“Know where we are going, A?” Feye asked over the dinghy’s motor. I nodded.
“I’ll tell you when to turn!” I said, confident in my navigational skills.
In the few short minutes we had spent in the boat, Feye and I were already sweating. My leg muscle spasmed, uncomfortable with the heat and sweat. It made me marvel at how mangroves could be so successful in all this heat, mud, and salt. Mangroves were clearly survivors, just like Feye had said, standing tall on mighty roots submerged underwater. You’re a survivor, too, just like them, a voice in my head said. It sounded like my mother. I smiled.
“It’s coming up, Feye! Slow down!” I shouted over my shoulder. I was going to do my part to help these crocodiles survive.
He pulled back on the gas. I pushed some of the thicker branches away from my spot at the front of the boat … but no secret channel revealed itself like before. It was just more mangroves. I spotted a small green Cuban tree frog sleeping on a branch, and grinned despite my frustration with our search. But where was that channel? I sighed loudly and nodded goodbye to the tree frog.
“What’s the matter, A?” Feye asked, killing the engine entirely.
“This isn’t it. Hold on, let me look at the map,” I said. I reached down into the boat to consult the map I’d brought. But a sudden gust of wind ripped through the mangroves and pulled the map right out of my hand.
“Oh no!” I cried. I didn’t even see where it landed.
Feye held up his trusty cell phone in the air. “Have no fear, Google Maps is here! I’ve had some luck catching a signal a few times since we’ve been here.”
He tapped his password into his phone and then held it up again. A few seconds passed and then Feye let out a sigh. This wasn’t going to be one of those lucky times.
“We’re lost!” Feye said, giving Duke a pat on the head. He hadn’t barked once since we’d gotten on the boat.
I frowned and looked around us at the lapping water.
“No … we’re not lost.” I bent down to inspect the water at the roots of the mangroves.
“What are you doing?” Feye asked.
“Looking at the tide! To see if it’s going in or out,” I explained, noticing how the exposed part of the roots were a bit damp. That meant the tide was going out.
“Do you have your watch?” I asked my older brother, standing up and making my way toward him. He nodded, and I held out my hand for him to give it to me.
“You have a compass on it! I remember that on the map, the secret channel was northeast of the boat hotel.”
“But my compass is wonky,” Feye argued. And sure enough, it was. It was pointing north to where the sun was setting … and that wasn’t right.
“Darn it,” I said, but then looked at the sun again.
“The sun sets in the west! If on your compass, north equals west, then we just have to adjust all the other directions. So, if we keep going up ahead and to the right, we should hopefully still find the hidden channel.”
“I’m trusting you on this,” Feye mumbled, turning the boat engine back on and puttering us up ahead slowly as I looked at the row of thick mangroves to find the secret channel.
Nope … nope … nada … no, not here … Suddenly, I saw a divot in the thick mangrove branches. I let out a yelp as I almost fell forward pointing toward it. We had found the secret channel!
“You did it!” Feye said, smiling broadly. He cranked up the boat engine and we zipped toward the tree where we had found the injured mother crocodile. Duke let out a joyful bark.
“Mr. Savage dropped his bright yellow notebook near the hole,” Feye said as we neared the spot where we’d picked up the crocodile. “We could use that as a guide! I saw it on the ground when we were loading up the croc.”
“I saw him drop it, too!” I said. We both fell quiet as we scanned the muddy banks for a flash of yellow.
“There! I see it!” I pointed, and Feye slowed down until the dinghy slid up the muddy bank. I climbed down and out of the dinghy slowly. Feye handed me a woven bag that I had brought along, and I turned to face the pit. My shoes sunk into the mud, and I struggled to lift my legs up and out. My leg hurt, but I was surprised by how much better it felt, just a few days later. There were still footprints left from when we had been there earlier, so I tried stepping in those to make it easier for myself. It felt really good to be back out in the field, getting my shoes dirty, instead of lying around at the boat hotel.
I zoned in on the yellow field notebook until I was right next to it and able to pick it up. Like the field notebook Feye had, it was small and fit perfectly in my pocket!
