Peanut and the Volcano

Peanut and the Volcano

Part of the series Peanut Tales

© A. L. Dawn French

Sabastian James was deep in thought as he sat at the desk in the study, typing away on his laptop computer. He did not hear his younger sister Sabine, known as Peanut to all, entered the room, until she spoke.

Peanut got the nickname when Daddy Max, one of her grandfathers had given her the name. As he said, she was as small as a peanut when she was born.

Peanut’s full name was Sabine Clementine James, but she got called Sabine only when she was in trouble.

At eight years old she was still the smallest among her family and friends. Her size bothered her but not enough to prevent her doing the right thing whenever she could.

“BASS! What you doing!” She knew he would jump.

He did. “Huh! Peanut you made me jump! Doh do that!” Sabastian was Peanut’s older twelve year old brother.

“What you doing?” She ignored his distress.

“Writing an essay.”

“Why?”

Sabastian closed his eyes. They had entered the WHY WORLD.

“Essay competition.”

“Why?”

“The first prize is a trip to Trinidad.”

“Why?

“Cause I want to go.”

“Why?”

“Enough Peanut! Go Away!” he returned his attention to the computer.

“What you writing about?”

“Soufrière Volcano.”

“Why?”

“PEANUT!” he barked “LEAVE – ME – ALONE!”

“Why?”

He glared at the eight year old. “Because the Seismic Research Centre wants an essay about volcanoes. The first prize is a visit to their office which is in Trinidad – and if you say ‘why’ I will hit you.”

Peanut snapped her mouth shut and killed the one word question. Instead she leaned forward and looked at the essay in question. “But you only write one paragraph!” she laughed.

“That’s because some people keep interrupting and asking WHY!”

Peanut opened the rucksack on the desk, rummaged around, and emerged with the chocolate she knew was in there. Unwrapped the bar and took a bite.

“What’re you doing?” The twelve year old asked.

“Eating a chocolate. Duh!” She grinned at him though her now brown teeth.

“MY CHOCOLATE!” Peanut’s grin only widened.

He returned to his essay, in the hope that now she had the chocolate she would leave. He had hoped in vain.

“Tell me about it Bass.”

“Leave me alone, Peanut.” He begged.

“Please Bass?” she fluttered her eyes at him.

“It’s complicated.” He groaned.

“My teacher says that the best way to learn is to teach someone else.” She would not be deterred. “So tell me! Please Bass?!”

The boy buried his head in his hands. So Peanut whispered directly into an ear. “Please Bass? If you tell me then you can get the ideas for your essay.”

He straightened up in surrender. “Pull up a chair.”

“OH Goodie! Thanks Bass!”

With Peanut in position he asked. “What do you know about the Soufrière Volcano?”

“It in Soufrière ?” Her grin still betraying the chocolate thief.

Sabastian grimaced both at the answer and the loss of the chocolate. He tried a different approach. “What do you know about volcanoes?”

“We made one at school with plastic bottles.”

He groaned “You do know volcanoes are not made of plastic and soda, right?”

“I know that! Silly!” Peanut was indignant. “They are made up of rotten eggs!”

Her brother burst out laughing. “Rotten eggs! Good one! Yes it does stink of rotten eggs but that is the sulphur.”

“But Bass I thought volcanoes were mountains – are the Pitons volcanoes?”

“No. The Pitons are not volcanoes. They are made up of the lava that came out of the volcano thousands of years ago. No – the volcano is where the Sulphur Springs is.”

“The Sulphur Springs is the volcano? NAAAAH.”

“Not anymore.” He countered. “The Sulphur Springs is a caldera, which formed as a result of a huge eruption.”

Peanut shook her head in an effort to clear it. “Lava. Caldera. Eruption. Too much Bass.”

“I warned you.” He reminded her.

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just explain.” She ordered. “In small words!” She added quickly.

Sabastian sent a silent prayer to heaven and started. “A caldera is a large depression that forms after an eruption. So the Sulphur Springs was called the Qualibou Caldera by the first peoples.”

“First peoples?” for once it was not a “why” for which her brother was grateful.

“Yeah the Caribs and the Arawaks. You know!”

“Oh the Calinago!” Peanut exclaimed.

“What you know about Calinago!” he demanded.

“They are the native people of the Caribbean! I saw in on Anansi’s Challenge on TV.” She responded.

“AA and I thought all you watched were cartoons.” He teased.

She defaulted to her usual response and stuck out her tongue at him.

He continued. “It is the world’s only drive in volcano and has hot springs going through it that people can and do bathe in.”

“So why it stinks so!” She demanded.

“That is the mixture of iron, calcium oxide, sulphur, copper oxide, carbon and magnesium…”

Peanut rolled her eyes.

“Doh roll your eyes at me, you are the one who asked.”

“It really stinks.” She reaffirmed.

“It does, it really does;” he agreed, “…and if the smell changes, it might signal that the volcano is becoming restless and we should tell NEMO.”

“Huh?”

“And people always mistake magma and lava. Magma is the molten rock when it is under the ground and it is called lava when it oozes out of the vents. Then there are fumaroles. These are the openings in or near the volcano, through which the hot sulfurous gases emerge. And doh forget…”

“Bass stop!” Peanut was overwhelmed.

“Too much?” His eyes twinkled.

“Yeah.” She confessed.

“OK little sister – I will have mercy on you.” He smiled at her forlorn face. “Remember out last trip?” She nodded. “It was fun to bathe in the hot water and rub up with the black dirt – wasn’t it?”

“Ooo yeah” she remembered.

“People say that ole smell is good for you – but that smell is the sulphur and it is poisonous but the oxygen in the air dilutes it.”

“For true?”

“Yeah. That is why they have a project and the project is doing the competition.”

“What project.”

He read from the paper on the desk “The Potential Long Term Health Hazard for Exposure to Geothermal Emissions at Sulphur Springs Saint Lucia.” He watched her closely.

“YOU LIE!” She accused.

“No! Is true! That long title is the name of the project!”

Peanut had had enough. “Let’s go do something else, Bass.”

“I have my essay.” He reminded her.

“Let’s go do something else, Pleeeese Bass?” She repeated.

“No Peanut – I have to finish my essay!”

Finally accepting the decision, the little girl slipped off the chair, gave her brother her best forlorn look, hunched her shoulders and dragging her feet left the room.

Sabastien took a deep breath, collected his thoughts and returned his attention to the composing which had been interrupted.

Fifteen minutes later he surrendered. He had written not one word. Peanut had won. He shut down the laptop and went in search of her. In the hallway he met the twins. 

“You see Peanut anywhere?”

“The bottle…” Simon started.

“Empty.” Simeon ended.

“Funnnny haha” Sabastien sneered at them and walked off.

He eventually found her sitting on the steps to the front of the house.

“There you are.” He joined her.

She turned and saw the two pairs of roller skates dangling from each of his shoulders. She threw herself at him and gave him the biggest hug she could manage. “Bass you are the best! I love you!!!”

“Uh huh” He managed under the hug. “What you know of love.”

Without missing a beat she answered, “Love is knowing that your little sister is going to take the chocolate out of you rucksack and you still keep it the same place for her to find.”

He grinned at her and hugged her back. “Very correct. Let’s go skating.”

As she walked down the street hand in hand towards the park with her brother and the promise of roller skating the afternoon away, Peanut knew she was going to have a wonderful time and that Bass was the best brother in the world!

THE END

ANSWER TO

Writing CONTEST #158: Little Women

No 2. Write a story that focuses on the relationship between siblings.