Isle of Enchantment (4 page)

Arecibo
Observatory

“The night life in San Juan is wild,” Dad said. We only danced until midnight but many people dance until two or three in the morning on the weekends, he told us. Dancing is the nation's favorite pastime. Mom let us sleep in and catch up on our rest the next morning. We'd had a few busy days and she didn't want grouchy kids.

Mom wanted to see the Arecibo Observatory, home of the world's largest radio telescope.

Since it was a science thing, Mom was completely excited.

“Do you kids realize how awesome the radio telescope is?” Mom asked.

“Um, hum, sure,” I replied.

“I don't think you do.” Mom turned on her professor mode.

Mom held up her hand and pointed her finger,
“Number one, it discovered the rotating rate of the planet Mercury. Number two, it made the first radar surface maps of Venus. Number three, it discovered the first planets outside of our solar system. Number four, it discovered ice on Mercury's north and south poles. Number five —”

“Honey, we get it. The radio telescope helped scientists make big discoveries. Now can we take the guided tour?” Dad interrupted.

Mom looked irritated but she agreed to let the tour guide teach us this time.

I have to admit the tour was cool. But Mom found a group of scientists who were beginning new research with the telescope. She waved us away. That was her signal that she would be a while and that we could go ahead without her. Dad decided to have a snack. Tomas and I wanted to explore the area. The entire observatory area looked like something out of a James Bond movie, tall platforms, antennae, and wire cables in all directions.

“Tomas,” I whispered. “Look over there at that cable car. I bet it goes all the way to the top.”

Tomas nodded, “It's probably only for scientists.”

“We're almost scientists,” I reasoned. “One of our parents is a scientist. I think that counts.”

Tomas was not convinced.

“Come on, let's hop in and go for a ride. Nobody will miss us and nobody will see us.” I wanted to see the observatory from a bird's eye view, the very top of the dome.

Without waiting for Tomas's answer, I jumped into the rectangular cable.

“Mari, you're crazy!” Tomas hissed at me. Then he jumped into the cable car, too. We traveled slowly up the cable, inching closer to the telescope's receiver dome. The tropical parrots' songs echoed through the trees around us.

“Tomi, isn't this incredible? We can see everything!”

“Mari, stop jumping up and down! You're shaking the car!” Tomas didn't really like heights.

“Tomi, this is what birds see! Don't you wish you were a bird?”

“No. No, I don't. Now stop rocking the car! You'll break the cable. Then we'll plummet to our deaths.”

“Oh, stop it you worry wart. Enjoy the view!” I
hated it when Tomi got all chicken.

A loud rusty screech stopped our argument.

“What's that?” Tomas asked.

Again we jerked around in the cable car, and heard a metal-on-metal scraping noise, followed by a sharp stop. The stop was so abrupt, it knocked me backward and almost over the edge of the cable car's railing.

“Mari! It stopped! It stopped! We're stuck,” Tomas was in panic mode.

“Hush, Tomi. We're fine. It stopped for a minute. It will start again soon.” I didn't know when exactly
it would start. I just didn't want Tomas to start crying. He was really annoying when he cried. Big blobby boogers always got smeared all over his face. Disgusting.

“No, it won't be fine, Mari. We'll be up here for days, months, years. They'll forget about us and we'll starve to death.”

Tomas looked down at the forest below us. “We're going to die!” he cried harder. Tears splashed down his round cheeks. His sobbing shook the entire cable car. He was a mess.

“Tomas, listen to yourself. Don't be stupid. Mom would send out a search party before any of that would happen.” Tomas's imagination could run wild.

“Mari,” he moaned. “We'll die here.”

“You are acting like a big old baby. Now calm down,” I commanded. “And think of a plan.”

Tomas took deep breaths. He wiped his nose on the back of his hand.

“Yeah, you're right. Mom would look for us. She wouldn't just leave us.”

“That's right. Mom would never leave us,” I said.
Finally, he was pulling himself together. Am I the only mature person in this family?

“Why don't we climb out of the car and climb down the cable to the station?” Tomas suggested.

“Tomas, there's no way we could hold on and make that climb.”

“I'll do it and send help for you,” Tomas looked serious.

“You can't. You're not strong enough,” I said.

“Mari, what options do we have?” Tomas was ready to get out of the cable car that was dangling in mid-air.

