The Shores of Miami by Lucy Szerminski

Author:Lucy Szerminski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, friendship, historical, action and adventure, sea stories, disaster, survival, chapter books, young adult fiction, Cuba history, Castro, communist, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Spanish, juvenile fiction
Publisher: Ripple Foundation

Chapter 5

Requirements

I wake to Ari’s face looming over mine, concern filling her eyes. As soon as she sees my eyes, she yanks me into a crushing hug.

“Yanara!” she screams. “Yanara, you’re safe!” Her screams make me cringe, and I realize that my head is pounding. How many times did I hit it? I can’t remember. Everything is a blur.

“How long have I been out?” I ask. My voice comes in a croak. “Who else was on the tiny part of the raft? And who saved me?” Ari sits up and I try to sit up, too.

“No, don’t!” says a voice behind me. “Don’t sit up,” it repeats. “You’re far too dizzy. I’m guessing you banged your head more than once.” The mysterious voice is right. I can’t even focus my eyes.

“You’ve been out cold for about a day,” says Ari. “You must be famished.” My stomach growls, proving her point.

“But who rescued me?” I ask again.

“I did,” says the mysterious voice, and another face swims into view. “My name is Anay,” says the boy. “I used to practice swimming before Castro. And whoever else that was on that little bit of raft was lost in the storm.” I’d guess that Anay is about five years older than me. Plenty of time to learn some rescue skills.

“Thank you,” I say. “But that ocean… you could have died, and then two people would be dead! Three, with that other person!”

“I might have died anyway, so it seemed like that was what I should do. Now eat.” He passes me some rice and beans, all of them hard and unappetizing, but it’s the best food I’ve ever tasted.

In a few minutes, I feel stable enough to sit up. I lean against a container of water and take part in the conversation.

“Two are dead from the storm and one from hunger,” says one man. “I worry that more will go, too. We should eat more. How much food do we have left?”

“We lost more than half of our food in the storm,” says a tall woman with long black hair. “We need to cut down to one meal a day, and by a meal, I mean about a handful of food. We have to ration.” No one complains. Back in Cuba was as bad, anyway. And at least, by some miracle, our motor is undamaged. But the requirements for making it to Florida are overwhelming:

We can’t run out of food.

The motor can’t die.

We can’t run into any other storms.

We can’t be caught by the Coast Guard or we will be taken back to Cuba again.

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