There are Carbons without spaghetti

K.O. brought them to a black residue-covered office at the edge of the mine. But the office was only dusty outside. The inside was embarrassingly clean.

"Wipe your feet properly, please!" asked the officer, and the small team spectacularly set out to wipe their feet at the entrance.

Despite their efforts, small vacuum cleaner robots followed their footsteps inside and the circular robots vanished the trace of black residue, they could have brought to the room. Conrad knocked his sister's shoulder and pointed to the ceiling. Even there was a cleaner robot, working diligently.

"Do you wonder why are there so many robot cleaner here?" The administrator asked the kids.

Valerie and Conrad didn't dare to say a word.

"Because the black residue climbs everywhere. See yourselves after mining! You will be covered that black dust from head to toe! Although there are showers next to the temple, we can't shower the entire room. So vacuum cleaner robots are used for this task."

Since the kids didn't know what to say, tzhey remained silent. K.O. handed the documents for the administrator, and he studied for a while.

"Aren't you mining coal for the Fireworks Festival?" The administrator of the mine asked. "Interesting."

The kids couldn't even reply to him, the seal of approval was put on their papers. Although the administrator looked like a religious, nit-picking man, he sure worked fast.

"Come with me, please, I show your area in the mine." He said, closed his hand device, and opened the door of the office.

K.O. and the two kids followed him, obediently. The mine was big, and a lot of people was working there. The twins were observing as they were following the administrator, how others using the tool knife, but another thing surprised them.

"There are a lot of children here!" Valerie told her observation loud.

"They are also with adults! And all of them are working!" Conrad wondered.

"There are children, who are younger than us! Why are they here?" Valerie asked. "It is a hard work, and they are so little!"

"They are mining carbon to make their own rockets to the festival." The administrator replied. " It is the only open-air coal mine around here, that's why there are so many children and families here. They don't have to walk in dark tunnels in the mine, so kids themselves can make a rocket too. I don't think even you want to go underground mining, do you?"

The twins shook their heads. They both would frightened to go into a dark underground cave. Despite being with K.O.. Who knows what unknown horrors can happen in a place like that? True, K.O. said there were no animals living on the island, but there are horrors outside of animals as well. For example meeting with a nice, big, ripened Francium atom down there … Neither of them wanted to run away from the writhing atoms in a dark maze, and being lost forever… no, they definitely didn't want to go into a dark tunnel for Carbon atoms.

"We have arrived."He stopped at an empty place. "This is your designated dose. I'll sign the borders of the asked quantity right away. Only this amount is allowed to be mined."

The man called out flags from his hand device, and stuck them here or there. The twins weren't interested in the process, but watching intensely the blinking little ones in the coal bulk. The more they were watching the little ones, the more confused they became.

"K.O.!" They were crying for their friend's attention.

"A moment please!" He answered, and turned back to the administrator, to sign the documents.

"When you need more coal, send me a note."

The administrator went away, and K.O. finally could turn his attention to the twins.

"Are they interesting?" He asked, but the puzzled look on the kids' faces told him otherwise.

"Look!" Conrad said, and pointed to the Carbon atoms. "We can't count their hands. Or rather we don't know how to count them. Some of them have four hands, some of them three, and in the edge, there are ones, who have only two! How many hands they really have?"

"All of them have four hands." The old man almost bursted out of laughter, as the twins were staring him in disbelief. "Do you see the edges? It is little bit of jellylike, isn't it?"

Valerie and Conrad caressed the edge, and suddenly both found two tiny hands, similar to the Lithium atoms.

"They are not metals, aren't they?" Valerie asked, confused.

"No, they aren't. They are definitely non-metals. But similar to the metals, because they are BAtted a bit."

"Batted?" Conrad asked, and took a step back.

