The Magic Rings and the Dead Sea

The holidays were in full swing. Ellie and Annie were spending them in the countryside with their Grandma and Grandad – every year they looked forward to the summer starting and their parents taking them there. A pleasantly cold stream trickled along the bottom of their garden, which was full of fruit trees that provided lovely shade when the weather got really hot. And then there was Grandma’s cooking, which was simply the best. And always lots of yummy cake!

Today, though, things seemed to be somehow... different. Ellie and Annie had been bored ever since they got up in the morning, Grandad kept on grumbling about something under his breath and Spot the dog kept running back and forth, as if he couldn’t decide where to go. And in the middle of it all, they heard Grandma shriek from the kitchen: “Holy mackerel, what have I gone and done?!”

The little sisters ran to find out what had happened.

“I totally over-salted the soup,” Grandma lamented. “It’s inedible!”

“Come now, I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Grandad comforted her, and immediately went to taste it. His face contorted and he couldn’t help it – he quickly spat the soup out into the sink. “Well... it IS a little too salty,” he admitted. “You’ve made us our very own Dead Sea,” he added to make Grandma feel better.

“Dead Sea?” asked Annie. “Is that something from a fairy tale?”

“Not at all,” replied Grandad with a smile. “The Dead Sea really exists, but it’s completely different from other seas.” Then he turned to help Grandma make a new batch of soup.

Annie and Ellie went out into the garden and sat under a broad apple tree. Ellie was the first to break the…