"The Estrellita" was dirty. As in it probably hadn't been vacuumed or dusted in literally twenty years. It reeked of gas because that was the fuel. Structurally it was in good shape. It had been built in the 1940's and used as an officers transport vessel during World War II. The engine room had been redone and was in the center of the boat in a large white room accessible by a steel door followed by a descending ladder. The engine room was very clean. And almost blindingly white. And incredibly loud. It terrified me.
Most of the boat scared me. It was basically split in two by the engine room. The stern (back) area had the "living room", large kitchen, bathroom, and two larger bedrooms. My parents slept back there in one of those bedrooms. My sister and I were up in the bow(front). I can not tell you how many separate quarters there were in the bow because that area scared me so much that the only part I was in was my bedroom. If you were to start at the very stern of the boat and walk to our bedroom you would have to start at my parents' bedroom, walk through the living area, climb up a big ladder, walk across a hallway (engine room door was in the hallway--always frightening to pass that), come to a dark hole in the floor which you had to climb into and down a large ladder that deposited you in a pitch black hallway (completely dark due some electrical issue that prevented the lights from working) and then you had to creep the hallway until you saw the light under the door of our room. So, really, I have no idea what was in that hallway because I only saw it by flashlight and usually I was moving as quickly as possible (while nearly blind) to my room with my sister either in front of or behind me (it was truly every girl for herself). We'd barge into our bedroom and immediately slam the door behind us to prevent whatever was certainly chasing us from catching up (I pictured "Golum" from Lord of the Rings--the cartoon version). Not the time for sightseeing.
So, that Saturday we arrived home and we had lots of company. My dad had enlisted a few friends and my 20 year old brother to help him in a major project. They were going to convert the gasoline engine into a diesel one. I have no idea how you do this but the first step was to empty the boat's large fuel tanks of the gasoline. The men were carrying gallons upon gallons of the gas up to the marina parking lot and filling up the gas tanks of the parked cars (I think every car there got topped off--with or without the owner's consent).
The boat had reeked of gasoline before but now the odor was sickeningly strong. I went downstairs to grab some lunch and the smell gave me an instant headache. People were bustling around and my mom was talking to my dad. She ordered me up the ladder where my sister and baby brother were hanging out in the hallway. We were going to be heading to the grocery store to get every bottle of Dawn we could get our hands on for the men to clean up the gas.
I headed to my quarters to change my clothes. In my room I noticed that the dozens upon dozens of caterpillars I had captured and housed in a jar had escaped and were making cocoons all over my room. My mom was going to be ticked when she saw this! Oh well, I'd worry about that later.
Back upstairs, my mom waited with my siblings. I walked into the area they were at and nearly stepped on a tiny piece of dog poop. My dachshund, Dutchess, was notoriously bad about preferring the indoors for her bathroom needs. My mom asked me to please clean it up. Being nine years old, I took the lazy way out and reached for an old vacuum that had come with the boat (old meaning it was likely some kind of antique). I went to go plug that vacuumed in and out of the corner of my eye I saw my baby brother's car seat plunge off of the bench it was resting on.
His seat landed upside down but thankfully he was strapped in and he was not injured. It upset my mom and sister and I greatly though. Matthew screamed his little head off and after checking for injuries and finding none, my poor frazzled mom ordered us off the boat.
I forgot about the dog poop. Left it right there.
Looking back, if my brother had not fallen I would have plugged that vacuum in. With the incredible amount of gas fumes, that very likely could have caused the spark which would have blown us all sky high.
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