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Alexander and Bat were horrified. They took several minutes to dissect and digest what May had told them. She had been on a smuggler’s boat. She’d been raped. They said they were going to kill her. Either one would be a reason to jump from a boat and take a chance in a dark ocean, but this was the trifecta.
“Do you think you can talk about it? We do have questions,” Bat said.
“Yes. I’m okay.”
“You lived in Cuba?”
“I still live in Cuba. Well, at least I did. Cuba is my home. I came to find my sister. When I find my sister, maybe we can stay.”
“Tell us about Cuba,” Alexander said. “What part of Cuba do you live in? Havana? How did you learn English?”
“I grew up in Matanzas. Our family is poor, like most Cubans, but my uncle ran a pastry shop at one of the resort hotels on the beach in Varadero. Because I spoke English well, he gave me a job. The hotel guests were mostly Canadian.”
“How did you learn English so well?” Bat immediately wished he hadn’t interrupted because she was beginning to open up to them.
“My dad worked in a machine shop, making parts for cars. He said someday either Cuba would be free, or we would make it to America. When it happened, we needed to be ready. We needed to be able to speak English, and we should speak it without an accent. Someone traded him a radio from an old car for a part. He rigged an antenna, and we were able to listen to stations from Florida. He also found some books. My sister and I would study English and speak it to each other. We started using English more than Spanish because our parents could not understand us.
“My uncle hired me when I was fourteen. Since Varadero is far from Matanzas, I stayed in the storeroom of the shop. He didn’t pay me much, and what I did make, I saved. I wanted to help my parents out some. They work hard. I knew if I ever got to America, I would need money too.”
Although May’s history was interesting, she was circling the landing field. The two men listening to her wanted to know how she ended up on a smuggler’s boat and then in the water, swimming for her life. Alexander was tempted to interrupt and ask her to get to the point but decided it was best to let her tell the story her way. When she finished, he would ask questions to fill in any blanks.
“Food was expensive at the restaurants in Varadero. I started eating people’s leftovers. I was pretty thin when I started working. The food was so good I ate all the leftovers plus pastries that were not sold at the end of the day. I realized I was getting big. My clothes kept getting tighter and tighter. I tried to stop eating, but I was always hungry. My uncle tried to help. He would bring me rice, beans, plantains, and once in a while mojo criollo. But the pastries were so good, I would eat them whenever I could.
“After two years of living in the backroom, I rented a room for 150 CUP per month, in a little house in town, about two kilometers from the shop. When I was seventeen, my uncle had to close the place. He had a problem with the government, I don’t know what. That was five years ago. I don’t know what happened to him.” May stopped speaking, clearly distressed about the disappearance of her uncle all those years ago.
Alexander and Bat quickly tried to calculate her age. Based on how long the pastry shop had been closed, and her age when it closed, they determined she must be twenty-two.
“I got a job at a nice hotel near the beach. I made more in salary, and the tips were better. I was able to save quite a bit. I even got to go home occasionally and visit my parents and my sister.”
Her lower lip quivered as she stared blankly into space. Alexander and Bat sat quietly, not sure exactly what to say. It was obvious the mention of her parents and/or her sister upset her. Neither man wanted to push it; she’d had a rough day. Both wanted to know which it was, but before either could speak, May looked at them.
“I think my sister is dead.” Tears rolled down May’s cheeks.
The revelation stunned Alexander and Bat.
“May,” Alexander said gently, “why do you think your sister is dead? Does it have anything to do with you being here?”
May gave a slight nod. “Sí. I mean, yes.” She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “Would you like to hear?”
“Very much.” Alexander again spoke softly, not sure if it helped or not.
“I should start at the beginning. It’s a long story. May I have some more water, please?”
“Of course,” Alexander replied, jumping up. “Do you mind it in a glass with ice? It’s filtered water.”
“That’s fine. Not much ice. I’m not used to much ice. Unfiltered water is okay. The water in Cuba is not filtered. Our water has much flavor.”
Alexander filled a large glass with water and a small amount of ice and sat it in front of her. She took a sip and nodded her approval.
“I told you my sister and I learned English so we could come to America. About three months ago, she showed up in Varadero. She was super excited. She’d found someone who would bring her to the US for only one thousand CUC. It usually costs like five or ten thousand CUC to get to the US. She had been working at a resort hotel restaurant. Her English is very good, and she is beautiful. She’s thin too. The tourists tipped her well.
