We waited... and waited... and waited. Then, at nearly the same moment, the longboat appeared at the end of the cove, and a red flare shot up into the sky from behind the hill.

"What does that mean?" Cakey asked.

We all watched as Graffy and Grooty swam off, towing Wiggy between them. It seemed so effortless on the swimmers' part, and so frightening for Wiggy. She told me afterward that it was made worse by the fact that she couldn't see anything. I waved and waved to her until she was out of sight, but she hadn't seen me at all.

Once the swimmers disappeared around the hill, Cakey said, "Ding-Dong, let's run to the top of hill and watch them!"

"No," Mirina said. "Everybody stays here." And she fixed her eyes on the sky.

"Why?" Cakey demanded. "Are you watching for something?"

"Yes," Mirina told her. "There's a flare gun in the emergency supplies. I'm watching for Graffy's signal."

We waited... and waited... and waited. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.

Then, at nearly the same moment, the longboat appeared at the end of the cove, and a red flare shot up into the sky from behind the hill.

"What does that mean?" Cakey asked.

"It means that the adults are gone," Mirina replied. "There was no one left on board." Turning to face us, she clapped her hands for attention.

"Listen, girls!" she said. "There are no adults on board. I'm sure we'll find out more details soon, but that's all we know for now. Right now, we need to unload the ship. First of all, we need our own luggage."

There was a general murmur of agreement. "When Wiggy gets here, she'll show Cakey how to run the motorboat, and she'll take all you girls back, except for me and Knickers."

"Why?" Cakey asked.

"Cakey, you're going to be running back and forth with piles of stuff. You don't want to unload it yourself, do you? Knickers and I will unload and carry stuff up to the cave.

"So! First priority: ALL our luggage. Pack up everything that belongs to us and bring it ashore. Second: whatever's useful. Boogers, I want you to evaluate the food situation. Wiggy will decide the rest. She knows boats; she knows what we'll need. Ding-Dong, I want you to help Wiggy — but don't drive her crazy."

Ding-Dong nodded. "Okay."

"Now," Mirina continued, "Life jackets, everyone! Marcie, will you bring one for Cakey?"

I nodded. As I ran off, Mirina spoke very seriously with Cakey, who nodded as she listened.

When we returned to the dock with our life jackets, we found Cakey sitting in the stern of the longboat, her hand on the tiller. Wiggy was explaining things to her, pointing to various parts of the engine. I tossed Cakey's life jacket into the boat.

Mirina caught me by the arm. "Marcie, as soon as you get to the ship, will you pack up all of your things and Wiggy's, and bring the bags up on deck? Then stay with Wiggy and help her. Try to keep Ding-Dong's feet on the ground. Okay?"

"Okay," I agreed, and Mirina gave me a smile. It was funny, but that little moment made me feel important, like I was a key part of what was going on. Wiggy was right about Mirina: she knew how to make people do things. At the same time, I didn't feel like she was bossy or taking advantage of me. I knew that she'd be back here, unloading and hauling everything that we loaded on the other side.

I was the one of the last to get into the longboat, so I had to sit near the front. Donkey was the very last, and as she stepped in, Wiggy called to her from the other end. "Donkey, can you cast off that end? Try to look at way it's tied up, and see if you can make it fast the same way when we get to the ship. Okay?"

"Okay!"

After we cast off, Cakey had to pull the ripcord three times to get the engine started. Red-faced, she steered us away from the dock and into the center of the cove. Occasionally Wiggy would say something to her or point to something, and Cakey would nod. When we left the cove, Wiggy had her come about twice so she could be sure Cakey knew where to enter the cove on the way back. If she came in at the wrong place, she'd run up on the reef, and the hull could be damaged.

When we pulled up to the side of the Seward, Donkey tied off one end of the boat, and Wiggy showed Cakey how to tie off the other end.

"Marcie," she called to me, as the other girls climbed the ladder. "Will you pack my bag and yours and bring them on deck?"

"I was going to," I said. "Then Mirina told me to stick with you."

"Oh, good!" she said, with a relieved smile.

Graffy and Grooty were waiting on deck. "We found them, Wiggy!" They told her, as they waggled some walkie-talkies.

"How many are there?" she asked.

"Four, so far."

"Okay," Wiggy told them. "You two keep one, give me one, and give Cakey two. Tell her the second one is for Her Manliness."

It had been a long time since I'd heard Mirina's nickname — I had to think for a moment who it was. Wiggy gave me a what are you still doing here? glance. I took off below deck to pack our bags.
 

It didn't take long to pack. The hard part was lugging the heavier bags up the steep, narrow stairs.

Ding-Dong and I finished in the same moment, and together we went to find Wiggy, leaving the other girls to load the luggage into the longboat.

We found her in the wheelhouse, looking at the instruments. Suddenly, her walkie-talkie crackled. "Wiggy, this is Grooty. We found the soap."

"Wiggy here. How much did you find?"

"A case and a half. It's all little bottles."

"Bring it all on deck. We're taking it. Did you find any fuel yet?"

"Negative."

"Keep looking. It's the most important thing. Wiggy out."

"Very efficient," I commented.

"We have to be," Wiggy said, without looking up. "We need the fuel for the longboat's motor, so if you happen to see any, tell me."

"Maybe they didn't keep any," Ding-Dong suggested. Wiggy lifted her head, and looked ready to blast Ding-Dong with her anger. Ding-Dong threw up her hands defensively. "All I mean is, they might take it out of the Seward's tank when they need it. The Seward has a motor too, right?"

"Oh," Wiggy said, relenting. "I hadn't thought of that."

