Ten year old Lyle and his twelve year old brother Bill were playing on the beach near their vacation home on Jewel Island, close to Bermuda. With Bill's new birthday present, a metal detector, they were sure that they would find pirate treasure.
"Are you sure this is where Timothy The Terrible scuttled his ship, Bill? We've been looking for over an hour!"
"That's what the big old history book at the library said. They didn't mention anything about treasure being found, so it has to be around here somewhere. All pirates have treasure!"
A little bored because of not finding anything right away, the two boys decided to take a break. Bringing the metal detector along, they went to the spot where a small creek emptied into the ocean. It looked like a good place to have lunch, and maybe do some fishing. They had hooks and could use green saplings for poles.
Their mother had made sack lunches with sandwiches, apples, chips, and homemade brownies. "Mom's brownies are the best part of any lunch!" Exclaimed Lyle. Bill agreed.
"Let's try the metal detector around here, I don't see any fish." Said Bill, determined to put his present to good use.
"Ok, but we won't find anything if the Captain buried his treasure way over there where he landed." Said Lyle sadly.
"There might be other things around worth finding." Said Bill.
They started searching along the creek, working towards the ocean. Bill noticed an indentation that somehow looked new in the creek bed, almost completely covered by beach sand brought in by the tide. He had read about such indentations in National Geographic. They were caused by erosion, and sometimes revealed old things like dinosaur bones or gold!
Bill and Lyle began to scoop out the sand. At first it was exciting, but the creek water was icy cold, and they didn't find anything but sand, mud, sharp rocks, and ice cold water. Bill stopped, dried his hands, and turned on the metal detector. It went wild!
"Let's go back to the house and get some shovels!" Said Bill. He was eager to find out what was in there, but digging in those conditions was not nearly as much fun as digging in warm, fine beach sand. Lyle readily agreed.
Soon the two boys were back at the creek armed with shovels, a spade, the metal detector, and even a large metal bucket.
With the aid of their new tools they soon uncovered a box which seemed to be made of heavy steel. It was tightly sealed. There was no lock, and it was small but very heavy. About the size of two loaves of bread.
With quite a bit of effort, the excited children managed to pry the lid off with the spade after working it loose with pocket knives. Inside was a crystal globe with moving parts almost like a Rubik's cube, but they looked a lot easier to arrange.
Each moving part had a picture or writing carved on it. A snowflake. A raindrop. The sun. Various other weather symbols. And there were other crystals with writing that neither of them recognized. Some were repeated more than once in different sizes, especially those which were obviously related to the weather.
Underneath but not touching the movable crystals was a remarkably detailed map of the Earth, but without any country boundaries or writing. It did however have the greens and blues, and even the tiny lights shown in pictures taken from space. This by itself would have been incredible. But in one part of the blue waters, Bill saw a swirling hurricane. It was huge and it was approaching land.
On impulse Bill selected a medium sized sun symbol and slid it directly over the hurricane. Nothing happened. He traced the shape lightly, just to feel it. The light pressure caused the crystal piece to go down. As soon as it came in contact with the globe the hurricane began to disperse.
The boys took everything home. After putting the tools away, they went into the living room and turned on the television. Finding the CNN news channel, they sat and witnessed the many problems in the world. Finally they heard what they were waiting for!
"And in a strange turn of events, Hurricane Carrie has suddenly broken up. It was just about to hit the Philippines in what may have been the most catastrophic event the nation has seen in over a decade. Veteran meteorologists are calling it a fluke. Some are even describing it as a miracle."
"YES!!!" Bill shouted triumphantly. This got their parents attention! Mom, who had been painting on the patio, and Dad, who had been checking in to make sure everything was fine at work, came running.
"What happened, son?" Asked Dad. The two children quickly told their story, often interrupting each other. Understandably, the adults thought it was a coincidence.
"Dad, where are we?" Asked Bill, holding up the globe they had found. Dad pointed out the small island, after consulting a map on a travel brochure.
"Uh, Bill? No hurricanes?" Said Dad, only partially joking.
"Oh I have something much better! How about a tornado that we can all ride to Oz?" Said Bill, laughing. His dad rolled his eyes at the joke.
Bill smiled to himself as he selected the smallest snowflake symbol. Five minutes later, he looked out the window. There was already a thin layer of snow sticking to the ground!
Calling their parents to witness the miracle, Bill then made it sunny again. The adults finally believed! "Boys, you have made the biggest discovery of the century! This is incredible!" Said Dad.
This is a 100% power up post!
#story #fiction #contest #inkwellsummercontest #theinkwell
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
Photo by Maksim Romashkin from Pexels
*Edited by me on Canva*