Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis

by Paula Berinstein

“What about mood rings?” said Amphora. “How do those work? Maybe these are the stones from those.”

  “You keep going, Simon,” said Amanda. “I’ll look it up.” She stopped her experiment, ran a quick search, and shook her head. “Uh uh. According to this, mood rings never actually worked. Now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure my mom has one in her jewelry box. Next time I go home I’ll look. But yeah, they were supposed to be sensitive to heat and change color according to the emotions the person was feeling. But get this: apparently the temperature of the air actually affects the color more than body temperature. Ha! All those gullible people thought the ring was reflecting their mood when actually it was changing when the room got hot or cold. How dumb.”

  “It’s not dumb,” said Amphora. “I’ve seen them work.”

  “It’s an illusion,” said Simon. “Forget it.”

  “I’m not going to forget it,” said Amphora. “That Wikipedia stuff is wrong. Why are you so negative?”

  “I’m not negative,” said Simon. “Just realistic. For example, look at this.” He put a heat lamp next to a crystal and measured the color and light. Then he put an ice pack next to it and measured again. “No difference. Want me to do that again?”

  “No,” said Amphora. “What’s the point?”

  “The point is that your theory is wrong,” said Simon.

  “The point is that your theory is wrong,” she mimicked.

  “Shut up,” he said, and turned back to his experiment.

  “Hey!” said Amanda. “Cut it out. You guys are driving me crazy. You know what I think? I think you’re secretly in love with each other.”

  “Eeeeew,” said Amphora, making an awful face.

  “Not true,” said Simon, looking up from his work. “But why ew, Amphora? I’ve got a lot to offer.”

  “Oh really?” said Amphora, looking him up and down. “And what might that be?”

  “Oh brother,” said Amanda. “I’m sorry I said anything.”

  “Never mind,” said Simon, measuring something. “It takes a real woman to appreciate me.”

  Amphora bashed her crystal on the bench, whereupon it turned bright red. She stomped over to the bookshelf, grabbed a volume that was sticking out, and clobbered Simon over the head with it. Then she clapped her hands up and down as if to say, “There. That did it,” and sat down.

  “Owwwwww,” said Simon. “What do you think you’re doing, you cow?”

  “Five hundred pounds,” yelled Amanda. “Each.”

  Amanda had had enough of Simon and Amphora’s bickering. She felt slightly responsible for the latest round, however. She shouldn’t have suggested that the two were secretly in love. No one took her comment seriously, of course, but even as a joke it irritated them so much that they practically killed each other. It was a good thing a detective didn’t have to be a diplomat because Amanda was no good at being tactful.

  She thought of calling Ivy to see if she could calm them down. Well, mostly calm Amphora down. Simon was pretty cool and collected for a guy reeling off insults. She felt guilty making Ivy get involved all the time, though. Why was it her responsibility to act as peacemaker?

  Maybe they should take a break. Now that the two had started arguing they would be at it the rest of the day. But when she looked up to make the suggestion, there they were watching a crystal together as calmly as if they’d just been meditating.

  “It’s almost behaving like a pet craving affection,” Amphora said. She petted it as if it were a dog or a cat. “Of course it doesn’t shed like Nigel.”

  “Hang on,” said Simon. “It’s blinking.”

  Amphora jerked her hand away. “OMG,” she said. “It’s pink.” The crystal was indeed blinking, two blinks at a time, and had changed color again, this time to a pale pink. “It’s telling me to keep petting it.” She touched it gently again, petting as if it were a delicate bird. The crystal changed color again, back to the apricot color. It was still blinking, two at a time.

  “It’s communicating!” said Amanda.

  “I wonder,” said Simon. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility. But you do realize that if they can communicate it means they’re alive.”

  The girls looked at each other. Amphora raised her eyebrows and Amanda nodded. He wasn’t putting them on.

  “Does this mean Amphora has been wearing a living thing around her neck?” said Amanda. As soon as the words had left her mouth she regretted saying them. Amphora would freak out if she thought she’d been wearing a pet. The next thing would be her worrying that the stone would bite her and give her rabies.

