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He was a tall redhead, skinny, with big hands and feet.
I thought he looked familiar. His smile cracked his face
wide open. "Hi! You're April Chen, right? We bumped into
each other. Literally." Then I remembered. I had gone on my first Rock Hounds
outing three weeks ago, and we had been hunting around
the base of Mount Pilchuck. With a spurt of excitement,
I had spotted something on the ground. It looked like a
big, lumpy potato, but from the texture of the surface I
was pretty sure it was a geode, a rock with a hollow
inside which might contain beautiful crystals. I had
rushed over and bent down to snatch it. Someone else had
spotted the geode at exactly the same time, and our
heads met with a crack. Even now, just thinking about it
made my ears ring.
"Oh, yeah," I said. "You're ... uh ... Steve Daniels,
right?"
"Right!" He took a rock from his backpack.. It was the
one we had both reached for. "I feel kind of mean,
taking this while you were sitting on the ground, dizzy
and everything."
"You have as much right
to it as I have," I protested.
Steve held out the lump of rock. "A lump for a lump. And
the lump on your head was bigger than mine. So you
deserve it more."
His hands were large, but his fingers were deft as they
moved lovingly over the rock. I did not feel right about
accepting his offer. On the other hand, he might be hurt
if I refused it. Then I had an idea. "Let's cut it open.
Geodes are best when they're cut, anyway, so we can see
what's inside. Then we can each take half."
Steve grinned again, and the freckles danced over his
cheeks. "I was hoping you would say
that."
We were at a meeting of the Rock Hounds, held at the
home of our science teacher, Mr Cappelli, who had
organized the club. I was a junior at Garfield High
School, of all my extracurricular activities, this was
my favorite.
For years I had been fascinated by stories of rocks,
which came in so many colors and patterns. At first I
had been attracted to the ones with bright colors, such
as jade and opal. After a while I became interested in
the shapes of crystals, and the swirling patterns found
in marble and gneiss. I particularly loved geodes,
because they looked so drab and uninteresting on the
outside, while often hiding bright, jewel-like stones
inside.
Another reason I liked the Rock Hounds was because I
felt comfortable with the other kids in the group. We
shared a common interest, and we were not trying to put
each other down. I did not enjoy school athletics,
because it had always been difficult for me to be openly
competitive. Of course there was a certain amount of
competition in the Rock Hounds, too. We were all eager
to show Mr Cappelli our finds. That was how Steve and I
had met head on, after all. But it was a good-natured
competition - splitting the geode was typical of the
Rock Hounds. |
