Chief Terobero of the Island of Tunga was diving for cola cans. He had adopted them as the legal tender of his island at a rate of four coconuts per can. The thousand year old remnants of the cola age occasionally washed onto the peaceful reefs surrounding what had once been called Manhattan. The cans, still containing their mysterious liquids, were kept at the Tungan National Treasury stacked in decorative displays, much as they had been in the ancient supermarkets of the vanished civilization that had produced them. The Tungans never opened the cans to drink the juices inside. The medicine man had issued a stern warning as to the consequences. But he need not have. Evil spirits were rumored to live in the cans, and anyway, the islanders preferred coconut milk.

Story #54