“She said these men would take her to America on a boat, but she would have to take something with her. They wouldn’t tell her what it was but said she might go to jail and probably be deported if she was caught with it. They said all she had to do was carry it. Someone would take her to another person, and she would give them the package. They said once the package was delivered, they would take her to other people who would give her a place to stay and help her find work. But if she was caught, she had to say the stuff was hers, and the other people with her knew nothing about it. They said if she didn’t, she might be arrested, but if she wasn’t, or when she was released, they would kill her.
“I told her it sounded bad. She shouldn’t do it. Even if she didn’t get arrested, the men probably wouldn’t let her live. Not if they would kill her if she told the police the truth. They wouldn’t want her walking around, knowing what she knew.”
“You’re probably right.” Alexander didn’t realize he’d just told the girl that her sister was likely dead until after he’d said it.
“I know. I don’t want to believe it though. Briana said the men were rough-looking but seemed nice. They acted like they wanted to help her get to America. They told her the chances of getting busted were slim. No one had gotten caught before. Making the delivery for them would be a win-win. She got a discount passage to America, and they got a mule. She said several other girls were making deliveries too. That’s how they would do it for only one thousand CUC. Briana was excited and asked if I wanted to come along. I didn’t want to, but I should have.
“Briana gave me the man’s name and phone number in case I changed my mind, and left. She said she would email me once she made it. In Cuba, we don’t have cell phones, and the internet is scarce so I didn’t expect to hear from her too soon, but I got worried after a couple of months. She would have contacted me if she was okay.”
“Did she say what she’d be smuggling in?” Alexander asked.
“No. She said they told her it was better if she didn’t know. The man told her she would be given a purse, and she was not to look inside. He said if she was caught, she was to tell them someone in Cuba gave her the purse, and she was to deliver it to someone in the US. He said they would give her a phone when she got off the boat. She was to tell the cops that she was told someone would contact her with instructions. That was all she knew.”
“Do you know if they manufacture lots of drugs in Cuba? Like Cocaine? Crack?” Bat asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Cuba doesn’t have much of a drug problem. The government cracked down on it. The penalties are harsh.”
“During the eighties and nineties, a huge amount of cocaine was brought into Cuba from Colombia and distributed to the US,” Alexander said. “A kilo of coke costs maybe two grand in Colombia and has a street value of around thirty thousand in the states. That’s quite an incentive to smuggle it in. You said, several girls. If each was paying one thousand for the trip and carrying a kilo of cocaine, a smidge over two pounds, I could see where a smuggling run could be profitable.”
“Ten other girls were on the boat I was on,” May said.
“Wow, that’s twice what I estimated. Twenty pounds of coke if each carried two. That’s a lot of coke. Probably too much to risk in one shipment. If they were boarded by the Coast Guard, they would lose it all. It would make more sense if each girl was given maybe a pound, a half a kilo. It would still be a profitable run.”
“Tell me, why were you on the boat?” Alexander asked.
“When I didn’t hear from my sister, I called the number she gave me and told them I wanted to go to America. I made up a name, I didn’t want them to know who I was. The man didn’t seem to care. He said if I was willing to work for him, make a delivery, he would get me to Texas for one thousand CUC.”
“Excuse me. You’ve mentioned a ‘CUC’ and a ‘CUP’. What’s that?” Alexander asked.
“Oh, a CUC is the Cuban Convertible Peso. It is roughly equal to a US dollar. CUC is used in the tourism industry. Most restaurants, bars, hotels, and transportation companies only take the CUC. The Cuban locals use CUP, the Cuban Peso, the national currency. It’s like twenty-five CUP to a CUC.”
“They have, or had, two currencies? One for tourists and one for locals?”
“Yes, and it was confusing. I guess that is why the government just announced they are eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso, so soon it will only be Cuban Pesos.”
“And you rented a room for 150 CUP? Was that a week?”
“No, a month. The average Cuban only makes about seven hundred CUP per month.”
“Seven hundred? That’s like...”
“About twenty-eight dollars a month. I know. That’s why a Cuban’s only hope is to leave Cuba.”
Neither man could comprehend how anyone could live on the equivalent of twenty-eight dollars per month.
“You had a thousand CUC?” Alexander asked.
