Any Ol' CanChapter 1
"We better get back before it rains," Cole said as he looked at the angry black clouds darkening the sky. "It's going to be a real bad storm!"
"Just a little more," Carlos dipped the can in the pond. "Mr. Abernathy said we have to have this project in by tomorrow. I have to get the samples."
"Yeah, but it won't do you any good if you get struck by lightning!"
"We'll be back before the storm hits. There! I've got it! Let's go."
The boys started back toward the house carefully carrying the cans full of pond water, and hopefully full of the little pond creatures Carlos needed for his science project.
He knew he shouldn't waited until the last minute, but he had gotten involved with a new program for his computer and the time had slipped by. He and Cole had been working on the computer when he suddenly remembered his project was due tomorrow.
The boys had grabbed some cans from the trash, rinsed them out, and headed for the pond in back of the house. Carlos was going to get samples of the microscopic creatures that lived in the pond and put them on microscope slides for his project. He believed that this would impress Mr. Abernathy his science teacher.
Biology was not Carlos' favorite science but he wanted to have a career in science, and Biology was just part of it. His real love was physics.
Cole was just the opposite. He endured math and science but loved history and exploring. In spite of their differences, and maybe because of them, he and Carlos were best friends.
As they got into the yard, they stopped to rearrange the cans. They had been easy to carry down to the pond, but filled they were awkward to carry.
"Don't spill them!" Carlos admonished.
"I won't! I'm being careful. Why do you need so many anyway?"
"I probably won't need all of them but I won't know until I start to make the slides. This gives me a good selection. Uh oh, Here comes the rain!
The boys grabbed the cans and dashed for the porch through the rain. Within minutes it was coming down in sheets. Thunder and lightning crashed and banged all around.
"Hey look! We left a can in the yard!" Carlos said. He could see a single can standing in the back yard.
"Well, it'll get filled in the rain."
"Yeah, but not with pond creatures. With this rain they'll probably be washed out. Anyway we've got enough"
"Boy look at it come down!"
CRACK!!!!!! The sound of the lightning bolt was deafening as the boys were bathed in a brilliant blue-white light.
"Wow! Did you see that! It hit right there in the yard! Cole yelled.
"Look! It hit the can. I'm glad we weren't carrying it!"
"Me too! Look at the ground. It's still smoking. The can still seem to be OK."
"Let's go see."
Cole grabbed Carlos by the shirt. "Whoa! Wait until the storm is over."
"You're right, I wasn't thinking!"
The boys sat out the storm keeping their eyes on the can sitting in the yard. With the heavy rain, the smoke stopped quickly, but even from where they were sitting they could see the scorch mark around the can. When the storm ended they walked out into the yard.
"Boy it really got zapped! Look the label is burned off." Carlos remarked.
Cole carefully poked it with a stick as if it might still be dangerous. "Could it still have electricity in it?"
"Naw. And with all this rain, it shouldn't even be hot." Carlos reached down and picked it up. "All the water has leaked out."
"Or boiled out," Cole pointed out.
"Must have melted the bottom out."
Cole picked up a stone and dropped it into the can. When it didn't come out the bottom he said, "I thought you said the bottom was gone?"
Carlos looked into the can. "That's funny. It's stuck to the side." He picked up a stick and poked into the can. He could see the stone against the side at the bottom, and clearly there was no bottom. The stick pushed the stone toward the end, and beyond. Still it didn't fall to the ground.
"Carlos! You've pushed that stick a foot into the can and it hasn't come out the other end!"
Carlos looked at the stick, and then back at the can. Carefully he pushed the stick further into the can. "That's weird!" The stick kept going in but not coming out the other end. By now a full foot and a half of the stick was in the can.
He pulled the stick out and looked in the can. "I can see all the way through. Wait! I see through it all right, but what I see is not here!"
"What do you mean," Cole asked.
"Look in there. What do you see?" He held the can out to Cole.
"I, I see through it. I can see the grass and trees over there." Cole looked past the can, then back. "It's grass and trees; but not over there! Where is it?"
Carlos moved the can. "What do you see when I move it?"
"Well, I can see... No the view through the can doesn't move! Carlos! What is going on here?"
"I don't know!"