Chapter 52—A Rough Start

June

Chaz felt as if he'd traveled backward—back into winter. Winter in New Zealand was mild but still cold and wet. Not his favorite vacation weather. Nevertheless he was excited to see his pals, Tip and Taylor, the brother and sister who had stayed with his family last year.

Chaz glanced up at some noisy sea gulls. Mist enveloped him as he kicked the sand with bare feet, savoring the smooth feeling of the slippery grit. Today was cool, but as soon as he had arrived on his bike, he had kicked off his sneakers and trotted to the foaming sea.

This trip had been planned a long time ago, when Chaz had no clue he'd be on a quest. His first major obstacle was convincing his hosts to search the caves. Then he had to find the crystals—wherever they might be on this large island. His shoulders sagged.

He turned his eyes to Taylor, who was jogging down the beach. Her form grew smaller as she disappeared. Tip ran toward the water's edge to catch up with Chaz.

"We can't wait to take you sightseeing. We call them tiki tours," Tip yelled above the sound of the wind. "Maybe we'll go out on one of my dad's fishing expeditions if the ocean's not too wild." He moved his hand up and down like a roller coaster. "You know, rogue waves."

Chaz looked out to sea. A procession of towering waves spooled toward him. Their foaming tops crashed a thundering reminder of their power. "Maybe," Chaz said without much enthusiasm. All waves looked rogue to him. He poked his toes into the cool bubbles and turned to Tip standing behind him.

"I'd really like to explore the caves," Chaz said, and picked up a large conch shell. He put it to his ear.

"You can't really hear the ocean with those," Tip said. "I'm not a huge fan of the caves."

"Why not?"

Tip pushed up his crooked glasses. "Why you can't hear the ocean, or why I don't like the caves?"

"Both, I guess." Chaz put the shell to his ear again. His thick mass of ebony curls flapped around in the wind.

"Hearing the ocean inside conch shells is a myth," Tip said. "What you hear is the wind making its way around the spiral shape inside. Somehow that turned into hearing the ocean." His eyebrows puckered into a deep frown. "As to the caves, I get claustrophobic."

"Have you ever been in them?"

"Only when my sister drags me in. She loves the caves."

"What if I told you I had an important assignment inside the caves here? I need your help with the project."

Tip hiked up his all-weather pants to make them shorter. He removed his glasses, straightened them, and put them back on. One side was held together with a narrow strip of plumber's tape.

"I'm listening," Tip said. "But maybe you should wait for Taylor."

"You're right. Let's wait." He didn't want to tell the unlikely crystal story twice.

Chaz pulled his toes out of the frigid water, and he and Tip walked to meet Taylor. She trotted toward some invisible target and then turned and sprinted back. Her ponytail had come loose, and her long dark hair flew back and forth like a waving flag. Soon she caught up with them and bent over to catch her breath.

"It's hard to believe you two are related," Chaz said.

"I'm full of recessive genes," Tip said with a cockeyed smile. Taylor gave her brother's shoulder a light cuff.

Chaz pointed to a series of flat rocks in front of a cave tucked inside the tall cliff on the backside of the beach. "Let's go sit. I have something important to ask you two." Taylor's eyes widened. She looked at her brother and then back at Chaz, but no one spoke.

They arrived at the rocks and Chaz peered into the cave. He noticed puddles inside. "Does the ocean fill up the cave at high tide?"

"It does," Taylor said. "It's a cool cave to explore, but you have to know the tide schedule so you don't get stuck inside." Tip shivered.

"Does it fill up all the way?" Chaz asked.

"We don't know for sure," Taylor said. "We've never been in during high tide, and anyone who has gone in then hasn't come back to talk about it."

"So what's all this cave business about?" Tip dragged his thin legs up onto a large flat rock. Taylor sat next to him.

Chaz searched for words that didn't come. Finally he decided to follow Nikki's example. She had told her team half-truths about the crystal search in the United States. Now he got it.

Chaz started slowly. "You know how my dad works for NASA, right?" They nodded. "Well, since I'm near the famous caves of New Zealand, I've been given an assignment to find crystals that have unique chemical properties, and I'd like to find some right away. I'd like to head out tomorrow morning."

Taylor rubbed her hands together. "Let's do that," she said enthusiastically.

"Why so soon?" Tip asked.

Chaz struggled to come up with an answer that made sense yet avoided the truth—that an angel had sent him on this quest. They'd think he'd gone weird. But the reason to search the caves had to be convincing or the New Zealand expedition would be doomed and so would the quest.

"You know my friends Nikki and Jesse, right?" Tip and Taylor nodded. "They're working on the same project now. Jesse's in France searching for crystals, and Nikki's been looking inside some old mine caves not far from our home."

Brother and sister stared as if nothing was sinking in.

Chaz went on. "I need to find out which caves here have crystal veins."

