“Yeah, I think so.”

“Can someone take you to a hotel?”

“I can check. Maybe someone can give us a ride.”

“Once you get to a hotel, call me and I’ll give them my credit card number.”

“Okay, Dad. Is Mom all right?”

“Yeah, she’s right here. She wants to talk to you.”

I could hardly understand my mom. As soon as she heard my voice, she started crying again.

“It’s okay Mom, I’ll be home soon. Don’t cry. Put Dad back on the phone, okay?”

When my dad came back on the line I told him we were going to talk to the local police and then we’d try to get to a hotel, and I’d call him from there.

“Okay, T.J. I’ll be waiting.”

“He’s going to start making calls,” I said after I snapped the phone shut. “He said getting us on a commercial flight might be hard because of nine-eleven.

“What’s nine-eleven?”

“I don’t know. He said he might have to charter a plane. If we can find a ride to a hotel, we can call him and he’ll give them his credit card number. We probably can’t get out until tomorrow though, Anna.”

She smiled. “We’ve waited this long. I can wait one more day.”

I pulled her close and hugged her. “We’re going home.”

We walked out of the supply closet and looked around for Dr. Reynolds. He was standing in the hallway waiting for us with two police officers. There was another man waiting with them. He wore a khaki shirt with the name of the seaplane charter stitched on the pocket.

Dr. Reynolds held a brown paper bag with a big grease stain down the side. Smiling, he handed it to me and I looked inside. Tacos. I pulled one out and handed it to Anna, then took one for myself.

The deep fried tortilla was wrapped around shredded beef and onions. A spicy sauce dripped down my hand. I wasn’t used to so many different flavors at one time. Starving, I ate the whole thing in under a minute.

The officers wanted to talk to us so we followed them to an empty corner of the lobby. I reached into the bag and got both of us another taco.

The officers spoke English but their thick accents made them hard to understand. We answered their questions, telling them about Mick and his heart attack, and then crashing and making it to the island.

“The search and rescue team found parts of the plane but no bodies,” one of the officers said. “We assumed you had drowned.”

“Mick knew we might not land safely so he told us to put on life jackets. Otherwise we would have,” Anna said.

“They searched for bodies,” the other officer said. “But they didn’t expect to find any. There are sharks.”

Anna and I glanced at each other.

“Some of the wreckage from the plane washed ashore. My backpack, Anna’s suitcase, and the life raft. Mick’s body washed up, too,” I said. “We buried him on the island.”

The man from the seaplane charter had some questions.

“If the life raft washed up, why didn’t you trigger the emergency beacon?”

“Because there wasn’t one,” I said.

“All life rafts have a beacon. They’re mandated by the Coast Guard when a plane flies over water.”

“Well, ours didn’t,” I said. “And believe me, we looked.”

He wrote down our contact information and then handed me a business card.

“Please have your attorney call me when you get back to the states.”

I put the card in the pocket of my shorts. “There’s one more thing,” I said, turning back to the two police officers. “Someone was living there before us.” Anna and I told them about the shack and the skeleton. “If you were looking for a missing person, we may have found him.”

When we finished talking to them, we asked Dr. Reynolds if someone could drive us to a hotel.

“I can,” he said.

Dr. Reynolds drove a beat up Honda Civic. He didn’t have air conditioning so we rolled our windows down. He pulled out of the parking lot and roads, cars, and buildings – things I hadn’t seen in so long – amazed me. I inhaled car exhaust fumes, so different from the smell of the island. When I saw the sign for the hotel I smiled because it finally hit me that Anna and I would have a room, a shower, and a bed.

“Thanks for all your help,” we told Dr. Reynolds when he dropped us off in front of the hotel.

“Good luck to both of you,” he said, shaking my hand and giving Anna a hug.

The hotel hadn’t suffered much damage. Someone was sweeping debris away from the sidewalk in front when Anna and I walked through the revolving door. Hotel guests had gathered in the lobby, some of them standing next to piles of luggage.

Everyone stared at us. If there was a no shoes, no shirt, no service rule, I was currently violating it. I caught our reflection in a large mirror hanging on the wall. We didn’t look so great.

I followed Anna to the reception desk where a woman stood typing on a computer.

“Are you checking in?” she asked.

“Yes. One room, please,” I said. “And could I borrow your phone?”

She turned the phone toward me, and I called my dad collect. “We’re at the hotel,” I said.

“Get a couple rooms and charge everything to them,” my dad said.

“We only need one room, Dad.”

He paused for a second. “Oh. Okay.”

I handed the phone to the woman and waited while my dad gave her his credit card information. She handed it back to me and finished typing.

“Is there a gift shop at the hotel?” my dad asked.

“Yeah, I can see it from here.” The gift shop was just around the corner from the front desk. From what I could tell, it looked pretty high-end.

“Buy whatever you need. I’m working on getting you and Anna out of there. The Malé Airport sustained some damage, but they told me they haven’t had to cancel too many flights. A commercial flight isn’t going to work so I’m working on chartering a plane. Your mom wanted to fly over and get you, but I convinced her that you’d get home sooner if you didn’t have to wait for her to come to you first. I’ll call your room as soon as I have the details but be ready to leave by morning.”

“Okay, Dad. We will.”

“I don’t even know what to say, T.J. Your mom and I are still in shock. Your sisters haven’t stopped crying, and the phone is ringing off the hook. We just want to get you and Anna home. I’ve already talked to Sarah, and I’ll make sure she gets all the information as soon as I have it.”

We said goodbye, and I handed the phone back to the woman behind the desk.

“We’re pretty full,” she said. “But we do have a suite available. Will that be okay?”

I smiled and said, “That will be just fine.”

Anna and I walked into the gift shop and looked around, unsure where to start. It was divided in two. One side had racks of clothes – everything from souvenir T-shirts to formal wear – and one side had nothing but food. Candy, chips, crackers, and cookies lined the shelves.

“Oh my God,” Anna said, and took off.

I grabbed two shopping baskets from a pile near the front door and followed her.

I handed her one and laughed as she tossed Sweet Tarts and Hot Tamales into it. I picked up a bag of Doritos and threw them in, followed by three Slim Jims.

“Really?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, smiling at her.

After we filled one basket with junk food, we headed to a rack of toiletries.

“There’s probably soap and shampoo in the room, but I’m not taking any chances,” Anna said, grabbing more and adding toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, razors, shaving cream, and a brush and comb.

Next, we picked out a T-shirt and pair of shorts for me. Anna waved a package of boxer briefs in my direction, and I shook my head but she nodded, laughed, and threw them in the basket. I reached into a barrel full of men’s flip-flops and picked out a black pair.

A nearby rack held sundresses and I selected a blue one for Anna. She found a pair of sandals to go with it.

Anna scooped up some underwear, and a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and we carried the baskets to the counter, charging everything to our room.