The crater looked like molten quicksand that had re-solidified into a crusty shell. Zoe decided against digging around in it with her bare hands, so she found a long piece of driftwood and started poking.

Yes—there was something in the middle of the crater, buried underneath the charred sand. She dug at it, tracing around its shape, and pried it out of the ground.

And out came a chunk of something. At first it just looked like a chunk of sand, but it wasn't—there was something glassy underneath. Zoe could feel its warmth even down the length of her stick. She scraped at it, and dirt and sand came off in layers, baring more shinyness.

She took off her sweater and wrung it out over the object. A small gout of steam shot back up at her. That cleared it up a little. She scraped more dirt and sand away, and poured more water on top.

It was a glass tube, shaped vaguely like a ginger root. There was still plenty of sand caked around its edges, but there was no denying that the thing was solid glass.

Zoe

No way....

She looked back at the crater. There, directly below where she had dug out the glass, was a charred, half-melted penny.

The lightning must have shot towards the penny and melted the sand in its path into glass. Zoe laughed again. The penny was the luckiest penny ever.

When they were cool enough to handle, Zoe bundled the glass and the penny into her sweatshirt and put them in her bag. She left her bike where it was and started walking.