A short story for children inspired by a pair of hilarious friends who definitely deserve something bizzare written about them!
This charming tale revolves around two determined boys who really love digging…
One lovely summer day a family went to the beach. The sun was actually shining for once and the waves were gently splashing against the shore. The sand was fresh and cool underfoot. It was a perfect day for digging.
Dan and Jake rushed excitedly onto the beach armed and ready with their buckets and spades.
Their mother asked, “Don’t you want to go the sea? It looks lovely today!”
“No,” they replied. “We only want to dig!”
Their father shrugged, “Be careful you don’t dig to Australia boys!”
The boys leapt into action and working together they dug out the sand and dumped it nearby. They dug and they dug and they dug. And within several skilled digging minutes later… a little sand mountain had begun to grow outside their hole.
Dan said, “We can’t leave that there! All the sand will fall into the hole.”
Jake hit him on the head with his plastic spade.
THONK!
“Forget about the sand mountain. We’ve got to keeping digging if we want to make it to Australia!”
So they continued to dig, but within a minute they heard a rumbling sound. They looked up and saw their little sand mountain had become quite large. It shifted and sifted and suddenly came tumbling down into the hole. Dan and Jake coughed and scrambled. All their digging had been for nothing! This time Dan hit Jake with his spade.
THONK!
Jake apologised. “Never mind. Come on. We’ve got to keeping digging if we want to make it to Australia!”
It was a hot day, but the boys kept cool in the hole, so they were able to dig all day long. Mum threw sandwiches down to the boys and they munched happily. Dad walked over later and said, “Careful boys. The tide is coming in soon!”
Dan and Jake laughed and threw sand up at their father.
“The sea won’t stop us!” said Dan.
“Yeah Dad! We’re digging to Australia!” said Jake.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you…” replied their father.
They kept digging. Obviously. But suddenly the sand started to get very wet. It was getting much harder to dig properly. They heard a trickle and a splash. Looking up to the surface they saw a stream of water tumbling down and then a river and then a waterfall! The boys scrambled and their Dad quickly arrived to heave them from the water hole.
“I told you so!” Dad said smugly. “Come on. We’re going home now.”
“Can we come back tomorrow?” Dan asked.
“The sea won’t stop us next time!” Jake exclaimed.
“As you wish,” their father shrugged. “But I doubt you will make it to Australia tomorrow.”
Dan and Jake stayed up all night; plotting and planning until eventually they had a plan. The next day the boys went straight back to their digging spot.
“Don’t you want to go to the sea?” Mum asked.
“They’re digging to Australia, remember?” Dad simply said.
“Yeah Mum! Get with the program.” Dan sniggered.
They made the hole deeper and wider. They made the excess sand into a great sand wall around their hole. They created a masterpiece of digging. Their parents marvelled at their creation and applauded the boy’s intelligence. The family watched as the tide came in and the great sand wall defended the digging site against the onslaught of water.
“Why did you stop digging boys?” Mum asked.
“There’s water at the bottom…” Dan sighed.
“We couldn’t dig anymore.” Jake hummed
“That’s the underground water,” said their father. “It’s there because we are so close to the sea.”
“But how can we get to Australia now?” Dan said.
“You could… fly?” Mum suggested.
“No. Don’t be silly.” Jake said. “We must dig to Australia Mother.”
The family went home again and Dan and Jake scratched their heads and scanned their craniums until eventually they had a new plan. Whilst their parents left for work, they found the perfect spot for digging. Great location and absolutely no underground water. It was their back garden of course! They grabbed some proper metal digging equipment from the garden shed and got started. They dug for hours on end. They went deeper than ever before. There was no water in their way after all! Very soon they had dug so deep that they soon realised that they were stuck and it was quickly getting dark and cold.
“This is all your fault.” Dan said. “You didn’t plan in case it got dark!”
“No. It’s all your fault.” Jake said. “You didn’t plan in case we got stuck!”
They moved to hit each other with their spades, but realised they were metal and that would really hurt. Instead they bickered for several hours before agreeing it was their Mother’s fault and continued to dig as they had nothing else to do. They dug so deep their spades met the ground with a sharp clang.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
There was no more dirt, instead there was only rock below them. They couldn’t dig anymore.
“How do we get to Australia now!?” They cried.
When their parents returned from work they looked very angry at the HUGE hole in their once perfect garden
“What have you done!?” Mother screamed.
Jake hung his head low. “We were just trying to dig…”
“…To Australia. Yes I think we got that from the giant hole.” Dad mumbled.
Their parents looked at each other and sighed. Mum retrieved several torches and Dad got his ladder, which rapidly fixed the whole being dark and being stuck problem. The boys went to bed shivering and glum, but suddenly their father entered their room.
“Boys! Listen to me. Your Mother and I have been talking and if you two really want to dig for Australia and that’s all you want to do… then you’re going to need some help.”
The family woke early and contacted everyone they knew… well… except for the people who had an education, a job, social events to attend, or anything that may stop them from future digging responsibilities. They bought a drill from the Internet, because you can these days, and started their own digging company. They called it ‘We’re digging to Australia.’ Which everyone thought was a very self-explanatory company name.
The digging, of course, continued. Weeks passed. Months passed. Years passed. Dan and Jake began worldwide sensations as everyone looked towards the two entrepreneurs digging their way towards the earth’s core. Dan proclaimed that it would be a brand new way to travel across the planet and they received government funding. Jake simply said that it would bring the planet closer together and they received global sponsorship.
