After resting for a while, Miyoko's dizziness and headache subsided. She thenspent her time working on the textbook, taking a nap, and worrying about Banana. She often looked offshore, but she could not see Michael. After 4 or 5 hours, Michael did not come back. The sun is gradually setting to the west. The tide was high again. By this time, Miyoko was so worried about Michael that she couldn't do anything else but watch the sea.

    What happens if Michael does not come back? It's much more troublesome than at this time as Banana being gone. Miyoko's heart is throbbing, but for the time being, there is nothing Miyoko can do to help him.

    When the sun was low to the west, Miyoko decided to go agin catch some more sea urchins. Now that the tide was high, many more sea urchins are gathering on the seabed in the immediate vicinity of the beach. The bucket was soon filled with sea urchins. Miyoko returned to the beach looking back off the coast in search of Michael.

    After clearing the books and writing materials on the table, putting on gloves, Miyoko broke open the sea urchins with a knife and cut out its yellow inside and put it on the plate. It's a delicacy in Japan. Even though she was wearing thick diving gloves, the sea urchin needle sharply stabbed Miyoko's hand. Sea urchin needles are sharp and very brittle.  When they pierce the skin, they break and leave the tip in the skin. Miyoko knew that the sea urchin needle would hurt later, but that's the price that the humanswould have to pay. It took time to gather all the sea urchins’ insides.  All of them were skinny.  This disappointed Miyoko.

    Even though Miyoko often looked offshore while cleaning the sea urchins, when Miyoko looked up, Michael was already walking toward her near the beach. Many mysterious things happen in nature.  

   Michael was holding a spear gun in one hand and a rugby ball-sized giant clam in the otherhand. Miyoko was so happy and relieved thatshe ran out to receive Michael. Michael didn't have any fish.

    "Hi, Miyoko. There were no fish at all. Only some clams." Michael said.

    Michael was even more sun tanned from theday. With these killer waves even the fish in the drop off would not venture near the reef. He had to look for fish around a dangerous drop-off with high waves and strong tides and returned safely to the beach.  One must consider that it was a great day.  After all,it is a nice size of a clam.

    "I collected sea urchins, so tonight is a dinner of clams and sea urchins."

    The giant clam is a bivalve that grows very large.  Miyoko has seen many large giant clams that are more than three feet in its opening.  Although giant clams are whiteoutside, sometimes it creates a beautiful pink or elegant yellow on the inside of its shell. The shell that Michael brought back now has a beautiful pink color. The shellfish are thick and heavy, and Miyoko cannot hold them with one hand when one reaches this size. Palauans eat the large muscles raw. 

    While Michael was taking a shower, Miyoko hurriedly created a fire and set the rice on the heat. Miyoko had finished putting out all the sea urchins guts, but the amount of eatable sea urchins parts were just a small bowl-full. Next, Miyoko dexterously inserted a knife through the crevice near the hinge of the clam, cut the tendon, and opened the shell. Since it is a large shellfish, it has a lot of meat, but the only thing that is really delicious is the muscle. The rest is just as hard as rubber. But Miyoko is going to eat everything now. How about making sashimi with the muscle and finely chopping the rest of the meat to make a soup?

    Only the muscle was delicious for thedinner that day. The sea urchin had a weaktaste, which greatly disappointed Miyoko. Theclam soup was hearty but tasteless.  It was like floating rubber fragments in thin saltywater. In honor of the lives of the clams that they destroyed, two ate everything.  However,Miyoko had to admit that the poor taste is poor, no matter how one looks at it. Miyoko was deeply surprised at the difficulty of getting food from nature. She realized the town people like herself have been buying the best food which nature could provide.  Miyoko wonders how long humans have been eating tasteless foods since the beginning of human history until they came across something delicious and easy to eat.