When I woke a couple days later, the sun was peering in through the bars on top of our cell, Tulio was banging his head against the beam again, and Miguel was…
Where was he?
I got up, and looked around, and he was right behind me, I had slept in his lap, again! I could've sworn I fell asleep on the floor last night! I carefully scooted away from him, mindful of my injuries, but he pulled me back into him. I yelped and he awoke with a start. As soon as he noticed the position we were in he scooched back with a strangled grunt. I sent him a small smile which he returned, and I heard Tulio groan. I hadn't even realized he had stopped banging his head on the beam.
"Are you two done acting like teenagers? I need to think!" he whined. I rolled my eyes and scooched so my back was to the wall. Miguel sat on my left, directly under the hatch to the deck. I jumped in surprise when a red blob feel through the bars and directly onto Miguel's stomach.
"So uh…" he broke the silence. "How's the escape plan coming?" Tulio paused for a second.
"Wait… I… I'm getting something.." He banged his head on the beam twice more then turned to face us with his finger pointing upwards. As he went on to explain the plan, I was skeptical, and Miguel seemed to be as well.
"Back to Spain?" he asked. "In a rowboat?". Tulio nodded, smiling with pride. I rolled my eyes. "Well I like it!" my eyes widened. "How do we get on deck?" I raised an eyebrow, wondering that as well. Tulio went on to explain the plan again, still leaving out the detail of how we get on deck, which, might I add, was the most important part if we wanted to escape. I rolled my eyes and Miguel reared back.
"Oh, great! Sensational!" Tulio had an offended look on his face and yelled at Miguel to come up with a plan of his own. "What? You're the one with the plans!" Miguel exclaimed. I rolled my eyes, snatching the apple out of Miguel's hand. As I was about to take a bite we heard a whinnie from on deck. I paused, a plan formulating in my head. One thing I had learned from the circus was that animals are almost always easy to manipulate, especially with food.
"Wait, wait!" Miguel exclaimed, and I looked at him strangely. "I've got something, help me up!" he seemed to have the exact same plan as me, which was rather strange. I tossed him the apple as he coaxed the horse over. How he knew the horse's name was Al Tivo was beyond me, but eventually the keys fell through the bars.
"Well, it's not a prybar," Tulio deadpanned. I let out a short laugh, and took the keys from the ground, hiding them in my skirts.
"We better get some rest, if we're going to be escaping tonight, we'll need all the strength we can get," I told the boys, and they nodded. Miguel going back to his usual sleeping spot, Tulio lying down a couple feet away. I scooched over to Miguel, deciding not to fight the urge to cuddle with him, and snuggled into his side, falling asleep quicker and more peacefully than I had ever before.
I was not plagued by nightmares (or memories, rather) of the circus, to my surprise. Instead I dreamt of a beautiful tropical island, exploring it along with my younger brothers, who 7 years previously had been enslaved and sent to Cuba. In my dream, they were alive and healthy, and they were never hungry, with smiles on their faces.
They told me stories of what had happened to them while they had been on the island, and fell asleep in my lap. I heard a twig snap, looking up to see Miguel walking through the trees to the clearing we had set up camp. I was not at all surprised to see him, instead smiling and gently placing Filipe and Paulo on the ground, and running to him, hugging him. As we leaned in for a kiss I could hear him saying my name.
"Rose," he said softly, I hummed in response.
"Rose." he said again, more clear. I was confused.
"ROSE!" I jolted awake. Holy shit what was up with that dream? I sat up quickly, apologizing to Miguel, and then I winced, my back was not healing very well.
"It's time," was all he said, sending me a soft smile, the same one I had seen in my dream, and helped me up.