Feye jogged over and into the muddy depression. We both knelt down by the muddy lump at the base of the tree and began to dig with our hands. Almost immediately we saw white egg cases start to poke up out of the earth. I scooped up some mud and leaves to line the bottom of my bag with. Feye carefully placed the eggs in the bag one by one.
“Dude, why are you doing this so slowly? Just stuff them all in!” I teased my brother. It was a joke, but I also remembered Feye saying we only had fifteen minutes, tops, before we were missed. How much time had we already spent?
Feye didn’t acknowledge my joke. He just handed me some more eggs, which I carefully placed on top of the ones already in the bag. We worked like that for a while, just silence outside the squelching of our shoes and the rustling of leaves. Soon the bag was almost full.
“Do you see any more, Feye?” I asked, pushing away mud to better see into the nest. Feye shook his head. “Then I think that’s all of them. How many do we have?”
“Thirty-eight. Give or take an egg or two,” Feye said. We both stood up to wipe the dirt off our clothes and legs. Not much good it did, though. We were completely filthy.
“Okay, let’s go home!” I said.
But my brother didn’t answer. He reached an arm back and gripped my arm tightly, his mouth open wide.
“Feye?” I asked.
He pointed wordlessly across the small channel in response. I followed his finger and let out a gasp.
In the murky water near our boat, two massive yellow eyes stared right at us. The yellow eyes reminded me of the crocodile that had bitten me. Could this crocodile sense that I had been bitten by another crocodile? I felt like those eyes were burning holes into my skin just like the crocodile teeth had.
Feye and I stayed perfectly still. I could already tell this was a BIG crocodile because of how far apart the yellow eyes were.
But we weren’t prepared for just how big this ancient animal was until it rose higher in the water, and we could see the end tip of its tail.
“Adrianna … it’s longer than the boat,” Feye whispered. “And the boat is fifteen feet long.”
My stomach did a flip-flop. “Do you think it could be …” I trailed off. I couldn’t say it.
Feye nodded, ever so slightly. “Adrianna, I think we’re looking at the Mega Croc.”
Even Duke must have known this was one animal not to bark at because he was staying very quiet. I scooted closer to Feye, and with my left hand I dug into his shorts pocket.
“What are you doing?!” he whispered, eyes darting down to me.
“Saving the show!” I hissed back at him. “This is what Mr. Savage was telling Mom and Dad we needed—video of the Mega Croc. We may not have any cameras here, but we have your phone! We can get footage of the croc!” I said.
Feye let me fish his phone out, and he grabbed it from me and turned on the camera just in time to capture the giant crocodile heaving itself out of the water and onto the bank between us and our boat.
We had big crocodiles at Sacred Sanctuary and Zoological Park, but none like this. As mud dripped off its body, we could see now that it had all the features of a Cuban crocodile, but all on a much bigger scale than usual. Its teeth were yellow, and some were broken off. I tried not to focus on its mouth, but you couldn’t miss the fact that there were multiple fishing hooks in it. How much bait had it stolen
in its lifetime? Even from this far, we could see some big scars on its back. And the brilliant spots Cuban crocodiles normally sported were faded with age. How old was this croc?
It paid us no mind as it made its way up the muddy bank, leaving a large drag mark from the heavy tail it pulled behind its large body. We heard branches snap in half as its humongous feet crushed them, flattening vegetation and leaving claw marks behind as it finally disappeared onto land and away from us.
Feye raised his hand up to stop the video. We had the shot! Hopefully it was good enough to save the show, but there was no time to watch it through again now. We needed to get out of here before the Mega Croc came back and decided to have a dog and two kids as an afternoon snack.
Feye and I squelched our way back to the boat as fast as my injured leg would let us. Feye helped me into the boat, gently passing me the bag of eggs before jumping back into the boat himself. Carefully, I set the bag of eggs into the cooler we’d brought with us.
“Holy guacamole. No one is going to believe this!” Feye cried out.
“Well, thankfully we have proof.” I laughed, pointing to the phone in his hand.
