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Suki felt a sudden warning prickle down her spine. She tugged on Lund’s sleeve. He looked at her, then glanced toward the parking lot where their van was parked with only two other vehicles.
“Do any of your girls want to hold an alligator? They’re small.” The manager smiled in a friendly way.
“Maybe when we get back,” Lund said. “Is Captain Tom ready yet?”
“He’ll be here soon.”
It was a risk being here. But as Lund had explained, it would be an even bigger risk to stay on the highway to Miami. Local sheriffs had probably put together a roadblock farther ahead. The Tamiami ran east-west through southern Florida, connecting Naples to Miami through the Everglades. There were few towns along the way. Lund had handed Suki his phone and asked her what kind of shops or hotels might be on the route, but all she could really find were airboat and jungle tours.
That had given Lund the idea to get off the highway and bribe an airboat captain to take them off the grid for a while. The Everglades wove between the trees like a maze, he’d said. Only the local boat captains knew them.
A police car zoomed past on the highway going about a hundred miles per hour. Her stomach lurched with dread. At least the car hadn’t stopped.
A tall older man with thick graying hair and cargo shorts came up to them. He had big dimples in his cheeks and looked close to seventy.
“I’m Cap’n Tom, welcome!” he said with a cheerful voice. “So glad to take you guys on an airboat tour. Have you been on one before?”
“I have,” Lund said. “But this is their first time.”
“You’re in for a treat. I have a copilot, a cantankerous cat named Madge. She’s in quite the mood today, but if any crocs or piranhas try to attack us, she’s our best course for staying alive. I’m just kidding! It’s perfectly safe! Unless we run out of gas.”
Another patrol car zoomed past.
“Wow, they’re in a hurry,” Captain Tom observed. “Why don’t you follow me, and we’ll get going. January isn’t exactly peak tourist season, as you can see, but the Everglades is a beautiful place.”
Suki followed him to the short, squat dock by the small office building they’d been waiting in. The airboat had three rows of blue benches in front and then a pilot’s seat mounted in front of the cage with the propeller. Lund was furiously texting someone, glancing back at the parking lot surreptitiously.
“Watch your step, there’s an alligator right there,” Captain Tom said, pointing off the dock. Sure enough, Suki saw the ridged back of the reptile and half its snout protruding from the brackish waters.
“Can it climb up here?” Jane Louise asked nervously.
“Alligators are pretty lazy, so no. It’s easier for them to climb up the bank. So when we get back, there may be four or five blocking the way back to your car. Hopefully, that’s not a problem. Just kidding!”
His constant, unfunny joking was starting to get on Suki’s nerves.
They reached the only running airboat. “Take these headsets,” Captain Tom said, handing them out. “It’ll help you hear my stories and jokes better. Once we’re all on board, we’ll get going. This tour will be two hours long unless we get stranded in a low spot. No, we’ll be all right. I know these waters pretty well. Most of the time.”
They all put on the headsets, and then Captain Tom spoke through the microphone on his. “If you can hear me, jump off the dock into the water. Kidding! Don’t do that. This is Madge. Wave to her but don’t pet her. She doesn’t even like it when I pet her.”
Madge was sitting on a stool lashed to the captain’s chair. She was black with dashes of white on her paws and belly, had bright yellow eyes, and looked like she’d just been woken up abruptly.
Jane Louise waved at the cat.
“The engine is really loud once it gets going, so these headsets will provide ear protection as well. They’re not equipped with Spotify. Sorry about that. Why don’t you get settled on the bench? You can sit two to a bench, or all together if you want to squish. Makes no difference to me.”
Suki and Jane Louise took the front row and Lund and Suki’s mom, the second. Captain Tom then seated himself in the pilot’s chair and fastened his seat belt. He cranked up the throttle, and the engine began to roar.
That was a good thing, because he didn’t hear the patrol car pull into the parking lot.
“Off we go!” he said, and the airboat left the dock, heading away. The nervous feeling in the pit of Suki’s stomach began to grow. The police car stopped right next to their van. That meant there’d be officers waiting for them when they got back. Unless Uncle Steve had another play to make. Knowing him, he probably did.
“The best view is ahead of us,” Captain Tom said, “not behind. Once we’re farther out, we’ll enter the mangrove forest. I’ll stop now and then to point out some curious sights. Do you have any questions?”
“How fast can an airboat go?” Lund asked, an edge to his voice.
“We normally go at thirty-five miles per hour but can crank it up to fifty. A modified one can go over a hundred miles per hour. This one can’t. Madge won’t allow it. She’s my GPS system and regulator. She’ll start clawing my leg if I go too fast. Just kidding! Look, there’s a pair of gators right off to the side. Looks like a papa wants to get frisky with a mama, and she’s running away.”
Suki sighed with relief as the airboat continued to pick up speed.