  “It might,” said Simon. “But remember that plants are living things. We’re not talking about people here.”

  “No little gremlins?” said Amanda. “Gosh, I was so hoping for a new kind of house elf or something.” She grinned.

  “Make fun all you want,” said Simon. “But I have a suspicion we might be on the verge of a very interesting discovery.”

  Amanda didn’t doubt it. Simon was really good at science, and he had been inventing devices too. Why, he was almost as knowledgeable as Professor Stegelmeyer already. If anyone could get the crystals to talk, he could.

  “Hello there,” said Simon, moving his mouth close to a crystal and speaking softly. “Hey, was that a blink?”

  “Do it again,” said Amphora.

  “Helloooooo,” said Simon in exactly the same way as before. The crystal remained apricot-colored and blinked.

  “Ooooh, it’s so cute,” said Amphora. “I just know it’s alive. There’s no other explanation.”

  “You stupid crystal,” yelled Simon abruptly at the top of his lungs. The crystal turned pale pink and stopped blinking.

  “Oh my,” said Amanda. “That’s amazing. It is alive. Do it again.”

  Simon repeated the experiment, but this time he yelled, “I am the very model of a modern major general.” Same result. “Hm,” he said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with being insulted. I said something perfectly neutral that time.”

  “I don’t know about neutral, but I see what you mean,” said Amanda.

  “You should stop yelling at it,” said Amphora. “I think you’re hurting it.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” said Simon.

  “Seriously,” she said. “I think when it turns pink it’s telling you to stop. The blinking is like purring. It’s happy.”

  “I think it’s time to call in the big guns,” said Simon.

  “But Professor Kindseth is still in hospital,” said Amphora. “Oh, you mean Professor Stegelmeyer. Are you sure you want to do that?”

  “Forget Professor Stegelmeyer,” said Simon. “We need to get Ivy in here.”

  After the team had brought Ivy up to speed and she had expressed awe and wonder, Simon said, “Can you hear anything coming from the crystals?”

  Ivy motioned for everyone to stand still and be quiet and cocked each ear in turn toward the crystal. “Nope. Nothing. Not like I did back at the pit.”

  “Hm, not that surprising,” he said. “While we were waiting for you, I tried recording them to see if there were any sound waves coming off them, but there aren’t.”

  “They were humming before. Maybe I can get them to hum along,” Ivy said. She started singing very softly, close to one of the crystals. It blinked.

  “What are you singing?” said Amphora.

  “Something I wrote,” she sung. She kept singing but changed the words so she could talk to the others at the same time.

  “It likes it,” said Amphora. “Try something else.”

  Simon stuck his head in front of the crystal and sang, “Baby, gimme your love” at the top of his voice. The crystal turned pink and stopped blinking.

  “Whoa,” said Amanda. “It didn’t like that at all. Can’t say I blame it.” She was expecting Simon to take offense at her criticism, but he showed no reaction.

  “Sing some more, Ivy,” said Amphora. “I really like that song.”
>
  “Thanks,” said Ivy, and started singing her own composition again. As she did, Amanda got the idea of where the melody was going and started to harmonize. The crystal turned apricot and blinked like a happy kitten. Simon joined in and the blinking stopped. A second or two later the crystal turned pink again.

  “You were off tune,” said Ivy. “It didn’t like that.”

  “I did that on purpose,” said Simon, making a note.

  “Yeah, right,” said Amphora.

  “Don’t make me fine you,” said Ivy, breaking off the song. “We have important work to do here.”

  “Sorry,” said Amphora.

  “You know what I think?” said Ivy. “I think they’re behaving like human babies.”

  “I think you might be right,” said Simon.

  Amphora and Amanda stared at him. “Really?” said Amphora.

  “Sure,” said Simon. “Why not? I don’t disagree with you guys just for the sake of disagreeing. If you have a valid point I consider it seriously.”