"Don't worry, they are not bats, and won't turn to bats either." K.O. tried to console the boy. "Just the Carbon atoms are close to the BAt line, and their features are mixing with the metals'. They could behave like metals. Not entirely, but a little bit. All of them have four hands, but they could behave like non-metals, and they could behave like metals at the same time. Carbon atoms are able to make four covalent bonds, and they also could bond a few hands with metallic style. That's why you don't see some of the hands. They are there, in the jelly."

"Carbon atoms are very tricky ones." Conrad said in amusement.

"Because of this quality, coal is also able to conduct electricity."

"Really?" The boy asked.

"Really. Despite it is not belong to the metals. Interesting, isn't it?"

Conrad nodded, and went closer to the black little ones.

"The carbon is definitely very different from metals! The carbon particles are in a mess. They stand in the lattice in a completely different way than Lithiums." Valerie noted. " The Lithium atoms stood so regular and tidy, but Carbons are so criss-cross..."

"The coal doesn't have a definite structure. Since they are solid, but don't make a proper crystalline structure, we call the amorphous carbon. It means that they are basically shapeless."

"So they are special, being structureless." Valerie stated. "Is it a unique feature?"

"No, not really. We sort the solid things into two main groups: crystalline and amorphous. Crystalline solids have a definite geometry, while the amorphous solids doesn't have."

"Is it good or bad? Not having a definite geometry?" Conrad asked.

"Neither good, nor bad. They are simply used for different purposes."

Valerie didn't pay so much attention to her old friend. She was eager to use the knife, they had got, and her attention was split among watching the neighbors' movements, listening to K.O.' explanations and planning to cut the little ones' ties.

"Could we start?" she asked her brother, and their old friend. "Could we?"

"Hohoo! Someone is impatient here!" K.O. laughed. " But you are right. Let's start working! Are the knives on full charge?"

"Yeah!"

"So we will cutting cubes from the coal. Valerie, you and Conrad will cut a square, and I will cut the bottom. After the cube is cut, we store them into our hand devices. We use Valerie's device at first, since we charged the knives from her device. The second one is Conrad's, and in the end, mine. Is it okay?"

"Ayeee!" The kids cried, and began to cut the coal, as they were told.

The Carbon atoms let go of each other's hands, as the knife reached them, and pulled out candies from the blade. They independently stuffed their own share of energy into their mouth. The hands were vanishing from them, and produced a jelly coating of the cube.

"It is not too easy to cut them!" Conrad said, after the first cube was stored in Valerie's device.

"It is like cutting tube-fried spaghetti!" Valerie told them.

"Spaghetti Carbon are a..." Conrad made a joke from his sister's remark, and all of them burst out of laughter.

Their neighbors noticed the happy mood of them. They were a man and a small girl. The girl sometimes looked at Valerie. When Valerie noticed her, she waved to the girl. The girl smiled, and waved back. Valerie also smiled.

"They are really look like a bunch of spaghetti." K.O. nodded. The behavior of the two little girls did not escape his attention. "Let's go back to work, we have to make a lot of these cubes!"

They were working silently, cutting one cube after the other. It wasn't a difficult job. It was more like getting materials in cube games, like Minecraft. Although it required some physical strength, more than clicking with a mouse.

"My knife is discharged." Conrad said surprised. Valerie could still cut her part.

"What have you done? Did your knife has broken?" She asked half frightened- half angry.

"No, Nope! It is probably he had to cut more covalent bond, than you." He said, and held the grip of the knife close to the girl's device. "We have to recharge it with energy."

The grip was clicking itself to the device, and the twins were amazed, as it recharged itself.

"It is eating a lot!" Valerie stated. Then something came to her mind. "K.O.! Where are the energy? We haven't got a single candy from them!"

"To answer your question, the energy is eaten by the Carbon atoms, because you make them to break their bonds. Just like you did it with the Hydrogen molecules. Do you remember?"

Valerie and Conrad nodded.

"But when we cut the ties of the Hydrogens, we got back the energy, when they made bonds again!" The girl protested.

"But now the Carbon atoms haven't made any bonds! We have just stored them!" Conrad cried.

