The car slows suddenly, then jerks to a stop. I bounce against the back seat.
“What’s going on?” I unbuckle my seat belt so I can lean up to the front.
All I see is a big red propeller. It blocks the entire windshield of Sergio’s car. Then, I see the propeller is hooked to a white boat being pulled by a green truck.
“Gosh, we left so early.” Carmen speaks in a soft voice. “I thought we could avoid the traffic waiting for the ferry.”
Sergio makes a sound like a pig. “I told you we should have gone through Corpus Christi. But, no! You said Alicia had to ride the ferry.”
“It’s part of the fun, Sergio.”
“Some fun.” Sergio reaches out and turns off the air-conditioner. He rolls down his window. “We’ll spend half the day in line.”
Carmen’s red nails start wiggling through Sergio’s hair again. “I’m sure all the ferries are running today. It won’t be long. Alicia, why don’t you try and smell the ocean now?”
I roll down the window and take a deep breath. I start coughing. The only thing I can smell is the stuff coming out of the truck pulling the boat in front of us. I wrinkle my nose. Maybe later. I slide down in my seat and wait.
We seem to move along, then jerk to a stop for hours and hours. I keep looking at my watch. It’s really been just fifteen minutes. As we move down the road, I see a field with huge silver tanks built upon it. Out the other window, I see these big iron cones lying on their sides. From where I sit, it looks like the workman are the size of ants.
“What do they use those towers for?” I ask.
“They are platforms to drill oil,” Sergio says. “They build them on shore, then pull them out into the ocean.”
I remember Mrs. Martinez, our science teacher, talking about oil spills in the ocean, and the way the oil kills the fish and messes up the beach. I’m about to say something to Sergio about it, so he’ll know I’m not as stupid as he thinks, when the car moves around the curve.
I can finally see the ferry boats carrying the cars across the water. Nothing else matters now.
The ferries are flat boats with short walls on each side to keep the cars in, and metal gates across the front and back. I see a white tower in the middle and two rows of cars on each side. Men in gray uniforms wave cars onto the boat. One man signals at Sergio to drive forward. I’m so excited that my stomach feels like it’s doing cartwheels.
Sergio’s car is the first one in the last row. He stops his car at the front railing, and then I hear Carmen say, “Come on, Alicia!”
She moves away from Sergio and opens the car door.
I climb over the folded-down front seat and step onto the boat.
My legs are stiff from sitting so long in the car. The floor moves under my feet. The wind slaps my long hair into my face. I grab it in one hand and wobble along the car at the same time. I finally get to where Sergio and Carmen are standing.
I hear cries of birds. Squinting into the sunshine, I see birds flying around the boat. Some are grey, but most are white with brown wings and skinny black beaks. One comes diving down in our direction, and I duck my head.
I hear Sergio and Carmen laughing at me.
“Sea gulls won’t hurt you,” Carmen says. “They just want to eat.”
She tosses a couple of chips at the birds. First one bird, then another, catches a chip in its beak. They continue to fly around the spot, making screechy sounds, but Carmen shrugs and laughs.
“Sorry, birdies. Sergio ate most of them.”
I start looking around the channel at the ships parked beside the big docks made of telephone pole posts. I see a red tugboat and a flat iron boat with a fat smoke stack. Then, I see other ferry boats passing one another.
Feeling more comfortable walking on a swaying floor, I go to the edge of the ferry. I hold onto the dark metal gate which will keep our car from falling in. Looking into the water, I still can’t decide its color. I bend over for a closer look, feeling the mist of salty water on my face.
Suddenly the boat jerks. The floor beneath my feet moves too quickly for me to get my balance. “Sergio!”
I screech louder than a sea gull. Somebody grabs me by the shorts. I get jerked backwards and bump into the front of the car.
“You crazy kid.” Sergio’s eyes are like shiny black rocks. “Do you want to fall in or what?”
“I wanted to look at the water.” Even as I say it, I feel pretty stupid. I almost fell in when the boat moved. I can swim, sure. But in a deep ocean? I just turn away and walk to the side of the ferry boat, trying not to show how embarrassed I feel. I reach out and grab tightly to the railing, trying to make my heart stop thumping so hard.
I raise my head up, feeling a salty taste in my mouth. I wonder where it comes from. Then I realize that taste comes from breathing the air. I sniff a salty smell with a definite fishy odor, but it’s not too bad. The breeze tingles on my cheeks. All that wet air cools the sun shining on my shoulders.
Inside my head, my mother’s voice sounds loud and clear, Don’t forget to put on a lot of sunscreen lotion. I wonder what Mom’s doing at home right now.
The ferry boat’s motor seems to get louder. Carmen’s calling to me to get back into the car. The boat’s about to glide into another dock made of black poles tied together. We all climb back into the car. I watch the front gate unfold into a ramp which lays upon the dock. Sergio’s car bounces the ramp onto the dock as we drive over. We’re back on land again.
A blue water tank painted with a giant swordfish tells us: WELCOME TO PORT ARANSAS, TEXAS.