  “Thank you, Simon,” said Amanda. “We appreciate that.”

  Amphora gave her a look that said, “You don’t speak for me,” but Amanda ignored her.

  “So let’s summarize what we know about the crystals so far,” said Simon, punching his tablet. “They don’t like a lot of force. They do like being petted.”

  “Isn’t that amazing?” said Amphora. She stroked a crystal. It responded immediately. “Oooh, this one likes me. I think I’ll name it Melisande.” Simon tsked. She picked up the crystal, turned away from him, and cupped it in her hand.

  “I’ll say,” said Ivy. “They’re just like Nigel.” At the sound of his name the dog looked up at her lovingly.

  “We also know that they blink when they like something and turn pink and stop blinking when they don’t,” said Simon, ignoring Amphora. “And we know that when you hit them they turn red and glow brighter. But after a while, if you leave them alone they fade. We also know that the light they produce is triboluminescence and it’s produced by the piezoelectric effect.”

  “We know quite a lot about them, don’t we?” said Amanda, picking one up and holding it to the light. Even in the icky fluorescent purple of the lab’s fixtures it gleamed a rich apricot color.

  “Yes, we do,” said Simon. “And from that information we can posit one, that they’re organic, and two, that they’re alive and possibly sentient.”

  “And three,” said Ivy, “that they can communicate.”

  “Yes,” said Simon. “And what that boils down to is this: I think we’re looking at a new life form.”

  “OMG,” said Amphora, whirling around to face him. “This is amazing. I have to tell—”

  “Not so fast,” said Simon. “We need to keep this to ourselves for the moment.”

  “But why?” said Amphora, whining.

  “How would you like the Moriartys to find out?” said Simon. “If you thought they were trying to make a killing out of sugar, can you imagine what they’d do with these little guys?”

  “You’re right,” said Amanda, holding the crystal tighter. “We have no idea if there are still moles at Legatum. We’ve got to keep this quiet. If you’re correct, Simon, and these are sentient creatures, they need to be protected.”

  “Right,” said Ivy. “We don’t know yet if they can take care of themselves. If they can’t, they might easily be abused. No one can know about this.”

  “Do you think these crystals could be what Professor Feeney was talking about?” said Amanda.

  “No way,” said Simon, who was still making notes and, it appeared, drawings. “Several of the teachers have seen them, and none of them reacted like they were a big deal. We would have seen or heard something.”

  “You’re right,” said Ivy. “These aren’t the whatsit.”

  “So what do we do now?” said Amanda.

  “Act like nothing has happened,” said Simon. “But continue testing. We need to find out a lot more about these puppies.” Amphora smiled. “And don’t tell Editta. She’s too unstable.” He looked carefully at the girls. “What, no objections? You don’t think I’m being unfair to her?” All three girls shook their head. “Really? I guess I have a lot more to learn than how the crystals protect themselves.”

  21

  An Unexpected Party

  After the kids had concluded that the crystals were alive, their experiments proceeded quickly. They discovered that the little cuties liked cool temperatures, which was very much not like babies. They also learned that they preferred a bit of humidity, which seemed consistent with where they had been found. Simon wondered what would happen if they put the crystals in a cave and suggested that the tunnels would be the ideal place. Amanda thought they should experiment with light sensitivity first to see if that kind of darkness would be harmful to them. They did, and learned that they were extremely sensitive to light. It seemed that they got stronger as the light intensity increased, as long as it wasn’t too strong.

  None of this information was surprising, but something they observed while testing the crystals’ light sensitivity was: the light source they were using dimmed ever so slightly when the crystals were exposed to it. In addition, as they took in light they would turn deep, deep orange and not blink at all. After much testing and questioning the reliability of their instruments, they concluded that the crystals were absorbing light!

  Simon put forth the theory that this deep apricot color must be a good thing—more of what they liked. Light was their food, and the more of it they “ate,” the healthier they were. If that was the case, then putting the crystals in a cave would harm them. Perhaps the environment in which they’d found them was making them ill.

