by Charles Tang
“Remember, don’t touch anything,” Jessie said to Benny. He was staring at a clump of coral just a foot away.
Melanie handed out goggles to everyone. “You really have to put your face in the water to get the full effect of the colors. Take a look. That’s golf ball coral right next to your foot. And there’s a nice chunk of finger coral over on the right.”
“Something strange is going on down here,” Violet said, startled. She pulled her head out of the water, still clutching the camera. “I tried to get a picture of some coral and it moved!”
Melanie peered into the clear blue water. “Oh, that’s rose coral, Violet. Whenever it gets covered up with sand, it spits out a little jet of water. That’s how it turns itself right side up.”
They waded around for another half hour, being careful not to disturb the coral in any way. Violet took a lot of pictures, and Benny was excited when he spotted a strange-looking fish swimming past him.
“Hey!” he yelled to Melanie. “What’s that?” He pointed to a small translucent disk bobbing on the water.
“A jellyfish,” she replied.
“Are you sure it’s a fish? It’s got something green trapped inside it,” Jessie said. “It looks like a plant.”
“It is a plant. Some jellyfish carry their food with them,” Melanie explained.
“Just like we put granola bars in our backpacks,” Benny piped up.
“Exactly.”
After they’d eaten a tasty lunch, Melanie took the Aldens back to camp. There they piled into a van with some other campers to visit Key West.
Jessie admired the beautiful old Victorian houses, with tropical plants spilling out of their window boxes. The streets were lined with stately palms and banyan trees, and the air smelled like flowers.
They drove toward Mallory Square on a street lined with shops. A vendor was cutting open fresh coconuts and selling them to a group of children, who raised the rough brown shells to their lips.
“What are they doing?” Violet asked, puzzled.
“They’re sipping fresh coconut milk,” Melanie told her. “It’s delicious. If we have time, we’ll stop and buy some on the way back.”
After Melanie parked the van, they wandered through an open air market that was filled with tourists. The hot afternoon sun made everyone move slowly. Violet watched as a man made a basket out of palm fronds. Soo Lee bought a delicate bracelet with the money Grandfather had given each of them for souvenirs. Benny looked over a selection of shells, and finally chose a chalky white sand dollar.
After Benny paid for his prize, he looked up in surprise. “Look, there’s Nick Simon from camp.” He pointed to a tall bearded man who was deep in conversation with another man. “I want to show him my new sand dollar.”
Melanie watched as Benny scampered over to the marine biologist. “That’s funny,” she said.
“What’s that?” Jessie was picking through a pile of tiny brass rings.
“I asked Nick Simon if he’d like to ride into Key West with us today, but he told me he had too much to do back at camp,” she said with a shrug. “I guess he changed his mind.”
“Nick Simon liked my sand dollar!” Benny said, running back to the group. “And guess what — he told me his friend is a real fisherman!”
Henry glanced over at Nick Simon’s friend, a pale, sandy-haired man in his early thirties. The two men quickly turned their backs and headed down to the docks. “He sure doesn’t look like a fisherman,” Henry said. “Look how pale he is. He looks like he never goes in the sun.”
“Everybody else around here is tan,” Jessie said. She shrugged. “Maybe he’s the captain of the fishing boat, and he stays inside while other people fish.”
“Maybe,” Melanie said, but she didn’t look convinced.
“Where shall we go now?” Violet asked. She sat under a date tree and unfolded her Key West map. “We can go to the Key West Aquarium, or we can see Mel Fisher’s Museum.”
“What kind of museum is it?” Benny was peering over her shoulder.
“It has all kinds of sunken treasure,” Melanie explained. “Mel Fisher discovered the Atocha,a ship that sank hundreds of years ago. It was filled with gold bars, and lots of emeralds and jewelry.”
“But the aquarium is interesting, too,” Violet pointed out. “It has loads of fish, Benny, and I’ve heard they even let you touch an eel.”
