Page 57 of Hidden Gem
Chapter 26
Marnie stepped outof the steaming shower cubicle, relishing the lingering warmth on her body. The bathroom smelled like ocean, but better. Probably some kind of fragrance made with ambergris. Marnie dried herself and dressed, catching a blurry glimpse of herself in the steamed-up mirror. She wiped it with her sleeve to get a proper look. Mascara had run across her cheek, but her face glowed with unmistakable happiness. So, this is what it felt like to fall in love at 39. Her heart had dived in, blind to everything that stood in between.
“Get in here!” The excitement in Jason’s voice carried through the door. “I’m about to stick a needle into this thing!”
Wiping her face clean with a fluffy towel, Marnie stepped back into the kitchen. Jason motioned her to join him at the table, where he stood with a fork in one hand, lighter in the other.
“I couldn’t find a needle,” he said. “But I figured, if we just heat up this fork hot enough, it’ll do the trick.”
“What does it do?”
“If this is ambergris, the hot metal will melt it. But we don’t want to make a big mark on it. That’ll lower its value.”
“Okay. Sounds like you know what you’re doing. I’ll just watch.” She sat at the table. “Wait! Do you want me to film this?”
“Great idea!”
Marnie grabbed her phone and framed the ambergris, which looked like an odd lump on the camera screen. She took a step back, getting Jason in the frame. Talk about photogenic. He flashed his pearly whites, looking like a celebrity chef about to cut into a thousand-dollar steak.
He spoke to the camera. “We are here, at an undisclosed location, about to test this suspected piece of ambergris we just found on the beach with my partner in crime, Marnie...”
Playing along, Marnie turned the camera on herself and smiled. “That’s me!”
Turning back to Jason, she zoomed in on the fork in his hand. “And what is this specialist tool you’re holding?”
“It’s called a fork.” Jason grinned, flicked on the lighter and began heating the fork with the flame. In a few seconds, the end turned black. Marnie zoomed out, capturing his excited smile. “That should be hot enough. Now, the moment of truth. If it’s real ambergris, the surface will melt as soon as I touch it with this.”
“And if it’s a regular rock?”
“Then, nothing. Hot forks don’t melt rocks, right?”
“Right,” Marnie repeated, feeling like an idiot. A happy idiot.
“Okay, here we go,” Jason announced, giving the fork one last lick of the flame before he lowered it on the surface of the strange rock.
Marnie brought the camera closer, her heart pounding. She wasn’t sure why, but the build-up had gotten under her skin. She wanted this to be real. Holding her breath, she watched the dark fork sink into the white substance. A faint hiss. A burning smell with a sweet, strange aroma. And liquid! It was melting into liquid.
On a collective gasp, Jason yanked back the fork and froze, staring at the ambergris. Marnie stepped back, remembering the phone still in her hand. Oh, yes. She was filming this. Why, she had no idea. It wasn’t like she wanted anyone else to see this. Well, maybe Tanya and Shasa. Momentous events needed to be recorded. Like the birth of a baby. Marnie shook her head. Why was she thinking about babies?
“It’s official!” Jason beamed at the camera. “This is genuine ambergris. Next, we need to weigh this piece to find out what it’s worth.”
“Any guesses?”