  The idea that whatever light they were eating would diminish as it was consumed gave them pause. Would it be possible for the crystals to absorb so much light that they would visibly dim a bulb? As it turned out, this was exactly what happened, but it wasn’t until Ivy connected the dots that they realized the implications. The crystals could be used as weapons to steal light, leaving the victim in the dark! This horrifying thought led to the subject of the Moriartys again, as so many things did, and they resolved even more strongly to guard the crystals carefully.

  At one point during the testing, Ivy said that she was hearing an unpleasant noise coming from the crystals. Nigel had pricked up his ears and was looking distressed. Simon said that the crystals were purring, but when he gave them so much light that one of them turned red and blinked out, they realized that too much light could kill them.

  That meant several things. First, a certain amount of light made the crystals happy, but above that, it hurt them. Second, their ability to store light was limited. They could hold so much and no more. Third, you had to get the amount of light just right, and what was the optimum amount?

  What they had was a living species that could store light and potentially be used as an energy source, but could steal light and possibly be used as a weapon. In addition, the crystals were so sensitive that if you exposed them to the wrong amount of light or the wrong environment, they’d sicken and die. The good news was that you could tell instantly what state they were in just by looking at them. The bad news was, well, obvious.

  To make sure they could keep all this information straight, Amanda made a little cheat sheet for all of them, which read:

  Apricot: Healthy.

  Deep orange: High energy, but also stressed.

  Pink: Unhappy.

  Red, no color: Dead.

  Weak apricot: Ill.

  Blinking: “Yes.”

  Making noise: Distress.

  Once they realized the crystals could die, they were more careful. Unfortunately they did manage to kill a few of them. What they learned in the process was that the crystals were capable of containing a large amount of energy for a short time, but if they weren’t relieved of it they would die. Unfortunately, the kids hadn’t figured out how to drain the excess energy off yet, although they kne
w in theory that if they used the crystals as a power source, the energy would diminish. Probably not quickly enough though.

  “You know what?” said Ivy. “I just remembered that I need to put those drops in Nigel’s eyes. Amanda, can you come back to the room with me and help?”

  “Sure,” said Amanda. They’d been at the experiments for hours, and as excited as she was she could use a break. “I guess you guys should continue without us. Although I hate to miss stuff.” She was a bit dubious about leaving Simon and Amphora together, but she told herself she wasn’t their keeper.

  “Me too,” said Ivy, “but I’ve got to do this.” Nigel stood up and wagged his tail. He knew they were going somewhere.

  When they got out in the hall, Amanda said, “This is huge.”

  “I know,” said Ivy. “It’s a good thing the Moriartys are behind bars. If they got wind of this they’d be trying to steal the crystals. As much as we say we’ll protect them, I don’t know if we could.”

  “They’d have to know about them first. A lot of people know they exist, but the four of us—and Nigel—are the only ones who know what’s really going on.”

  “We have to be careful about our notes,” said Ivy. “No way do we want them hacked.”

  “Uh oh,” said Amanda, squeezing her new tablet tight as if to protect it.

  “What?” said Ivy.

  “Maybe we should bring Scapulus in on this so he can help us protect our notes.”

  “Sure. He’s trustworthy.” Amanda gave Ivy a look she couldn’t see. “You don’t think so?”

  “Who can say?” said Amanda. “He’s a royal pain, that’s for sure. But I think what you see is what you get with him. Although—”

  “You have to forget about him, Amanda,” said Ivy.

  “I can’t,” said Amanda. “I’ve tried. By the way, we are talking about Nick now, aren’t we?”

  “Yes,” said Ivy. “He was a fluke. Scapulus is different.”

  “What makes you say that?” said Amanda.

  “I can hear it in his voice,” said Ivy.

  Amanda didn’t want to say what she was thinking. Why hadn’t Ivy heard the dissembling in Nick’s voice? “Let’s let it sit for the moment,” she said. “We don’t have to make any decisions right now.”