Manuela visited Airuwe whenever she could. Sometimes, Libia and Tintico came, too. The manatee still seemed to know Manuela and would come to the side of the pool and push out his bristly snout when she dangled her feet over the edge.
One afternoon, Manuela was rubbing Airuwe’s back with her hand when Raffy came down to the pool and sat beside her. “So,” she said in her usual direct way, “isn’t it time that you kept your promise and got to number five on the action plan?”
“But we haven’t checked off number four yet!” Manuela protested.
“That’s true,” said Raffy. “But Airuwe has so many friends now that I think it’s safe for him to go back.”
Manuela knew that her granny was right. It wasn’t fair to keep Airuwe in this little pool when he could be free to wander the river. She nodded.
“Yes, it’s time.”
The whole family wanted to help return Airuwe to the river.
Libia consulted the records in the journal and chose a place where manatees had been seen. Luis offered his big boat to take them there. Gonzaga, Jorge, Abel, and, of course, Silvio said that they would lift Airuwe into the boat, and Angelina said she had an airbed to protect him from bumps on the journey. They set the day and agreed to meet at Riverbend early in the morning before it grew too hot.
Manuela and Libia stayed with Raffy the night before, on the floor of Raffy’s room. Manuela lay awake in the first light, staring at the fading stars through the window.
“You’re awake, aren’t you?” Libia whispered.
“Yes.”
“Should we go and say good-bye before everyone gets here?”
The sky was pearl gray, and the sandbanks on either side of the low river showed like pale arms in the early light. Birds called and the last bats flitted in the shadows.
They hadn’t visited Airuwe at this time since he had been a little calf, needing to be fed milk every few hours. Now he was a big grown-up, much larger than the two girls put together. His smooth, dark shape lay under the water, partly covered by a wreath of his favorite foods.
The girls knelt at the edge of the pool, with Tintico between them, and Manuela tapped the water with her fingers.
Pppff.
The familiar bristly nose broke the surface, then Airuwe’s whole head came to rest on the side of the pool between the girls, nose to nose with Tintico. His small eyes looked out at the world of dry land. For a moment everything held quite still, and then the sound of approaching motorboats broke the quietness.
It wasn’t just one boat, or even two. Almost the whole village of San Larenzo had turned out to help their friend the manatee. Only Gomez’s boat was missing.
Manuela wished that Airuwe could understand what was happening to him. The trip in the boat would be frightening, and when they let him go, he might feel very alone. But she knew that he would soon feel at home in the river, where he should have been all this time.
They passed a tarpaulin under Airuwe’s body to act like a sling, then drained the pond. He was bigger than anyone had imagined, so it was a good thing that all the strongest men in the village were there to help. They lifted him out of the pool as gently as they could, then over the sandbank and into the boat. Airuwe rested on the airbed and was wrapped in wet sheets to keep him cool and comfortable. Then they set off, a fiesta of boats full of smiling, singing people, with one bewildered manatee at its heart.
Manuela sat beside him all the way. “It’s going to be all right,” she told Airuwe. “You’re going home.”