"Yes. They didn't do another bond, that's why you didn't get any candy back from them." K.O. nodded. "But you will get a lot from them tomorrow, when you make methane from them."

"Methane?"

The twins immediately frowned. Both of them remembered the last, fatal oral exam at the blackboard. Valerie was the stronger, she gathered herself first.

"At least we will see the molecules of Methane" She said, but her left eye was tickling a bit from nervousness.

They continued the mining with Conrad's portion. Before that, they all gave back the remaining energy from the knives to Valerie's device, and recharged them from Conrad's stock. As they went back to the coal, the two girls waved them to each other again.

"Could we have a little break?" Valerie ask the boys, after finishing Conrad's portion of Carbon cubes. The girl in the neighborhood was also taking a break with her old man.

"Why not?" K.O. said."Don't wander off too far!" He cried after the running Valerie.

Valerie was heading toward the other girl, because she missed the girly companion. She was a friendly girl, and the other one seemed friendly too. Valerie thought it was a good idea to meet and chat with her. It was a chance to find more friends in this world.

"Hello! Do you like candies?" She said, when she had reached the girl.

"Yes, I like them." She answered. "And you?"

"Me too!"

The girls were laughing and exchanged candies. At that moment they became friends. For girls, this goes easily.

"I am Miya."

"My name is Valerie."

"This is my father." Miya introduced the man with her.

"Hello. I am Toyama Kentarou. Are you with your grandfather?"He asked his daughter's new friend.

"No." Valerie shook her head.

"Is he your father?" Miya asked.

"No, that's our friend, K.O.." She answered. "Our parents went to the Maldives for holiday, and sent us here. So K.O. and Elie are looking after us."

"Is that boy your brother?" Miya asked and she looked at the boy carefully. She found the boy very handsome.

"Yes. He is Conrad. We are twins."

"Lucky you!" Miya cried.

"Why?" Valerie asked, stunned. She didn't really feel herself lucky.

"I have two older sisters. Unfortunately." Miya sighed. "Having a brother is far more better, than having two sisters!"

"Not always." Valerie answered, remembering the Lepidolite crystal. Conrad got much more bigger part of the credits, than her.

"At least your brother won't bring your skipping-rope with them to another mine, and leaving you bored."

"Why did they went to another mine?" Valerie asked and looked around." This one seems to be a very big mine!"

"Miya's mother and sisters went to a special mine of carbon." Miya's father told her.

"What kind of special mine?" Valerie was surprised. "The Carbons here seems to be very special to me."

"They want to get another pairs of earrings, so they need graphite for making diamonds in the workshop."

"Graphite? Diamonds?"

"Those are Carbons with a special structure." Miya's father told her. "In the graphite all the Carbon atoms have three hands in covalent bonds. They are forming hexagonal layers, like honeycomb. Between the layers there are the independent hands. It looks like birthday cake with several layers!"

"And the independent hands are the cream!" Miya added and all of them laughed.

"Carbon-cakes!" Valerie said with glee. "Carbons are very tasty atoms! I have thought, that Carbons here are look like tube-fried spaghetti!"

"They really look like as you say, but only your "spaghetti" is consumed orally."

"Why?" This time it was Miya, who had asked.

"The structureless coal is called medical coal. When you has stomach problems, you get from that coal. Since the surface is big, it could wrap the particles of the poisons. It helps to get out of them from your stomach, without harming you."

"What about the graphite?"Valerie asked, but she had a feeling, that she had heard the word somewhere. "I suppose that is not edible.

"The graphite is used in pencils. It is in your pencil case, at school." Miya's father smiled at the girl. "But they are also used for lubricating machines, because the layers could slide on each other."

"They have different colors..." Valerie remembered her pencils in the real world.

"They have different structures too. The amorphous carbon and the graphite are allotropic modification of each other. They are from the same element, but different structure and attribution."

"Carbon atoms are sure tricky ones!" Valerie said.

