The Adventure of the Magic Chia Plant

Chapter 10: Near Misses

Beth clapped her hands excitedly.  "Tea! Are we going to make iced tea? Can we put sugar and honey in it?  Will we drink it for merienda?"

Brent fought not to laugh at his sister's barrage of questions.  "No, Bethie, it's not for us.  It's for the monster.  And it doesn't like sweet tea."

She frowned.  "It doesn't? What does it like, then?"

Brent had actually been thinking about that.  "Well, it lives in the sea, and seawater is salty," he said slowly.  "So I guess it likes salty tea."

His younger sister made a face.  "Salty tea? That sounds icky."

Brent shrugged.  "Well, it probably thinks sweet tea is icky, too.  It doesn't like the same things we do."

"I guess."  

He could see that Beth was still struggling with the concept of putting herself in someone or something else's shoes, which was perfectly understandable since she was only seven years old.

"Anyway, I have a job for you." 

Beth perked up.  "Okay! What?"

"I want you to walk along the shore and look for a container into which we can put the tea."

She cocked her head and pointed at their bags.  "Why don't we use our water bottles?"

Brent smiled.  "Well, for one thing, they contain our water supplies.  And we'll need them since we haven't found a source of fresh water here yet.  And for another, the canteens are metal and double-walled, which means even if we heat them over a fire, the water inside won't boil.  And we need the tea to be hot."

Beth didn't wholly understand the explanation, but she got the message that their bottles contained the only freshwater they had.  She didn't want to drink the water from the ocean.  She'd accidentally tasted it earlier when she had buried herself in the sand, and it tasted atrocious.  Nodding in agreement, she started running towards the waves.

"Don't go into the water, okay?" Brent yelled after her anxiously.  She waved a hand without looking back.  

Brent faced the water, determined to keep an eye on her even as he made further preparations.  First, he put the backpacks in a pile off to one side to keep them out of the way.  Next, he investigated the remains of the bonfire from last night.  The flames had died down, but a few embers remained.  He would need them later.  Luckily, he had set aside a handful of tinder and kindling, so he put a few dry leaves on the embers to keep them alive. He then started walking in widening circles around their encampment, looking for more branches, driftwood, and vines.  

Now and then, Beth would run back and show him something: a whelk shell, a coconut husk, or even a hollowed-out gourd.  Unfortunately, each object they tried had a problem. The whelk shell had a hole somewhere that let the water drain out, while the gourd and the coconut husk caught fire.  Brent praised his sister each time anyway, making her even more determined to find something useful.

While she continued rooting through the scattered debris on the shoreline, Brent finished gathering his supplies.  Using sturdy branches and dried vines as twine, he meticulously constructed a tripod over which they could suspend something over the fire.  It took more than half an hour as he kept obsessively adding more twine to make sure that the whole structure wouldn't collapse with the weight of both a receptacle and the water it would contain, but in the end, he was satisfied.  Now, all they had to do was test it.  

"Kuya! Kuya!"

Brent whipped around in panic, sure that Beth had gotten herself in trouble, then saw with relief that she was standing ankle-deep in the surf, waving frenziedly at him.  He got up, dusted the sand off his shorts, and ambled over.  

"Beth, I told you not to go into the water--"

She grabbed his hand and propelled him forward.  "But, look!"

She pointed at something a few meters away.  He looked in the direction of her finger and grinned.  Half-buried in the sand was a gigantic pink clamshell, more than a foot wide.  It was nearly camouflaged by the pink sand surrounding it.  It was a wonder Beth had seen it at all.  Brent could understand why she hadn't tried to get it herself; it looked heavy.  

"Good work, Bethie!" He patted her on the head, and Beth practically glowed with pride. 

"Okay, just wait here for me, okay?  I'm gonna go get that."

Brent sloshed forward and pried the shell out.  It was heavy. He filled the lower half with seawater (which made it even heavier) and lugged it back to their campsite, Beth skipping joyfully beside him.  He slowly placed it on top of his makeshift tripod, praying it would hold.  The branches creaked and bent slightly but didn't give way.  

"Now to boil the water," Brent muttered to himself.  He positioned Bethie several feet away, just to be safe.  He then added the rest of the tinder and kindling to the embers under the tripod and blew on them until he had the flames licking up on the underside.  

Beth watched in fascination.  "How long will it take for the water to boil?"

Brent scratched his head.  "I did read that seawater will take longer to boil than freshwater, but hopefully not much longer.  Once it starts to boil, I'll add the seeds one by one and wait a few minutes in between for the alien to smell it.  I hope we won't need all the seeds we have!"

"What happens if we do?"

Brent laughed unconvincingly and ruffled his sister's hair.  "We won't.  Don't think about it."

She looked at him curiously, knowing he wasn't being entirely truthful, but she didn't press the issue.  Brent avoided her gaze, not wanting to worry her, and rummaged around for the seeds.  There were eleven left.  He gingerly left two in the backpack and put nine in his pocket.  

The water in the clamshell started to bubble.

"There we go!" Brent said excitedly.  He took one seed and stepped forward just as the shell started emitting a strange whistling sound.

"What's that?" Beth asked fearfully.

A line appeared on one side of the shell with an ominous crack.  

Brent's eyes widened, and he stumbled back, spreading his arms wide to protect his sister.  "Look out!"

Suddenly, the clamshell exploded.