“Yes, more. I had been saving since I started working at fourteen. I sent a few of the CUC each month to my family in Matanzas. It wasn’t much, but it helped them out. Still, I was able to save almost twenty a month. I saved for eight years. I paid the boatman one thousand CUC, sent about five hundred to my family, and told them if they needed some, they could use it, but to save it for me. I also had about five hundred Canadian. I thought I could use it when I got to the US. I brought it with me. I had the money and my papers in my purse. I had to leave it on the boat when I jumped off.”
It was the second time May mentioned she had jumped off the boat. She said they raped her and were going to kill her, but it made no sense. Rape and murder didn’t fit with the smuggling. Had she already delivered the package? Again, Alexander wanted to press her for the details but knew it was best to let her tell it in her way.
“So you used the money you saved and contacted the man your sister used?” Alexander asked.
“Yes, I was hoping to find out what happened to her. I thought if they took me to the same person that they took my sister to, I could ask, and maybe they would know where she was. Two of the men on the boat were nice. Gorgonio, the man I talked to and gave the money to, was not nice. He was evil. Nestor was older than the other two. He was kind of funny. The other one, Reymundo, who they called captain, was nice. He talked to me a couple of times. I don’t think the captain liked the other two men much.”
“What happened when you got on the boat?” Alexander asked.
“I took the early morning bus to Los Arroyos. A man met me at the bus station. He drove me in an old Russian car to the dock. I was surprised. I was expecting a smaller boat, like the ones people take to Florida. It was big. Like fifteen meters. Maybe more.”
A fifteen-meter boat, almost fifty feet in US standard, was a decent-sized boat. For crossing an ocean, it was borderline. Depending on the boat’s build quality, it could be done, but it could get dicey if a storm kicked up.
“Can you describe the boat?” Alexander asked.
“Yes. I was on it for like six days. As I said, it was big, at least fifteen meters long and maybe four or five meters wide. Tall, too. Like three stories high. The bedrooms were downstairs, a kitchen, and a living area upstairs. More steps went up to where the captain drove the boat most of the time. The boat was white with a blue stripe along the sides. When you went out the back door, there was a small deck area with a little gate and steps down to a platform just above the water.”
“Hang on.” Alexander reached for his phone and Googled “Hatteras.” He scrolled through the pictures the search displayed, selected one, and showed it to May. “Is that it?”
“No. It was similar, but it had sections between the side of the boat and the, I don’t know what you call it, the inside of the boat. It’s like a hallway outside you walk down to get to the door to come into the end of the boat. The back was solid, not like that.” May pointed to the canvas Bimini that enclosed the aft deck.
“When we got within sight of land, they said a couple of the girls had to sit out on the back and a couple on the front. They told them to wear bikinis and wave at any boats that came by. The boat went in this area with long rock jetties on both sides of us. We passed several big ships anchored near the rocks. We were in America. It was so exciting. We kept going and going, it seemed like a long time. Finally, we went into a narrow channel-like thing with restaurants on one side. I saw a roller coaster, a Ferris wheel and lots of people. I knew we had to be getting close. I was almost in America.
“We kept going a bit, made a couple of big turns, and it eased into a slip at a marina. They told all the girls to go inside the main cabin. He handed out clothes to all the girls but me. Gorgonio told the girls to take off all their clothes and put the dresses on. He told me to go into the room at the front of the boat. As I was going to the room, I heard him tell them to strip and put the dresses on, ahora – now. I was glad I didn’t have to take off my clothes, but I was worried. There was a reason I was sent away.
“I went down the steps and peeked around the corner to see what was happening. All the girls undressed. I could see Gorgonio watching them. It looked to me like he sure wanted to molest them. I figured that’s why I didn’t get a dress. I didn’t look like them.
“One of the men told the girls to sit and wait. They did as they were told. I could tell by the way the girls were looking at each other that they were scared. I was afraid Gorgonio or Nestor would see me so I went to the room like he’d told me. Out of the little windows, I saw two big cars drive up. Not cars, they looked more like trucks with the camper on the back. Two men got out of each and came up to the boat. I couldn’t hear everything Gorgonio said, but I think he told them they better do whatever the drivers said and if they get stopped by the police to only say what they’d been told to say.
“I was looking around for a way off the boat. I didn’t like that I was left alone, especially with Gorgonio. He was so creepy. Captain Reymundo came and said I could hang out in the living room. They would get fuel, and they would take me to where they were dropping me off. I felt better.
