Los Órganos

The first sound came from the hills.

It was deep and drawn out, as if a giant were blowing into a huge bottle somewhere behind Los Órganos. The fishermen at the pier paused. Even the gulls fell silent.

“What was that?” asked Perusino.

“The wind,” replied fisherwoman Rosa. “When it blows through the hills, it sometimes sounds like an organ. That's supposedly where our town got its name.”

A second note rolled over the rooftops. This time higher and shriller.

Franz perked up his ears. “That organ desperately needs tuning.”

Then there was a crash.

At the end of the pier, a thick rope shot over the planks. A red marker buoy broke loose from its mooring and drifted out to the open sea. At the same time, the warning light on the signal mast began to flicker. Once. Twice. Then it went out.

Rosa reached for her binoculars. Her face became serious.

Outside, a fishing boat struggled against the waves. The Estrella del Norte wanted to return to port with its catch. Without the buoy and the warning signal, the crew could barely make out the safe entrance. To its right, rocks lay just below the water's surface.

A third organ note howled through the bay.

“The wind is shifting!” Rosa shouted. “The boat is being pushed towards the rocks!”

Perusina ran to the signal mast. The line of the red storm flag was jammed in a pulley. She pulled, but nothing moved.

Perusino jumped into a small motorboat with fisherman Mateo. “We’ll get the buoy back!”

“And me?” cried Franz.

At that moment, a gust of wind caught an empty fish basket. It slid over the wet planks, taking Franz with it, and shot directly towards the edge of the pier.

“Not again!” whined the fox.

Perusina threw herself on her stomach and caught the handle at the last second. Franz climbed out, shook himself, and discovered something shiny under the pier.

A transparent fishing line was wrapped around several posts. It led to the blocked pulley of the signal mast and further into the water.

“The line has tangled everything up!”

Perusina pulled out her pocket knife. But the line was too deep between the beams.

Franz clipped a short safety line around his belly. “Only I can fit through there.”

Before Perusina could object, he disappeared under the planks. Waves crashed against the posts. The entire pier trembled.

Outside, Perusino and Mateo reached the drifting buoy. Perusino leaned over the side of the boat and grasped its metal eyelet. Then a wave hit the small boat. The buoy almost pulled him into the water.

“Rope!” he shouted.

Mateo threw him a rope. Perusino looped it through the eyelet, but the buoy pulled the boat dangerously close to the rocks.

Franz's voice came from the pier: “I found the knot! It’s about as big as Perusino's breakfast!”

“Very funny!” Perusino called from the water.

Franz bit into the line. It was tough and cut into his teeth. Above him, Perusina braced both feet against a post and pulled on the safety line.

Suddenly, the tangle ripped apart.

Franz shot out from under the pier and landed in a bucket. At the same time, the blocked pulley on the signal mast started moving again. Perusina hoisted the red flag.

On the Estrella del Norte, the captain spotted the signal. The fishing boat turned left, just as a wave was about to push it onto the hidden rocks.

But the entrance was not yet marked.

Perusino secured the buoy to the stern of the small motorboat. Mateo accelerated. Slowly, they pulled the heavy red body back. As they reached the harbor entrance, Perusino jumped onto the buoy and raised both arms.

“This way!”

The Estrella del Norte followed them through the safe channel. A little later, the fishing boat was at the pier. The people cheered. Franz, too, even though he was still sitting in the bucket.

Rosa examined the cut tangle. It consisted of lost fishing lines and remnants of an old net.

“Such things are not only dangerous for boats,” she explained. “Sea turtles, birds, and other animals can also get caught in them.”

Together, the fishermen collected every piece of the line.

In the evening, the wind once again swept through the hills. A deep note sounded over Los Órganos, followed by a brighter one.

Perusino listened contentedly. “Now the organ sounds right again.”

From the bucket beside him came Franz's voice: “Very nice. Can someone still get me out of here?”