There were negative people out there who didn’t think it was a good idea to use loads of resources on digging. Those people were fully entitled to their opinions, but they constantly asked the boys… is this even possible? Why even bother with all the effort? The centre of the Earth is six thousand, three hundred and seventy one kilometres deep! And you want to go all the way through?! That’s double the distance! It’s quite simply impossible to dig to Australia! However, the boys stood firm in their belief. They looked at all those who disagreed with them and shrugged. They had a job to do. They picked up their shovels and leapt back into their digging site.
The process went fairly smoothly, however they encountered a few rather tricky problems along the way. First they bumped into a giant lake of water. It must have been four miles wide and who knows how deep! To help the situation, Dan remembered when his Mum had dropped loads of tea on the floor once. She had used paper towels to clean it up. They would do the trick! He hurried to the lake and threw a mass of paper towels into the water. It didn’t work and instead floated all soggy in the water. He turned away frustrated, trying to figure out what he had done wrong, at which point Jake waddled past with a MASSIVE industrial Hoover and began sucking up all the water towards to the surface. Dan sneered at the annoying clever Hoover.
Many, many, many miles of water and rock and dirt later, they reached a cavern that glowed brightly and flickered with strange fierce light. As they grew closer they realized that they had stumbled into a cavern full of fiery hot lava! It boiled and bubbled furiously. The boys stared at the red hot mass in horror. How would they get past this? Jake clicked his fingers and rapidly returned with his MASSIVE Hoover from earlier
“This will get rid of the lava. Just like it did the water. Just you watch!”
Within moments the Hoover was on fire! It flailed madly before it was gobbled up by the lava, which made Jake run away screaming like a giraffe on helium.
AHHHHHHHHH!
Dan stood by and laughed at his foolish brother.
“And you have a better idea?” Jake cried.
“In fact, my dear brother, I do.” Dan said.
Dan remembered a time when he was very young and went camping. He was helping Dad make a fire when he burnt his hand. It had really hurt. They hurried inside and quickly put it under a cold tap. The water flowed over his burning skin and it soon went from red and swollen to icy blue and normal. It gave him an idea. Dan collected all the water they had sucked up earlier and unleashed it upon the fiery cavern. Steam filled into the tunnel. It was very, very, very hot to say the least! The boys and all their friends hurried to the surface to get away from the hot temperature. The water rapidly cooled the lava into simmering piles of rock. The company celebrated conquering the tremendous problem.
The brothers later regrouped and decided they had to make a new plan. Dan looked at Jake and spoke carefully. He was unsure what to do next…
“It’s going to take us forever to dig to Australia like this.”
“You’re right, Jake replied. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking…?
“We order pizza?” Dan asked.
“No.”
“We get someone else to do it?” Dan shrugged.
“No.”
“I head to the other side of the world, dig using everything we’ve learnt so far, and meet you in the middle…?” Dan enquired inquistively.
“Yes,” Jake nodded precisely. “You read my mind. That is exactly what we are going to. I am a genius!”
And so the brothers briefly departed ways. Dan zipped around the world using a boring and busy, flustering flying airplane. Although he did get free food and television, so it wasn’t truly awful, but it did take absolutely forever.
Meanwhile Jake bought a mega-lazer off the internet, as you can these days, and he desperately needed it to dig through the really tough bedrock at the centre of the earth. With the help of world renowned scientists, he fixed all the really tricky problems. He reinforced the tunnel and was able to keep it at the perfect temperature, as it gets rather warm very deep underground. They also helped sort out how not to be crushed by the immense pressure of the entire planet. It was very clever how they did it, although Jake had absolutely no idea how they did it or what they were doing so he just left them to it.
Very soon… Dan and Jake had both dug from either side of the world. All that separated them was one last wall of rock. Together they raised their spades and the wall came tumbling down. The ‘We’re digging to Australia’ company cheered with joy. Dan and Jake jumped and high-fived each other at the centre of the world. Next they clambered past each other and ascended up to the opposite side of the planet. After the climb, Dan arrived back home and his parents gave him a big hug and a sloppy kiss. At the same time, Jake climbed out of the hole and found himself in Australia. It was hot and beautiful and worth every single digging motion he had ever done to get this far.
At either side of the planet, the boys counted down together, as they both prepared for the moment they had been waiting for. At exactly the same time, they leapt into the air. They cheered at either end of the world and stared in amazement at the unimaginably endless dark tunnel beneath them. The earth swallowed them both and they soared through the planet. They fell deeper and deeper and faster and faster. All the hard work rushed past in a flurry of earth, rock and dirt. Lines of bright neon lights flashed past quicker and quicker until they were plummeting at terminal velocity downwards. Dan and Jake saw each other for the briefest of seconds before vanishing into the opposite tunnel. They were falling down, but now they were falling up. They were moving so fast that it didn’t matter anymore. Their bodies flipped and spun and twisted and flipped in the air. Their speed sent them soaring upwards and out of the planet’s embrace.
They zipped out of the Earth and into the sky. The light blinded and greeted them both warmly. Crowds at either end of the world cheered their achievement. The boys hovered briefly in the sky and waited for gravity to begin pulling them back down. The crowds of people below prepared safety nets to catch them before they could zip back through the tunnel that burrowed through the planet. They bounced in their giant nets and laughed with joy.
They thought of each other being caught at either end of the planet. Dan thought of Jake. And Jake thought of Dan. The Australians cheered. Their family cheered. The planet marvelled at their achievement.
They had done it. Dan and Jake had dug to Australia!