“Wow!” Benny exclaimed. He was stumped. Fish or sunken treasure — how could he ever choose? He turned to Melanie. “Could we do both?” he asked. “We could go to the aquarium right now and then come back to Key West another day to visit the museum.”
“That’s fine with me,” Melanie said with a smile. “I can see that you don’t want to miss anything.”
Jessie laughed as Benny hopped up and down. No one had more energy than her little brother!
CHAPTER 4
Petting a Shark
“So that’s why they call them parrot fish!” Violet said excitedly a few minutes later. Melanie and the Aldens were peering into a large tank at the Key West Aquarium where a dazzling fish zipped through the crystal-clear water. It was brightly colored and had a beak almost like a bird’s.
“Parrot fish use their beaks to scrape algae off the coral,” Melanie explained. “Unfortunately, they can leave some pretty bad scars on the reef.”
Jessie steered them to another large tank, where a young man was giving a lecture. He lifted something dark and wriggly out of the tank, and held it up carefully in front of the visitors. “This is a nurse shark,” the man explained. “Would anyone here like to pet her?”
Benny’s eyes lit up. “Can I?” When the man nodded, Benny stepped closer and carefully stroked the shark’s side. Then he drew his hand back in surprise. “It feels just like sandpaper!”
“Will it bite?” Violet asked, waiting her turn to touch the shark.
“No, nurse sharks are completely harmless. They’re very gentle,” Melanie told the Aldens.
After they learned about porcupine puffers and sea cucumbers, the guide lifted a large conch shell out of the tank.
“That’s just like the one you found,” Jessie whispered to Violet.
“I know,” Violet said, admiring the pink and white spiral shell. She wondered who had broken into the classroom building that night, and if the thief would ever be caught. She hoped so.
“This is the horse conch,” the guide was saying. “Maybe he’ll come out for us.” He waited until something large and brown slithered out of the shell.
“There he is!” Benny leaned forward for a closer look.
Everyone watched as the conch inched across the guide’s hand, and then lumbered slowly back into his shell. “The conch is a very interesting marine animal. He eats red algae and moves one mile in twenty-four hours.”
“Wow! That’s pretty slow,” Henry pointed out.
Benny giggled. “Not if you’re carrying your house on your back!” He suddenly spied a pretty blue fish in another tank. “Look,” he said, tugging at Melanie’s hand.
“That’s the fish I told you about. The car-wash fish.”
Melanie nodded. “The blue angel fish,” she said, reading the label on the tank. “You have a good memory, Benny,” she told him. “He cleans up the other fish by eating parasites off them.”
The same fish that Nick Simon had never heard of, Henry thought.
Later that night over a delicious dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes, Benny was telling the whole table about his visit to the aquarium.
“We even saw a barracuda,” he said proudly. “He was swimming really fast underwater.”
Nick Simon smiled at him politely. “They can be very dangerous,” he pointed out. “Just remember to get out of the water if you see one headed your way,” he added jokingly.
“Or better yet, don’t wear any jewelry while you’re swimming,” Melanie said, pointing to a thin silver chain around Nick Simon’s neck.
The marine biologist looked at
her blankly. It was clear to everyone that he had no idea what she was talking about. Violet finally turned to Melanie. “What do you mean?”
Melanie shrugged. “Everyone knows that barracuda are attracted to things that are shiny. If they see a flash of silver in the water — like a chain — they think it’s something to eat. You see, their favorite food is a type of little silvery fish.” She paused and stared right at Nick Simon. “But then, you know that.”
“Yes, of course,” Nick said quickly. He looked a little embarrassed.
“I definitely don’t want to be dinner for a fish!” Benny exclaimed and everyone laughed.
“Don’t worry, Benny,” Melanie reassured him. “We’ll make sure that you’re not.”
When dinner was over, the Aldens decided to check on their aquariums. Jessie had picked up a few pretty, colorful shells at the market and she wanted to add them to the tank.