I reached in my back pocket. “I can call Mom,” I said as I waved my cell phone in his face. Tomas looked stunned.

“You've had your phone the whole time?” he said.

“Tomas, settle down. Let me handle this.”

I dialed Mom's number. It went to voicemail. She was probably still talking to the scientists. I glanced at Tomas, made a sad face, and mouthed “Voicemail.”

“Leave a message,” Tomas insisted.

I left my message: “Um, Mom, hi. This is Marisol. Tomas and I are uh in a little situation. We're actually stuck. Really stuck. In a cable car.”

“Up high,” Tomas added as he leaned into the phone, “by the dome.”

Beep. End of message.

“There. I'm sure she'll call back,” I said with false confidence to Tomas.

“What if she left her phone at the hotel?”

“Fine, Tomas. I'll call Dad.”

I dialed Dad's cell phone. It also went to voicemail.

I left the message: “Hi Dad, everything's fine but, um, Tomas got us stuck. Can you help us get down?”

Beep.

“I got you stuck? It was your bright idea, not mine,” Tomas huffed and turned away from me.

He curled into a ball and buried his head under his arms. He started to sob.

“We're going to die up here,” he wailed.

“Oh shush and wait for Mom or Dad to call back,” I hissed at Tomas.

The wind picked up and rocked the cable car. Tomas cried louder. I sat down next to him and put my arm around him.

“Tomi, chill. They will find us.”

He looked up at me.

“When?”

“Soon.”

We sat in the broken cable car for three hours. No one came to look for us except a flock of bright Puerto Rican Amazon parrots. The curious green parrots landed on the cable car's railing. They turned their heads, sang to each other, and hopped from railing to railing. One leaped onto Tomas's head. It pulled at his hair. Another leapt onto my head and chewed on my earrings.

This made Tomas laugh.

“They must think we're weird for sitting up here all day. Like we think we're birds.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “I bet those parrots think we're bird-brained.”

We heard shouting from down below.

“Mari! Tomi! Where are you?”

It was Mom. Tomas and I jumped up and waved
over the railing. The cable car swayed a bit. But Mom saw us. She was with people wearing uniforms and hard hats. The uniformed people did not look happy.

“Babies! Are you all right?” Mom shouted.

“Yes,” we yelled back.

“Hold on! They are going to re-start the cable. Brace yourselves!”

We nodded and waved to Mom to signal that we understood. I grabbed Tomas's hand.

“Hold onto the railing and hold tight to my hand.” The cable car lurched backward. Tomas and I collided into each other. “Hang on,” I told him, “We'll be back on the ground in no time.” And we were. Unfortunately, when we got down to the ground, the uniformed men said something to Mom in Spanish. Mom did not look pleased.

Mom turned to us, “Tomas, Marisol, come. You have some explaining to do to these gentlemen.”

Tomas and I were in big trouble. The men led us into an office. For about an hour, they explained to us how much danger we faced. They also threatened to call the police. Mom convinced them that we
were sorry. And that we wouldn't do anything like this, ever again.

“Now, you apologize kids,” Mom nudged me in the ribs.

“Señors, we are so sorry. I, we, we didn't mean to cause trouble,” I stuttered. The men, who were security guards, did not smile.

“Sirs, we were just having such a good time, we wanted to see it all up close,” Tomas added.

Tomas and I were sincere. We felt lucky to be back on land safely. The security officers were silent.

One of the officers cleared his throat and looked down his nose at us, then turned to Mom.

“Señora, We will not press charges or make you pay a fine,” he said.

“Thank you, gracias,” Mom smiled and reached out to shake their hands.

“Señora, please make sure your children do not do something as reckless as this in the future.”

“Yes, sir, sí. Gracias, gracias.” Mom was practically bowing and kissing their hands.

One of the men led us outside. Then Mom turned to me and Tomas.

“I will think of a punishment for the two of you. Never do something like that again. You could have gotten hurt.” Mom's eyes were fiery like a dragons. She paused, caught her breath, and continued, “For starters, you're going back to the hotel for an early bedtime.”

“Mom!” Tomas started to argue with her. Tomas wanted to go dancing again, to see if he could find Carmen, the girl who kissed him the night before. When Tomas saw Mom's hand go up in the air, Tomas decided against arguing with her.

El Morro