“Glad it came in handy even without service,” Feye said. He held it up and pointed it at both of us before he took a picture. “I don’t want to hear you making fun of me for taking this thing everywhere ever again!”
I giggled. Suddenly, Duke began barking, a deep rumbling noise that startled us out of our conversation.
Feye glanced down the channel where we’d come from. His whole body stiffened. “What is it?” I asked.
“A boat engine. Can you hear it?” Feye whispered.
Duke continued to bark angrily. I suddenly felt like it had gotten a few degrees colder, and I shivered. I knew what we were doing was risky, and the last thing I wanted was more trouble.
“But this is a hidden channel,” I said. Hidden meant no one could find it, right? I mean, we went through a whole stack of maps to find it, and it was through a fluke! How many other people could have 1980s maps of these channels?
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Something was very wrong.
“Sometimes people use these hidden channels for bad things. Like for drugs and stuff, remember?” Feye continued to whisper. “I’m getting us out of here,” Feye said. He revved up the engine. It was loud. Too loud. He backed out of the muddy bank and began to slowly make his way toward our only way home. Toward the hum of another motor.
I squinted into the trees. Coming around the bend was a small white boat with black stripes running down the side, sort of like a zebra design.
Feye slowed our dinghy down and eventually turned the engine off. The channel narrowed at the entrance, and we couldn’t risk bumping into another boat, no matter how eager we were to get home.
“Can you see who’s in the boat?” Feye asked. I stood up on my tiptoes and spotted a woman and man near the steering wheel. They had also shut off their boat. I almost felt like we were in a western standoff, like the kind you see on TV.
“No one from the TV crew … It looks like … maybe tourists?” I said. I wasn’t convinced, though. They were both wearing dark outfits. No one would plan a trip to Cuba in the summer and pack nothing but dark clothing. They even had black hats and large glasses that made me wonder if maybe they were celebrities going undercover.
“Adrianna, those do not look like tourists!” Feye snapped as they came closer. I knew they weren’t, but a small part of me couldn’t help hoping they were only harmless, lost tourists.
I noticed the man driving the boat had suntanned skin covered in dark tattoos. Where had I seen tattoos that looked like that before … ?
“Maybe they’re just super famous and trying to hide from the paparazzi?” I squeaked out hopefully.
“Oh, por favor.” Feye rolled his eyes. “You know that makes no sense, A.”
“Shhh. They might hear you.”
“Let’s just say hello and then keep moving,” Feye said. He looked so small compared to the grown man, and I wondered if we were in more trouble than we could get out of, for once. The boats were now close enough that we could shout to the very big, non-touristy, and non-famous-looking adults.
But the man did still look familiar … Where had I seen him before? Duke, who had been next to us, glaring at the incoming boat in silence, let out a deep growl and began barking again.
“Oi! You two kids all right?” the man said in a deep voice.
He took off his sunglasses to look at us, and it suddenly hit me where I recognized him from—these were the poachers I had seen in town! How could I warn Feye? Now that we were up close, I could see their black hats had a symbol stitched in gray on the front. It looked sort of like an overlapping net and a fishing lure.
Feye stood away from the dinghy’s engine and nodded. “Yes, sir. My little sister just forgot her field notebook the other day and came back to get it. Right, A?” He looked back at me and silently nodded at my pocket. I bent my head down, scared, and then looked at the pocket he was motioning to. It was then that I remembered Mr. Savage’s notebook was in my pocket!
“Yes! Here it is!” I exclaimed, and took the field notebook out of my back pocket, waving the bright thing in the air. Please let them find this convincing. “It fell out of the boat while I was taking photos. My brother was super nice to bring me back,” I continued to fib.
Their boat drifted closer to us, and Duke started barking again. Were they going to let us pass by them? Or were we trapped?
Suddenly, we heard a megaphone squeal. “Hey, kids! You all right?” we heard a voice boom. It was Connor!
I had never been so happy to hear an Australian accent in my life! I stood up and waved as a third boat entered the channel. Inside it were some of our crew members, cameras in their hands, pointed right at us. I looked back to Feye, who had relief written all over his face. Even Duke seemed relieved, back to his happy barking!
