"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!"
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.
A short distance away there was a small creek which emptied into the ocean. It looked like a good place to explore, have lunch, and maybe do some fishing. They had hooks and could use green saplings for poles.
Mom 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.
"Lyle, let's try the metal detector around here, I don't see any fish."
"Okay, Bill. But isn't the treasure buried on the beach?"
"It might be here, he could have carried it a short distance."
Walking along the creek towards the ocean, Bill stopped. "Lyle, this looks exactly like the place on that National Geographic special where erosion uncovered a huge T-Rex!"
At first it was exciting to dig for dinosaur bones, but they didn't find anything except beach sand brought in by the tide, mud, sharp rocks, and plenty of icy water. Bill stopped, dried his hands, and turned on the metal detector. It went wild!
"Lyle, let's go back to the house and get some shovels!"
Soon the two boys were back at the creek armed with shovels, a spade, the metal detector, and even a large metal bucket.
"Let's dig, Bill! The treasure is waiting for us!" The two boys dug furiously. Clang! The shovel had hit something metal.
"Lyle!!! I found it! This thing is heavier than it looks! It's only as big as a couple of loaves of bread, but I need help to lift it."
"How do we open it, Bill? It's not locked but it's sealed really tight."
"Let's try to pry the lid open."
After much effort, the two children lifted the lid.
"Wow..." whispered Bill.
Inside was a crystal globe with moving parts almost like a Rubik's cube, but these 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 symbols 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.
"Lyle, did you see that? I think this globe is showing us the Earth like it is right now. And I think I just stopped a hurricane!"
"Can I see, Bill?"
"Here, but be careful. If it's what I think it is, it could be really dangerous."
"It looks alive... I wonder how old it is, and where it came from?"
"I wonder too, Lyle. But that box has been buried for a really long time. I've never seen anything like the metal the box is made of either. It's heavy like gold but strong and grey, almost like steel."
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, Bill?" 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!
"Mom! Dad! Lyle! Come quick!"
"Let's build a snowman!" shouted Lyle.
They stood outside in the light snow, marveling at what they could only call a miracle.
Bill then selected the medium-sized sun. The sky cleared almost instantly. 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
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