Flush

After Noah takes a swan dive off the upper deck of the Coral Queen and splashes into the bay, he struggles to swim out far enough to meet Abbey. He can’t understand why he doesn’t hear the sound of the dinghy’s motor coming to rescue him. Meanwhile, Luno is using a searchlight to spot the boy’s location. Eventually, Abbey arrives, claiming that she had trouble starting the engine. After Noah climbs aboard, the engine dies again. As he desperately tries to restart it, the dinghy drifts back toward the dock of the Coral Queen, where Luno is waiting with a gun aimed at the kids. Just at the dinghy drifts helplessly up to the dock, a man appears out of nowhere and attacks Luno. Noah instantly recognizes the old pirate who saved him from Jasper and Bull.

As the pirate beats Luno with a deck mop, Noah finally succeeds in starting the motor. The kids flee the bay, and Noah thinks, “What were the odds of being rescued for a second time by the same stranger? Either the old pirate was following us around like some sort of weird guardian angel, or Abbey and I were the luckiest two kids in Florida” (195).