Ruth hollered at her, but Gloria wasn’t able to hear what she said.
With one final desperate attempt to ram the door open, she reluctantly made her way back to her friends. Lucy sat on a step while Ruth glumly stared out the window. “Let me guess…we’re locked in.”
“At least we have cell service.” Gloria held her phone toward the window, careful to keep a firm grip on it.
“I’m sorry,” Lucy said in a small voice. “This is my fault.”
“We’re all to blame. We shouldn’t have cut it this close,” Ruth said. “Who are you calling?”
“Millie.” Gloria dialed her cousin’s cell phone number. It went directly to voicemail. She left a message explaining their situation.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re running out of time to make it back to the ship,” Ruth said.
“Or what?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t even want to think about it.” Gloria pulled up a search app and typed Bay Tide Lighthouse Grand Turk in the search bar. She clicked on the phone number that popped up. “With any luck someone will answer.”
A robotic voice began speaking, listing the lighthouse’s hours and the exact location. No other prompts to speak to a live person were offered. The call abruptly ended.
“No one is picking up.”
“Try Margaret or Dot,” Ruth suggested.
“They’re probably wondering what happened to us. I’ll try Dot first.” Gloria tapped the screen.
Dot answered right away. “Where are you?”
“Locked in the lighthouse.”
“Locked in the lighthouse? What happened?”
“I have you on speaker. It’s a long and, at least for Lucy, painful story. We were on our way down right around closing time at quarter ‘til. Lucy tripped and twisted her ankle. The lighthouse employee didn’t realize we were still in here and locked the door.”
“Without checking to make sure no one was inside?”
“She rang the bell, warning any occupants she was locking up. We tried getting her attention, but the wind was blowing.”
“Call the office.”
“I already tried. I got an automated message and then the line disconnected.”
Dot’s voice grew muffled. “Margaret, Liz and I are almost back to the ship. Did you let Millie know?”
“I left her a message.”
Ruth elbowed Gloria. “Based on how much smoke is pouring out of the smokestack, we don’t have long.”
“Unless Millie can pull some strings, we’ll be left behind.”
“I’ll let security know as soon as we board. In the meantime, have you tried picking the lock?”
“Not yet, but we will. We need to help Lucy first.”
“Keep your cell phone handy.”
“I will. Unfortunately cell reception is almost non-existent,” Gloria said.
“Ruth here. We’ll have Lucy hang out by the window while Gloria and I run down to try to unlock the door. If you can somehow keep the ship from leaving, we’ll see if we can pick the lock.”
