Isabel

The storm passes, and Isabel wakes up to the sun shining. Isabel’s mother is sick, but Isabel’s father and Luis finally get the engine started again. They see land on the horizon, and hills and trees as they approach. A pier they steer toward lies by a fancy café with white tourists, but there are also two Black men in white uniforms, speaking a language that they do not understand. They have reached the Bahamas, and they are told that if they get out of their boat, they will be detained and sent back to Cuba. Lito says that he will disembark with Isabel’s mother, but Isabel’s mother insists that she does not want to go back to Cuba. The tourists at the café give them snacks, bottles of water, and some aspirin before they set out across the ocean again.