They were working in the classroom building, when suddenly Benny remembered something. He tugged at Henry’s wrist. “Something really strange happened the night we went out in the pontoon boat.” He quickly told everyone about seeing Joshua Slade pluck something out of the ocean and hide it in his shirt.
“He didn’t put it into his bucket the way he was supposed to,” Benny said, confused. “He stuffed it right here.” He pointed to his chest.
“What was it?” Soo Lee asked.
“It couldn’t have been a live fish,” Jessie pointed out, sensibly. “It would have been wriggling.”
“Maybe it was a conch shell,” Violet offered, thinking of her own shell.
“No, that would be too big to fit under his shirt,” Henry said.
“Maybe it was a really pretty shell and he didn’t want the rest of us to see it.” Jessie suggested as she carefully added a sea fan to her tank.
“But what did he do with it?” Soo Lee asked. She glanced at the tank that Joshua Slade shared with his wife. It was almost empty except for a few wisps of sea grass and a couple of angel fish. “He didn’t put it in his tank.”
On the way back to their cabins, they noticed Ned, one of the counselors, guiding a boat toward the dock. The craft was filled with campers, and Violet remembered that a night expedition was scheduled that evening. Usually boats weren’t taken out at night, but this was a special occasion.
“Let’s see what they got,” Benny said eagerly. “Melanie said you can find some nice fish that only come out at night.”
They were almost at the water’s edge when they spotted Joshua Slade strolling by. He seemed lost in thought and was startled when Ned tossed him a line from the boat. “Would you mind tying that for us?” Ned asked.
“Sure, I . . . I’ll be glad to.” Joshua Slade looked helplessly at the line in his hand, and looped it uncertainly around the piling. “There you go,” he said brightly, and hurried off.
When Ned leaped nimbly off the boat, he looked at the line and shook his head. “What kind of knot is this?” Henry heard him mutter. “The guy doesn’t know how to tie up a boat!”
“Did you hear that?” Henry asked as soon as they were out of earshot. They were walking down the winding path that led to the cabins.
Jessie nodded. “Mr. Slade is supposed to run a sailing company, but he doesn’t know how to tie a knot?” She paused. “That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“A lot of things don’t make sense,” Violet added. “Mr. Simon is supposed to be a marine biologist, but he didn’t know that barracuda like to eat little silvery fish. Melanie had to explain it to him.”
“And he didn’t know about the car-wash fish,” Benny reminded her.
“That’s right,” Henry agreed. “And now look at Mr. Slade. I never heard of a sailor who couldn’t tie a simple knot!”
They were at the girls’ cabin, and Violet stopped outside the door. “I’m beginning to think that Melanie is the only person around here who really knows everything she’s supposed to.”
“She sure does,” Benny said enthusiastically. “I like her a lot!”
“We all do,” Jessie said. “Time to turn in, little brother. We have a big day tomorrow.”
“I know,” Benny said, dancing down the path to the boys’ cabin excitedly. “Windsurfing at eight, sailing at ten, and snorkeling at two.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Henry said teasingly.
Benny thought a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Breakfast at seven!”
Benny grinned and rubbed his stomach. “I could never forget that!”
The next morning, Benny raced through the cafeteria line so he could be the first one to try the wind-surfing simulator. It was a wide flat board, mounted on a giant spring. If you stepped on the board and shifted your weight, you felt just like you were bouncing back and forth over the waves. “It seems funny surfing on dry land,” he said, as he hopped on the machine.
“You won’t think it’s so funny if you land on your bottom,” Melanie told him. “The beach sand is nice and cushiony. It will break your fall.”
“I won’t fall,” Benny said.
“Maybe not.” Melanie positioned his feet on the board. “But nine out of ten people do. It’s a lot harder than it looks.”
For the next ten minutes, Benny practiced balancing on the board and working the sails. “Wow, this is hard,” he said, tugging the sail in one direction, then another. “But it must be lots of fun when you finally try it in the ocean.”
