The bedraggled and exhausted crew motored along under a bright starlit sky. Their lone craft a flyspeck on the dark Caribbean ocean. Fortunately, the weather was clear and the waves long low rollers that rocked most of them to sleep. Teddy nursed the small outboard in an attempt to squeeze as many miles as possible from what little gas they had.
It was sixty miles or so from their dive site to the Yucatan peninsula. More importantly, Teddy wanted to put as many miles as possible between them and Cuba before the sun came up. The engine sputtered and stopped for the final time. Teddy shook the engine for every last drop of gas and yanked on the starting cord a few times—no use.
Moving carefully along the length of the boat, he rummaged around until he pulled out a long pole with a sail attached to it. Stepping the mast into a hole in the keel, he let fly the sail and sat back holding the line that controlled its angle into the wind. The set up was simple, like the first sailing dinghy he'd ever owned.
Teddy tried to surf the boat down the long low rollers to gain every extra ounce of forward momentum, just as he had done as a kid. He enjoyed being under the stars alone at night feeling the might of the waves underneath him. He found rest in the sense of awe and wonder that filled him when he paused to recognize the power and majesty of creation. Nature declared the glory of God in every fiber of his being.
"Dad? What are you doing?" Caleb had awoken and was looking around bleary-eyed.
"Resting in the hand of God. Do you feel it?" Teddy felt the surge building behind him as the wave mounted up and the boat began to slide down its face.
"The presence of God?" Caleb queried.
"In a way, yes… the power of the waves propelling us forward!" Teddy's voice was filled with awe.
"Yes. It's amazing riding the waves way out here under the stars!" Caleb took it all in.
"Why did you go back into the room to open the door?" Teddy's voice carried the seriousness that Caleb couldn't see on his face in the dim light.
Caleb stared off into the distance as he quoted: "And God looked upon the earth and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. Genesis 6:12"
Teddy thought he understood. Bones had told him about the strange behavior of the people in the cells and the girl. "Did she say anything to you?"
Caleb looked at his father with tears in his eyes. "I don't think she could speak."
Dawn had covered the sky in wispy rose-colored clouds when Teddy spotted the sparkling lights of Cancun far to the West. Oily pink tourists watched from a distance as they dragged their boat through the surf. Unshaven, sunburned, disheveled and filthy, the four refugees made quite a sight as they walked through the thatched beach cabanas looking for a bar.
Bones spotted a large thatched open-air bar with a huge banner across the roof declaring it to be the Blue Parrot at Playa del Carmen. They exchanged grins and made a beeline. Hunger and thirst drove them.
The tiny blonde bartendress in her bikini top and daisy dukes was used to the rougher types that frequented the bar on occasion, but she had never seen anything like this. Four of the filthiest dive bums, sunburnt, hair encrusted with salt, lips peeling—two looked like they had lived in their clothes. The other two wore neoprene dive suits, one with a torn white lab coat overtop—it was a scene from a zombie film.
"Sidecar—sugared rim with a twist." Teddy rasped. "Your best IPA on tap for my friend and a couple of cokes for the youngsters." Teddy had no idea how bad they looked, he was just happy they had made it back to civilization in one piece.
"Uhh, do you have any money to pay for that?" Blondie had been around the block a few times.
Teddy pulled an opaque round container from his dive vest, opened it and set it on the bar.
Slowly and deliberately, he scooped out a handful of gold dust and let it slip through the tips of his fingers to form a shiny pyramid.