        He mentally kicked himself at his unpreparedness.  First, he wasn’t sure what came next.  Should he try to pronounce each letter?  That could lead to trouble, since their pronunciation was heavily tied to what came before or after.  They had learned the alphabet song when he was in kindergarten, but that hardly seemed appropriate for this situation; he’d have to pronounce the letters.  First came the alphabet, then spelling, then phonics, or something like that.  If only he was trying to teach something simple, like programming a CNC lathe.  He could have done that in his sleep.  Why hadn’t he brought his notebook?  At some point they were going to want to move back up on the beach, and they could hardly take sketches in the sand with them.  He looked over at her again, noticing that she was glancing at her bags.  What if she also forgot to bring writing tools?  He chuckled, and sheepishly walked towards his bag, unsurprised to see her do the same with hers.