The Adventure of the Magic Chia Plant

Chapter 3: Finding Bethie

The trip was just a short drop to the pink beach, as if Brent had merely hopped off a chair onto the floor. One instant, he was on the third floor of their house, and in the next, he was standing under a sky that no human being had ever seen. The only difference was that for a split second, it felt as if the colors in his vision had reversed, as if black had become white and white had become black. 

 He glanced up just in time to see Bench appear from thin air, two feet above the ground, and sprawl facedown on the sand. The ten-year-old leaped to his feet immediately, obviously unhurt, and trotted to his older brother's side, brushing off grains from his flushed face and neck.

"I tripped," he explained in embarrassment.

Brent just nodded and pointed at where they had both emerged from. "You can't see the portal from here. It's one-sided."

Bench looked in all directions, but his brother was right.  There was no indication anywhere of the portal from where they were standing. All he could see was miles of beach, ocean, and the purple sky with the three full moons.   "It's a good thing we brought some seeds, then. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to get back."

"Let's hope it grows here, too." Brent scanned the area where they had last seen their sister. "Do you see her?"

"No. Why don't you use your binoculars?"

"Good idea!" Brent opened his backpack and dug out the device; it wasn't exactly a toy, but it wasn't an expensive model, either. He lifted it to his eyes and started panning it around. Surprisingly, it seemed to be clearer and stronger than he remembered. Could he really see this far with it before?   

Bench opened his own backpack and located his flashlight. He switched it on, and it made a dazzling pillar across the dunes. "I don't remember it being this bright," he remarked to himself. It was just a cheap flashlight, made of red plastic, that his father had gifted to him as a joke because he had a bad habit of misplacing his toys under pieces of furniture. He swung it around just to watch the ground explode into a million sparkling stars. 

 For several minutes, the two boys wandered around in opposite directions, shouting their sister's name at the top of their lungs. Finally, they turned back towards each other, and the flashlight's beam and the binoculars' line of sight accidentally crossed.  

"Wow, that's incredible!" Brent exclaimed, looking up in astonishment. "Here, take a look!"

Taking care to hold the beam of his flashlight so that it shone in the same direction, Bench peered into the eyepiece. The vista was breathtaking. Everything seemed lit up by three suns instead of three moons--magnified more than ten times and outlined in perfect and gleaming detail.

Because of this extraordinary view, they finally managed to spot Bethie.

It was obvious now why they hadn't seen her before. Somehow, she had managed to dig a hole large enough to bury her whole body in. And now, she was trapped, only her head poking up out of the sand as the tide inexorably crept nearer, just a few feet away from her chin.

"Bethie!" Brent nearly dropped all of his belongings in shock. Fumbling in haste, he slung the two backpacks over his shoulder and sprinted towards her. Bench followed, still pointing his flashlight at where they had last seen her. They suddenly realized how far away she was—the binoculars had made her seem much closer. As their feet slapped across the sand—thankfully, it was crystalline, compacted, and not made up of loose powder, so it bore their weight easily— they finally began to hear her wails.

"Brennie! Benchie!"  She only used their baby names when she was in distress. They ran faster.

They got to her when the water was just a foot away. Bench threw his backpack on the beach and lay down in front of her with his back to the ocean, making a barrier so that the wave crashed against his body before reaching her face. Brent dropped to his knees and started digging like crazy, sand flying around him as he labored to release his little sister from her self-imposed prison. Fortunately, he hadn't cut his fingernails in a while, so he made excellent progress. 

Bethie was free within less than five minutes, although her clothes were damp and heavily encrusted with pink grains. Sobbing helplessly, she threw herself at him so hard that he almost fell over. Brent hugged her back fiercely, making comforting noises. He could scold her later; after all, she hadn't known what she was doing. He was just glad that she was safe. After a second, Bench joined them, although he was drenched in seawater from head to foot.

"Thank you, boys," Bethany said sweetly, kissing them both on the cheek. The two brothers blushed, but they felt very good about themselves. She was just a baby, but there were some things that she could understand, like gratitude. And she was their one and only little sister, after all. 

"Come now, Bethie." Brent tugged at her hand. "We have to go home."

"Okay." She jumped up immediately, her near-brush with disaster already forgotten. "I want Mama."

"She's not here, Bethie. She's back at the house."

She looked around them, eyes wide. "Where's the house?"

The boys glanced at each other despairingly. The whole situation was impossible to explain to a six-year-old.  They barely understood it themselves.  

"The house is on the other side of the leaf circle," Brent began.

"But where is the leaf circle?"

"We have to make another one," Bench supplied. "That's why we brought some seeds."

Bethany clapped her hands in delight. "We're going to plant! Like what Mama did on the balcony!"

"Yes, let's try it now. I'm getting chilly. " Bench shivered at the wind blowing in from the ocean. It was much colder here than he was used to. He should have brought jackets, but it hadn't crossed his mind, not when it was sweltering hot back home.  

They moved inland a few meters and made a semicircle around a promising dry patch of sand. Brent gestured at his sister. "Why don't you be the one to dig, Bethie? You're good at that anyway."

Grinning, she set to work. He stopped her after she had made a shallow depression around six inches deep. "That's enough, Beth. Seed?"

Bench groped in his pocket and plucked out the seed pod, which he opened. He dropped one of the seeds in the center of the hole. "Okay, let's cover it up." 

The three of them took turns filling in the hole until it was completely covered. Then they sat back and waited. And waited.  And waited.

But nothing happened.