Chapters 14-21
Chapter 14
Senor Castillo serves as captain, and the passengers pass the time making jokes about Castro. Amara, Luis’s girlfriend, introduces herself, and Lito flirts with her. They all talk about what they’re looking forward to in America. Lito asks Isabel to play her trumpet, and she has to confess that she traded it for gas to power the boat. Amara and Lito dance in the boat before the motor stops running.
Chapter 15
Mahmoud and his family wait in line to enter Turkey after walking for hours from the site of the gunfight and their abandoned car. Armed guards patrol the lines of refugees. Eventually, they reach the front of the line, and the border guard approves their papers.
Across the border, they find a city of tents where refugees have set up camp. Mahmoud’s father tells the family he has the name of a smuggler who can get them to Greece. They plan to walk to Izmir, on the coast, where they can be smuggled onto a boat. Mahmoud’s father finds them a ride to their next destination and tries to gather the family to move on.
Chapter 16
Josef and some of the other young passengers walk onto the bridge of the St. Louis, where they are joined by the captain, ready to give them a tour. When he sees the engine controls, Josef asks the captain if they have to go so fast to beat the other boats to Cuba, and the captain seems displeased that his crew was insinuating this on the deck.
The party travels to the engine room downstairs through a “Crew Only” area. One man, Schiendick, is angry to see the children near their quarters; he is the same man who got upset when the Hitler portrait was taken down. He spews insults at the kids and leads some other crew in an offensive Nazi song. Josef is disenchanted by this encounter and likens this part of the ship to “the real world.”
Chapter 17
The men try to restart the engine while Isabel and Ivan scoop water out of the boat entering through the bullet hole. Lito tells Isabel that he has a brother in Miami; Lito could’ve gone with him back in the 1970s but didn’t want to leave his homeland. He regrets leaving Cuba now and laments the sad state of their boat.
Lito tells Isabel that Papi “is a fool.” Isabel’s mother tries to quiet Lito, claiming Miami isn’t that different from Cuba. Soon, they notice a huge tanker headed toward their little boat.
Chapter 18
Mahmoud and his family make it to Izmir but are told the boat won’t leave until tomorrow. They struggle to find a place to stay, with hotels full of refugees and parks seemingly unsafe. A Syrian boy comes along selling various items, and Mahmoud says they need a place to stay. He pays the boy to show him a place, which is an abandoned mall that Syrian refugees have formed into makeshift apartments.
Chapter 19
Aaron panics when he feels the ship slowing down; the crew is preparing for a burial at sea: an older man who died of cancer on board. Josef tries to talk sense into his father. Eventually, Aaron surprises them all by attending the funeral to make up for those at Dachau who didn’t receive proper burial.
Schiendick shows up, and attempts to assert a law that states a Nazi flag must cover bodies buried at sea. Aaron revolts and spits at the Nazi; the captain objects to Schiendick’s suggestion and threatens him with confinement in his...
(This entire section contains 845 words.)
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quarters. The party on deck completes the funeral rituals.
Chapter 20
The tanker approaches, accompanied by giant waves. Isabel’s crew must start the motor to remove their boat from the tanker’s path. They can’t draw attention to themselves because if the crew on the tanker rescues them, they will be sent back to Cuba.
After many attempts, Luis starts the engine, and they escape the tanker’s path but not the waves in its wake. Senor Castillo goes overboard, and others are tossed around in their little boat. Isabel jumps into the sea.
Chapter 21
Once again, Mahmoud’s family is told the ship won’t be there until tomorrow; this has been the pattern for several days. They return to the mall but cannot enter without paying two Turkish men, claiming they are now charging rent. The family walks away, trying to find a place to settle, but after they stop in a doorway off of a street, the police force them to move.
Mahmoud is exhausted and starts trying to wave down cars and beg for help. A man named Samih stops and takes them in; he is a refugee from Palestine who has been in Turkey for decades. Samih will bring them to a car dealership where they can sleep. Mahmoud’s dad gets a text that the ship is ready, so Samih drives them there instead. The boat is at the beach this time.