Taylor brightened. "I think we could narrow that down for you. We have a friend who's a Maori cave guide. Seems to me you want private ones—maybe the old mines. Have you ever done any real spelunking?"

"You mean deep cave exploring? No, never, and—"

"I have, with Jojo," Taylor said and began jogging in place. "He's the guide I mentioned. I'll go with you."

"Hold your horses, Sis," Tip said. "Unknown caves can be dangerous." He took off his glasses and rubbed the red line on his nose. "I'm not sure about this, Chaz."

"We're looking for silicon-based crystals," Chaz said, warming up to his fabrication. "They hold the most light, and we want to study their properties. It's a summer project." He stopped short of saying "summer project for NASA," which would be a bald-faced lie. "Wouldn't it be cool to explore for real crystals?"

He smiled, wanting to make light of the idea. But it wasn't light to Chaz. It was the most important assignment of his life—one he could not fail. He knew he had a reputation for not finishing projects. Nikki hadn't brought it up, but had come close by the doubtful look on her face.

Chaz looked toward the steep cliff. "What about this cave behind us? Do you think it has crystal veins?"

"I doubt it," Tip said, slipping onto the sand. "It's not the right kind of cave."

Chaz looked toward his sneakers sitting at the edge of the beach and jumped off the rock. "When can we meet this guide Jojo?"

Taylor grabbed her brother's arm and pulled. "Let's go ask Ipu. She'll know his schedule. There aren't many tours now, so maybe he has time to help us."

Tip gave his sister a disgruntled look. The caves were not his favorite place to be.

Ipu was Tip and Taylor's live-in nanny and had been since they were babies. She was Maori, descended from Polynesians who had traveled hundreds of miles in a great fleet of settlers over eight hundred years ago. Much of her youth had been spent exploring caves, some with her nephew Jojo.

Tip and Taylor's dad was a ship's captain who offered deep-sea fishing tours. Their mom cooked for the tours and sometimes filled in as first mate, which took both parents away for days at a time. Ipu was the one constant in their lives.

The house wasn't far from the beach, and Chaz and Taylor raced their bikes back. Taylor won. Tip didn't like racing and made his way back more slowly. Once inside, they shed sandy sneakers and moved to the kitchen table. Ipu placed soup and crackers with peanut butter in front of them.

"How things go at beach?" she asked. English was not her first language. Younger Maori were fluent in English, but some older folks had resisted using the new language.

"Nice," Chaz said to be polite. He had been discouraged, though, by Tip's response to his suggestion that they explore the caves and hoped he could change his mind. He knew Tip wouldn't let his sister go without him.

"Ipu," Taylor said, grabbing her nanny's arm as she headed back to the stove. "Do you know if Jojo's available to guide us through some of the caves while Chaz is here? Starting tomorrow?" Tip glared at his sister.

Ipu noticed Tip's mood. "Why?" She shook her arm free of Taylor's hand and opened the refrigerator to get a bottle of chocolate milk.

"He wants to find crystals," Taylor said. "School project." Chaz didn't correct her.

"Only tioata mines for that, far away." Tioata was Maori for crystal caves that had been mined for precious and semiprecious stones.

"How far away?" Chaz asked.

"Not that far," Taylor said. "Besides, Jojo has a car. He can drive us." She offered her most endearing smile, which had never failed to melt her nanny's heart.

Ipu sighed. "I go get phone." She left the room, keeping an ear open for clues of what these kids might be up to.

Ipu had visions of the future. She'd been this way from the beginning, when a whitehead bird had sat on the windowsill of her birthing room. Maori legend held that whiteheads could foretell the future, and when they appeared at a birth, the child held the same abilities. If Einstein was right that the distinction between past, present, and future was a stubbornly persistent illusion, then seeing ahead was a natural phenomenon.

Tip chewed his peanut butter cracker and leaned forward. "Taylor, I don't feel comfortable going into the caves."

"You don't have to go. I'll be fine with Chaz and Jojo. He has the equipment and knows his way around." She turned to Chaz. "I hope we can start tomorrow. How many crystals do you need to find?"

"Oh...eight or ten would be good," he said casually. He had no idea how many there would be here in New Zealand, but they had to be found in four days—before the full moon. His stomach clenched thinking about the deadline.

"Yes, but I don't want you going on this search," Tip said.

"Why not?"

"Because you're not going without me, and I have no intention of going. You know how I get fagged out tramping the caves."

Taylor started to speak, but Ipu walked in holding the phone to her ear. "Here Jojo," she said, handing it to Taylor. Tip sat back with a huff and folded his arms across his chest.

Jojo arrived in fifteen minutes and sat at the kitchen table. Taylor admired his looks. His skin was the color of milk chocolate, as were the soft curls of thick hair that peeked out from under a leather bush hat. He removed the hat and set it down. Taylor smiled at the colorful bird feather jutting out from the rim.

Ipu busied herself at the sink but continued to listen. She was sure the young American wasn't being truthful.