I turned to look at the poachers. The man put his hat and sunglasses back on and the woman pulled her hat down over her face more. It was as if they didn’t want to be seen.
“What are you guys doing here?” Connor yelled to us. “I didn’t see you or Duke around and had wondered where you had gone!” It was then that Connor acknowledged the other boat. “Err … hello. Thanks for finding them,” he said to the couple.
“Pleasure,” the man said. He revved their engine and their boat roared back to life.
Connor turned his attention back to us. “Do I want to know?”
I smiled at him. “It’s a long story.”
“How did you find us?” Feye asked. Connor pointed at Duke, who was now watching him and wagging his tail.
“Duke’s barking,” Connor explained. “We were coming out here to film some sunset action in the mangroves when we heard him. It sounded different, meaner than usual, so we thought you guys might be in trouble.”
“Well, it is a good thing you came when you did,” I said. I pointed to the cooler. “We figured out the crocodile was a mom and so we just had to come back for her eggs. And we found them!”
“We should get back. Before Mom and Dad get too worried,” Feye said.
Connor nodded. “We’ll see you guys later. Going to try to shoot some footage now.”
“Thank you! Good luck!” Feye said. His knuckles were white on the handle of the dinghy’s steering stick. He was still scared … and to be honest, so was I.
Feye turned the engine back on and made his way slowly down the path we had come from. When we were far enough from the crew’s boat, Feye sped the dinghy up. Duke settled down at his feet and closed his eyes. I moved back to be closer to them both, bending down to pet Duke and tell him how much of a good boy he was. Soon, we were zipping back down the channel, the dread in our stomachs still weighing heavy.
Once I finished helping Feye tie the dinghy to the docking station, I grabbed the cooler containing the crocodile eggs and handed it to Feye. He quickly placed it on the ground and g
ave me a helping hand up.
“Is your leg doing okay?” he asked, wiping sweat from his forehead with the end of his shirt. Mom hated when he did that, and she would’ve talked his ear off if she had seen him do it. I nodded and let loose a sigh of relief. We were back at the home base, safe, and away from those creepy poachers.
Duke jumped out of the boat and ran in the direction of our rooms. Someone was ready for a rest. He had earned it! I handed Feye Mr. Savage’s notebook and he put it in his back pocket.
“You snoop and see what he wrote?” Feye joked.
I shook my head. “No. To be honest, I’ve been scared since we left that channel and was just focused on getting back safe.” Feye nodded and turned toward the cooler full of eggs.
“Need help?” he asked, pointing to it.
“No, it isn’t too heavy. But can you go ahead of me and see where Mom and Dad are?” I asked, bending down to grab the handles of the cooler. With a heave, I balanced the cooler on my good leg and pulled the cooler up. We made our way to the last place we had seen our parents, by the large crocodile container, but they weren’t there. In fact, no one was there. The table where the crew had been watching that day’s film was now gone, as was the extra equipment that had been lying around.
“Maybe they’re in their room?” Feye suggested.
“How about that room?” I said, jutting out my chin to point to the closed door under the stairs. Feye was about to open the heavy door when we heard a familiar voice shout, “There you are!” from above us.
There was no confusing that voice. It was Mr. Savage. He was wearing a black hat, black sunglasses, and a white shirt that said PRODUCER across the front.
“Mr. Savage, you’re never going to believe what we found!” Feye called up, beaming. He pointed to the mud-covered cooler in my arms.
“What do you have there?” Mr. Savage asked. He came down and peered at the container, his nose wrinkling from the smell. We weren’t exactly clean-looking, and we knew we reeked of mangrove mud … which sort of smelled like rotten eggs. Mangrove fruit decomposes in the hot Cuban sun, producing hydrogen sulfide gas—that was why the whole area smelled like rotten eggs or sewage. He stood back a bit, probably not wanting to get the smelly mud on his clean clothes. Mangrove mud didn’t come off easily.
Crocodile Rescue! Page 8