Wiggy picked up her walkie-talkie and began talking to Grooty.

"How did you come up with that?" I whispered to Ding-Dong.

She glanced at Wiggy and whispered back, "It's what my Dad does with the lawnmower. He doesn't want to store the gas in a can, so he siphons it from his car when he needs to cut the grass."

Wiggy said into her walkie-talkie, "Well, come up here and I'll *tell* you what a siphon looks like, then! We need to find one. Wiggy out."

"Why is it so important?" I asked.

"Cause the longboat's motor's gonna run out soon, that's why," Wiggy said, a bit exasperated. "Okay. Here's the next important thing: the radios." She indicated each instrument with a tap of her hand as she named it: "Radio, radio, GPS. Radar. Fax machine. Radio, radio."

"They have four radios?" I asked.

"Yes, and none of them work! None of the electronic stuff will even turn on! There's a laptop over there... it's dead, too."

"Okay," Ding-Dong said. "One step at a time: is there power?" She pointed up to a light in the ceiling, which was on. "Yes. We should check that the instruments are plugged in."

"You can try that with the laptop," Wiggy replied, "but the instruments don't have plugs; they're wired in. They're hooked up."

"Maybe we ought to follow the wires?" I suggested. "Could they have a different power supply from the lights?"

Wiggy, pale-faced, looked at the two of us. "Do either of you know anything about electronics or electricity?"

"What's the difference?" Ding-Dong asked.

I glanced at her and quickly replied, "No, we don't."

The walkie-talkie crackled. "Cakey here. Donkey and I are taking the first load back."

Wiggy replied, "No. Donkey has to stay. Cakey, do you or Donkey know anything about electricity and electronics?"

"Me, no," Cakey replied. "Hang on." After a few moments, she added, "Donkey says don't use a hairdrier in the shower. That's all she knows. But Wiggy—"

"What?"

"I'm afraid to go back by myself. What if something goes wrong?"

"Okay, Donkey can go, but bring Knickers and The Manley One back when you come, okay?"

"Will do. We're going now."

We could hear the sound of the longboat's motor start up, then grow fainter as Cakey rode away.

Now that the conversation with Cakey was over, Wiggy stood stock still, looking at the floor. Ding-Dong and I glanced at each other, but before either of us spoke, Graffy and Grooty came into the wheelhouse, grinning broadly.

"So, Wiggy," Grooty said, "What's this siphon thing look like?"

"Hang on," Wiggy said. "Ding-Dong can tell you in a minute. Do either of you know anything about electricity?"

The blonde pair shook their heads.

Wiggy sighed. "Okay. After Ding-Dong tells you about the siphon, go see how Boogers is doing, and ask her if she knows about electricity."

"Why is that important?"

"I'll tell you later," Wiggy replied, biting her lip. "Right now you have to look for fuel, a siphon, a gas can. And if you can find any kind of communication device: walkie-talkies, radios, satellite phones, whatever, bring it to me. And tools. Any kind of tool." Then she turned away to look at the instruments.

After Ding-Dong finished explaining what a siphon was and what it might look like, Graffy and Grooty left. Ding-Dong walked to one of the radios. She grabbed a little black knob, turned it, and pulled it off.

"This fuse is blown," she observed, holding it up to the light. "Maybe all we need is new fuses."

We found that some of the other instruments also had fuses, and that they, too, had blown. We began searching for replacements.

"The other fuses are probably hidden, like behind," Ding-Dong said. "Could there be a panel, so one of us could get back there?"

While Wiggy and I searched for fuses, Ding-Dong found a sliding panel. She opened it and looked inside. "Is there a flashlight?" she asked. "I can't see anything in there."

"I don't know," Wiggy said. "We'll look."

"Wiggy," I said, "I know we're in a bad spot, but why are you so frantic?"

She gulped and said, "Am I frantic? I thought I was being surprisingly calm."

Ding-Dong looked up from where she was sitting on the floor. "Yeah, Wigs, it seems like you're in a big rush."

"Okay," Wiggy said, explaining. "All the instruments and the radios are dead. We don't know why."

"Maybe they were struck by lightning," Ding-Dong offered.

Wiggy looked at her in silence for a moment. Then at long last she said, "Maybe. In any case, we can't call for help, and we don't know whether the Captain did."

"All right," I said. "But people know where we are, right?"

"I guess so," Wiggy said. "But no one is going to miss us before Friday, when we're supposed to get on the plane. I figure that Saturday's the earliest we could be rescued."

"Okay," I said, "So that's only... what day is today?"

"Tuesday," Wiggy said nervously.

"So it's four days—"

"Five, counting today," Wiggy quickly contradicted. "And if they don't come until Sunday, it's six."

"All right," I said. "But in the meantime, we have food, a place to sleep..."

"Castile soap," Ding-Dong offered, with a smile, but Wiggy didn't react.

I'd seen Wiggy with her lost-little-girl look before, but right now her expression when way beyond lost. She looked really, seriously frightened. Terrorized.

Then I had a thought: maybe this was an extension of her fear of sleeping alone?

"Wiggy," I said, "We're all here. We're all in this together."

"We could even stay on the boat, if you'd feel safer," Ding-Dong suggested.

"No, we can't stay on the ship," Wiggy countered. "We have to get off this thing as soon as we can."

"Why?" I demanded. Her irrationality was beginning to try my patience. "Are you afraid the storm will come back?"

"No," she said. "I'm afraid that the tide will come in. The ship's hung up on the coral reef. The hull has a great big hole, and I'm afraid that high tide could lift the ship loose and sink it."

© 2008 by Kaleigh Way

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