“I watched as they pulled away from the dock. They drove around to a gas pump and started pumping. It took a long time. Reymundo came back, glanced at me, and walked up to where he had been steering the boat. He started up the engines and yelled to cast off. We headed back toward the Ferris wheel, the one we passed coming in.
“We hadn’t gone too far when Gorgonio, you know, the mean one, told me to get in the forward cabin and shut the door. I watched out the windows. We had passed the line of restaurants and were heading out to sea. I was afraid to leave the room. I kept hoping they had a place they were going to drop me.
“We were getting further away from land. I was about to go out and ask Reymundo when I was getting off. Before I could open the door, Gorgonio came in.
“He said, in English, ‘You aren’t the one I wanted, but you’ll do.’ He put his arm around me and tried to kiss me. I jerked away, but the room was small, I had no place to go. He hit me in the head with his fist. It hurt.
“He grabbed me by the neck and pushed me onto the bed. I was wearing sports shorts and a button-down shirt. He pulled my shorts off then ripped off my underwear and shirt. I was looking around for something to hit him with, but I couldn’t find anything in the room that wasn’t fastened down. If I had gotten the angle, I was going to knee him in the cojones. He turned me over, pushed my face into the bed, and raped me. He didn’t last long. Maybe because he had been looking at all the pretty girls naked earlier, he was too excited. Whatever the reason, I’m glad it was over quickly.
“He pulled up his pants and left. Didn’t say a word. I listened at the door. I heard him yell to the other guys, again in English, ‘Anyone else want a piece of her before I kill her?’”
Alexander and Bat could only look at one another. After a few seconds of silence, May took a sip of water and continued.
“Where was I? Oh, yeah, I was so scared I was shaking. I remember thinking, he is NOT going to kill me. Suddenly, I stopped shaking and said to myself, ‘Not today pendejo.’ That means asshole in English.”
“That one I know,” Alexander said.
“I looked through the drawers and in the closet for something to defend myself with. I couldn’t find anything, but I did find the life jacket thingy. I put it on. I found a T-shirt in a drawer, put it and my shorts on.
“I cracked the door and looked around for something to use as a weapon. I wanted to hurt them, especially Gorgonio. I knew I could find a knife in the kitchen, but I had to be honest with myself. If I went after one of those guys with a knife, he would have taken it away and killed me with it.
“I climbed the steps as quietly as I could. Gorgonio and Nestor were asleep on the long divan. I tip-toed to the rear of the boat, slipped over the back and down a ladder to the platform. I took a deep breath and dove as far as I could. I planned to swim underwater as long as possible in case the captain looked back.
“I dove, but right after I hit the water, the life jacket exploded and filled with air. I floated right to the surface. I tried swimming back the way we had come, but I could tell I wasn’t getting anywhere. I kept turning around and looking at the boat. It was getting pretty far away. They must not have known I was gone. I kept swimming, but I was getting further away. Finally, I could tell the water was pushing me to the side, not backward.”
“It sounds like you were near the end of the north jetty,” Alexander said.
“That’s what I was thinking. I’m a pretty good swimmer; I grew up on an island. It got dark fast, but I could see the rocks sticking out of the water. I swam as hard as I could to get to them. When I got there, the water was pushing me around the rocks. I tried to grab on, but I grabbed a fishhook. I felt the rocks cutting me, I gave up and let the water take me along them until I got to the end. That’s when I was able to see more lights onshore and started swimming toward them.
“I was tired. I rolled onto my back and floated. I would kick and paddle occasionally to keep myself going toward the lights. I remember thinking, if a shark doesn’t eat me, I was going to make it.
“It started getting light and I was exhausted. Next thing I remember someone was yelling at me. That was you.” She looked at Alexander. “Did I ever thank you?”
“Don’t mention it. I’m glad I found you.”
“I’m really tired. Do you mind if I go back to bed?”
“Of course not,” Alexander replied. “I’m going to move you to the guest room. The room has a bathroom. You should find a new toothbrush in the drawer. Feel free to use it.”
“Thank you for all you’ve done for me.” May rose slowly from the chair. She had sat so long she had stiffened up. “Good night,” she said and walked into the guest room, closing the door behind her.
Bat filled his glass with ice and topped it with Scotch then walked outside to the far end of the deck. Alexander made a drink and followed. They sat positioned so they could view the gulf. Oil platforms and the moving light of big tankers twinkled in the distance.
Bat looked at his friend and asked, “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”