you back.”
“No,” Papi said.
“Go!” Mami said again. “If I’m caught, they’ll just—they’ll just send me back to Cuba. Go, and take Isabel. You can—you can send money, like you always planned!”
“No!” Isabel cried, and amazingly, her father agreed.
“Never,” he insisted. “I need you, Teresa. You and Isabel and little Mariano.”
Isabel’s mother sobbed at the name, and tears sprang to Isabel’s eyes too. Like the boat, they had never settled on a name for the baby. Not until now. Naming the baby after Lito was the perfect way to remember him, no matter where they were.
“But they’ll send us back,” Mami sobbed.
“Then we’ll go back,” Papi said. “Together.”
He put his forehead to his wife’s temple and held her hand, taking Se?ora Castillo’s place as Mami made her last push.
The Coast Guard ship bounced in the waves. It was almost on top of them.
“It’s time!” Se?or Castillo said. “We have to swim for it. Now!”
“No, please,” Isabel begged, paddling helplessly against the tide, tears running down her face. They were so close. But Se?or Castillo was already helping his wife over the side into the water.
They were abandoning ship.
Isabel’s mother cried out louder than before, but Papi was with her. He would take care of her. All that mattered now was rowing. Rowing as hard as Isabel could. She was her mother’s last hope.
“Take—take Isabel with you,” she heard her mother say between pushes. But Isabel wasn’t worried. She knew her father wouldn’t listen. That he would never leave. Neither of them would. They were a family. They would be together. Forever.
But then suddenly arms were picking her up, lifting her over the side!
“Say good-bye to Fidel,” Se?or Castillo said. He was the one Mami had been talking to. He had come back, and he was the one lifting Isabel out of the boat and into the water!
“No—no!” Isabel cried.
“You saved my life once, now let me save yours!” Se?or Castillo told her.
Isabel didn’t listen. She kicked and screamed, trying to get free. She didn’t want to go to the States if it meant leaving her parents—her family—behind. But Se?or Castillo was too strong. He tossed her in the water, and she sank under the waves in a tangle of arms and legs and bubbles before quickly hitting bottom.
Isabel found her footing and pushed herself back up out of the water. It was chest deep, and the waves that slid by her toward shore lifted her up and set her down again on the sand. Iván’s cap had come off her head in her splashdown, and she snatched it up before it disappeared in the surf.
Then she grabbed the side of the boat to climb back in.
Se?or Castillo’s arm went around her waist and pulled her away.
“No!” Isabel cried. “I won’t leave them!”
“Hush! We’re not going anywhere,” Se?or Castillo said. “Help us pull the boat to shore!”
Isabel looked around, and for the first time she saw that Se?ora Castillo was still there, and Luis and Amara were there too. They all stood waist-deep in the water around the boat. They had come back!
They all found somewhere to grab on to the boat and pull, churning up the sand at their feet. Isabel sobbed with relief and grabbed hold. It was harder for her to pull when the waves kept lifting her, but the sight of the Coast Guard boat bearing down on them helped motivate her.