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The Rock Shop was an old
garden shed behind the house.
It had a worktable, shelves
for Uncle Joe’s rocks, filing cabinets for his notes, and all the tools
of his trade, including a special one for cutting open a thunder egg.
Uncle Joe had cut open
thousands of thunder eggs in his life but he still got a kick out of
doing it. He put on his goggles and heavy work gloves before picking up
his big band saw. Jesse wasn’t convinced that cutting open the rock was
the right thing to do. What if doing that hurt whatever was inside? He
covered his mouth, pretending to stifle a yawn as he whispered to the
thunder egg, “Are you okay with this?”
The thunder egg vibrated
warmly in his hand. Jesse decided to take that as a yes.
Jesse was still hesitant to
hand the rock over to his uncle. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?”
Jesse said. “I mean, this
won’t, um, hurt or damage the crystals inside, will it?”
Uncle Joe smiled kindly. “I
won’t harm a single one of them. I promise.” He held out a gloved hand.
Daisy gave her cousin a
gentle shove. “Come on, Jessie Tiger. Let’s get a look at those
crystals.”
“Goggles first, guys,” Uncle
Joe said.
Daisy went to a shelf and
got two pairs of goggles. She tossed a pair to Jesse. Jesse almost
dropped them, because just then the rock hissed, “Jesssss–Jesssss–Jesssss–Jesssss.”
Jesse’s glance slid from
Daisy to Uncle Joe. Neither one of them seemed to have heard the rock.
Arm trembling, Jesse handed the thunder egg to Uncle Joe. He winced as
his uncle set down the saw and placed the rock between the iron jaws of
a vise. He winced again as Uncle Joe spun the bolt and tightened the
jaws around the thunder egg.
“Stand back, guys,” said
Uncle Joe.
Jesse and Daisy took one
step away from him. Uncle Joe picked up the saw and turned on the motor.
It roared to life, vibrating mightily. Then Uncle Joe put the whirring
blade to the top of the rock.
“Wait!” Jesse
hollered over the noise of the machine.
Uncle Joe looked up. He
switched off the saw and pushed up his goggles. “What is it, Jesse?” he
asked.
Jesse faltered. “It seems
like a pretty delicate thing,” he said. “I really, really, really
don’t want to hurt it.”
Daisy rolled her eyes.
“Poppy’s only cut open a million rocks. I think he knows what he’s
doing, Jesse. Really.”
Uncle Joe spoke very calmly.
“How about this? How about if I use the machine to cut a shallow groove
in the rock? Then I’ll turn it off and we can crack it open the rest of
the way, carefully and gently, with a small chisel and a soft mallet.”
Jesse’s chest heaved with
relief. He nodded gratefully. “Thanks, Uncle Joe. That sounds good.”
Uncle Joe smiled at Jesse.
“Okay if I switch on the saw?”
“Sure,” said Jesse. “Go
ahead.” But he regretted this decision as soon as he heard the rock
scream again above the noise of the saw. Just as Jesse was about to
lunge over to Uncle Joe, the saw coughed and made a crackling sound.
Uncle Joe switched it off.
“Well, I’ll be,” he said, holding up the saw so Jesse and Daisy could
see it. The blade had split in two. Jesse and Daisy stepped toward the
worktable. The egg wasn’t even nicked.
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