“It’s a lot of fun,” Melanie promised. “But we have to make sure you do it safely on land first. And once you’re on the water, you’ll be wearing a life jacket. That’s in case you tumble into the water,” she said. “Not that I think you will.”
Each of the Aldens took turns, and Jessie caught the hang of it right away. “When can we try the real thing?” she asked, her face flushed with excitement.
“I know you think you’re ready to go right now, but you still need some more practice,” Melanie said firmly. “I want everybody out here for half an hour every day, because you can’t try it in the ocean until you master it on land.”
“Oh no!” Benny groaned.
“It’s not easy,” Melanie pointed out. “But if you practice hard, we’ll try to get you on the water, Benny.”
CHAPTER 5
Someone’s Stealing Coral!
The following afternoon, Melanie invited the Aldens back to her favorite beach for a delicious picnic lunch. They had spent the morning learning all about dolphins.
“I asked the cook to pack some special lunches for us,” she said, pointing to a large cooler. “Sandwiches, fruit, and fresh lemonade.” She looked at Benny. “Plus a dozen homemade brownies,” she said, knowing his eyes would light up.
“Let’s go!” Benny said, racing down to the dock.
“What did you learn about dolphins this morning?” Melanie asked half an hour later. They were sprawled on beach towels, enjoying their lunch.
“Our teacher said they’re really smart,” Benny said. “They talk to each other with special sounds, and they like to play.” He paused, munching on his sandwich. “And they love to eat. They eat about twenty pounds of fish a day!”
Violet laughed. “I guess you’ve finally met your match, Benny.”
“Dolphins always look happy,” Soo Lee added. “It looks like they are smiling.”
“But they only look that way because their mouths turn up at the corners,” Henry said. “The instructor told us that they get bored and unhappy sometimes, just like people. That’s why it’s not fair to keep them caged up in little pools to do tricks. They enjoy living with other dolphins in the ocean.”
After lunch, Melanie and Henry wandered down to the water’s edge. Melanie scuffed her toe on a seashell and looked down in surprise. “That’s funny. It looks like someone else has been here.” She stared at a set of footprints in the hard-packed sand along the shoreline.
Soo Lee ran across the beach to join them. “Can I wade out and look at th
e coral?” she asked.
“Sure,” Melanie said good-naturedly. She looked worried, though, and Henry knew she was upset that someone had been on her island.
Henry and Melanie were ambling along the shore when a sudden shout from Soo Lee made them turn in alarm.
“What’s wrong?” Henry shaded his eyes from the bright sun.
“It’s gone!” Soo Lee said, peering into the water. “The coral!”
“Oh no,” Melanie said, dropping to her knees in the shallow water. “It looks like someone’s taken a sledge hammer to it!”
Benny, Jessie, and Violet raced down to the water to see the damage. The coral bed had truly been destroyed. The beautiful branches had been hacked off, and all that remained was a jagged base on the ocean floor.
Melanie turned to them with tears in her eyes. “We need to go back to camp right away and report this.”
“Of course,” Jessie said. The children helped Melanie gather up the picnic things. They hurried back to the powerboat and Melanie quickly started the engine. As they skimmed over the water, everyone was silent except Benny.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “Why would anyone want to ruin anything so beautiful?”
“For money.” Melanie’s voice was tight as she steered the boat skillfully over the gentle, lapping waves. “Coral is worth a fortune, and there’s not much of it left.”
“But how did anyone even know about that particular coral bed?” Henry asked. “You said you’ve been coming to the island for years, and it’s always been deserted.”
“I don’t know,” Melanie admitted. “But that’s something I need to tell the Coast Guard.”
“The Coast Guard?” Benny’s eyes were wide.
“Stealing coral is a serious crime,” Melanie told him. “We’ll call the authorities as soon as we hit camp. I bet they’ll start an investigation right away.”
An hour later, the Aldens found themselves being interviewed by Mr. Larson, a friendly man from the local Coast Guard Station.
