*Chapter 3* The Challenge

“I’m not going to get hurt am I?” asked Leo.

“Are you worried about your challenge, Beaver boy?” asked Max. “Don’t worry! Who am I going to play catch with? No one over here knows how to throw a football, except you and me! And if I have to get ready for football season!”

The elevator bell rang and three stepped outside to see a parking lot packed with cars, women carrying large bags of groceries, and children running through the parking lot with soccer balls. Next to their apartment was a small street market containing an assortment of stores. The one closest to their home sold rice and seaweed rolls with soup. Their mom really wanted them to eat that for lunch, but to the three American children, they were just fine with pizza or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This was their first time in Asia, and the food had been the biggest culture shock to them. Their first day, the principal who worked with their parents, took them out to a really special dinner. They sat on the floor and watched a waitress bring out a plate of small live octopus. The children politely tried to eat the octopus, but it was the most miserable thing they had ever tried. The suckers were still alive and tried to sticking all over the inside of their mouths. They had to shove the sucking legs down their throats so that they wouldn’t stick to their tongue. After that dinner, the three of them immediately wanted to go home. But their parents had told them that the food wasn’t all weird and they only had to stay in the country for two more months. Daisy, Max, and Leo had tried other weird food like fish eyeballs, dried squid, and kimchi (the fermented cabbage covered in red pepper paste), but nothing was as bad as LIVE octopus. The three children really wanted to go back to America, and they were counting down the days together.

“The place I have in mind is near the end of the street, close to the subway station,” Max said. He wasn’t going to tell his siblings what the plan was because if they knew, he was NOT going to get them to go any farther. He had seen something really interesting the other day and he was dying to look at it again. Together the three children walked through the crowds of shoppers past the school supply shop, a PC room filled with children playing computer games, a vegetable truck advertising loudly over a speaker, and a seafood restaurant until they reached the end of the street.

Finally, Max looked at them and said, “This is it. Here’s your challenge, Beaver.”
Leo opened his green eyes looking around for what could possibly be his challenge.
Max continued, “See the seafood market.” Daisy and Leo turned and looked at the huge tanks filled with an assortment of fish, eels, octopus, and other seafood- all of it was still alive and swimming. Then they turned back to hear Max’s challenge. “Using the money that mom gave us for lunch, Beaver has to buy one of those orange sea slugs in the bottom tank, and then eat it. If you want it cooked, we can take it back to the apartment.”