"They are more trickier, than you would imagine!" Miya added.

"Why?"

"Because Carbon atoms could make a colorless crystal. It is called diamond."

"I have heard about diamonds!" Valerie smiled. "They are very expensive crystals. Do you say that diamonds are also made from Carbon atoms?"

"As incredible as it is, yes. Diamonds are made up of Carbon atoms!" Miya's father said.

"But diamonds are expensive, and this coal is very cheap! Do you still say, that both of them are build from Carbon atoms?"

"Yes." He nodded. "But the structures of them different. In diamonds the Carbon atoms have four covalent bonds. Since they have four hands, the four bonds make them a very fine, strong structure. Diamonds are colorless crystals, and they are the hardest solid thing in the nature. The natural diamond are very rare, that's why they are expensive."

"How expensive are diamond earrings on the Island?" Valerie asked. She was suddenly caught up in the urge to buy a diamond earring.

"The natural diamonds are very very expensive here too. But my sisters and my mother will make artificial diamonds at the workshop, so they went to mine graphite, and they will make then turn into diamonds. Like this one." Miya said, and lifted her hair from her ear. There were a small, glass-like crystal earring. "This looks incredible, isn't it?"

"Yes."Valerie nodded. Miya's earring was beautiful. It was decided at that moment. She definitely had to get a pair of the diamond earrings.

"I don't know why they would want another pairs of earrings, because all of them has already had ones. I was told, that in that workshop they will make colored diamonds, so they went and, they brought the skipping rope with them."

"Skipping rope?"

"Yes do you like jumping with ropes?" Miya asked.

"I don't know how to. I have never used skipping rope." Valerie answered.

"I could teach you, but we need a rope."

"Probably Elie has one."

"Elie?" Miya asked, and took a quick look behind Valerie's back. „I don't see more people over there with you."

"Elie is sleeping in the caravan now." Valerie informed the girl. "She didn't sleep last night at all, so I don't think, we could call her up."

Miya saddened.

"But if you could come with us after the work, we would ask her."

Miya looked at her father, and he nodded, allowed her to do. The girl cheerfully nodded.

"VALERIEEE!"

They suddenly heard a voice calling the girl.

"K.O. is calling me." She told her new friend. "I have to go back to them."

"Okay, bye!" Miya said.

"I will call you when we finish the work." Valerie said, and the two girls exchanged numbers.

"Did you find a new friend?"asked K.O., when Valerie arrived back to them.

"Yes." The girl cheerfully nodded."Her name is Miya, and we will go play with rope after work."

"I knew you just went to chat with the other girl!" Conrad said, mockingly.

"Why not? With that chatting, I got a lot of information about the Carbon!"

"For example?" Conrad was bored. He was aware, that Valerie had already forgotten what she had heard.

"For example that there are Carbons without spaghetti!" She said and stamped. "There are much more interesting use of the Carbon atoms, than collecting them from coal."

"Yes. For example the rockets for the Firework Festival." Conrad riposted. "While you were keeping company, K.O. and I were searching for the Festival. It is a very big event, which is held only once in a year. There are tons of fireworks will be skyrocketing! This is the most interesting event of this kingdom. It is a real attraction, and anyone could take part of it. K.O. and I want to take part. So we should mine more Carbon, than we have planned."

"I'm against it." Valerie said. "I want to take part in the earring making workshop. So I don't want to mine more of this type of Carbon. I need graphite!"

"I'm sorry, but we're two against one!" Her brother held out his tongue. "So we are participating in the Firework Festival. Start working!"

"No, no!" Valerie riposted. " It is only two against one, because you didn't ask Elie. It could be two against two!"

"Okay, we will ask Elie later." K.O. tried to make peace between the twins. "Now we have to cut the remaining cubes of Carbons, so let's start working!"

Neither of the kids wanted to hurt K.O., so they held their knives to his device without saying a word. Neither of them said a single word until their work was done.