Journey to the Center of the Earth [Story]: The Dream Grandfather Had
By: Amy Laine
Prologue
I sat in my room with grandfather. We gazed at my poster of Earth's layers. "You know..." Grandfather wheezed removing a hanker chief from his pocket. I leaned forward in my seat suddenly worried. Grandfather just cleared his throat and continued. "Someday...Maybe..." His eyes traveled from the poster to mine and then back to the poster again. Grasping his cane he coughed again and took my hand. "Anne," He grandfather told me with a serious tone. "Anything is possible."
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Nine years later I stood before the private plane still contemplating if this was ?good idea. I studied my wrinkled poster of Earth's Layer's and confirmed my crazy thoughts. Yes I was going to go down into the Earth's core. For Grandfather. I stare at the plane once more starting to feel a little giddy. Grandfather had payed for all the expenses. The Judge had called me into the court and showed me that papers left in Grandfather's will. Under my name were the words, Anything is possible. From my savings account 400,000,000 billion dollars will go to my granddaughter Anne Margret Laine. I was to fly to Hawaii where I would meet someone who would accompany me to the Center of the Earth. I had always thought Grandfather would come with me...If we were ever actually planning to go...but it never occurred to me he might not be here. ?"Ma'm we are ready," An attendant cleared his throat next to me. "Huh?" Oh right. I give a small nod of my head in apology and board the plane still gulping.
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Later that day I emerge from from the plane still stiff. The flight was terrible, I reflect gathering my few bags. An attendant on the flight assured me my other things would be brought by somebody else. It kind of occurs to me...just an after thought after all the thrills of today, Where the heck am I? I guess I hadn't really given it much thought on where I was going. I tap a guy who is about to board the plane to go home. "Excuse me? Where am I?" The guy looks at me with disgust on his face but answers, "Forgotten island." Oh. Well that makes perfect sense not. Thanks a lot mister. He walks off without another word so I head out to find a native that can help me.
A few hours later I am seated in a little hut overlooking the sea, crashing onto the beach. When I walked in here I decided for the rest of the trip flip flops were out of the question. Some of the ground is hard and blackened. Mostly barren though. "It's a volcanic island." A native...forgottener (?) informed me. After what seems like eternity a shadow falls over what little light this hut will allow in. "I am going to accompany you on your trip down Earth." It's a boy no older than nineteen. "Jonathon." He adds but I can barely hear him my mind is spinning. "Accompany me?" I almost choke on the words. "I'm going by myself." Clearly the boy looks uncomfortable, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "My island won't allow you to use our passage way unless you have a native from our land come with you." I stand up. He has a good two or three inches on me. "Why?" I retort. This isn't fair! That's not what grandfather said! "You will get all the credit," Jonathon looks down. "Bedsides out island has higher technology than your scientists will see...in a few decades." I'm pacing now but I ask him why haven' they already left for Earth's core yet? Jonathon is heading for the door now. "Because," He calls over his shoulder. "No one is brave enough. Are you coming or shall we fly you back home?" I scramble out the hut. "I'm not leaving until I get there." Jonathon shrugs and brushes a palm tree leaf out of his face. "By the way," I add. "My names Anne."
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"Slow down!" I whine to Jonathon who is already well past me. We are struggling to climb down the hole of the Missing cave. So let's see we are on a forgotten island in a missing cave. Wonderful. This cave also happens to be in the Continental Crust. With ropes tied to both of our backs I would never had tried this without them. The island people hold tight to our ropes at the top. "Jonathon..." My pitch rises in panic. I look down into the gaping hole. "Where'd you go?" "I am at the bottom." I gasp. "Already?" I can practically hear him rolling his eyes. "It isn't that far Anne. I can see you-your almost here." My hands press into a sharp rock which feels like it is made of granite and silicon. I bite back a scream of pain. There is a small tremor through out the cave and I lose my grip on the rocks. Now I just dangle in the air with Jonathon laughing at me. ?He unties my rope and I fall ungracefully to the cold brittle floor. ?"Seismic waves," He says still chuckling a little. "We'll encounter a few of them."
I can immediately tell that this is the oceanic crust. That poster really helped after all! I pull out my poster for reference. "According to this we reached the Oceanic Crust which is denser then the Continental Crust..." I skim through my poster a little. "Continental- 20% thicker..." I announce. Jonathon grabs my arm and pulls me along. "Wait!" I cry. "I want to read about it you know." I can tell he really doesn't care. "The Continental crust is also like way more brittle then the crust we are on." I squint. I can barely see down here. "Put it away." Jonathon lets go of me and walks around the crust observing our options.
"Wait!" I gasp. "Where are our things?" I can't believe we left them! And our food! This might take months to get to the center of the Earth. "Were going to die." I moan. Sorry grandfather...sorry I let you down. From my traveling buddies pocket he wields a blue blinking orb.
"What's that do?"
"Like I said, our tech is way beyond yours."
With that a blue beam shoots out of the orb and for a few seconds that is all that happens. After all that tension this is what we get? A blue tinted flashlight. How handy. Right after I think of that, all my stuff and his belongings appear where the blue beam hit. I rush in and cram some food into my mouth from one of many food bags. I'm caught off guard when Jonathon hits another button and the blue light vanishes along with our things. I glare at him. "I was eating." He doesn't answer and I soon figure out why.
A low creaking sound is getting louder and louder...in our direction. I only stay long enough to see lunging, snapping jaws rounding the corner. It has furry odd..claw hands picking up basalt from the ground and shoving it into it's gaping mouth. ?Jonathon has the same idea as I do about escaping. We take off running down the maze of turns and twists. "Got any high tech gadget for this one?" I pant. "I wish!" My partner huffs back. Almost every turn we make is a dead end. It's like a nightmare...in another nightmare! I can still here the gnashing of teeth. "Maybe he's friendly!" I call to Jonathon who is a couple feet in front of me. (Hasn't he heard about ladies first? I guess not this is a very odd little island.) The reply I get is what is expected from him. "I'm not staying to find out!" Would it kill him to be a little brave?
I hear a very girlish shriek from Jonathon and then he's gone. My feet are still pounding the basalt beneath me. He couldn't have run into another monster? Then without warning I plunge downward. Even in that horrifying moment of falling I can't help but thinking, Oh so this is were you disappeared to Jon...I didn't even scream. What a baby. I land with a thud. I wiggle my arms, shake my head back and forth and kick out my legs. All in good condition thankfully. I can see Jonathon in the corner. He is rapping the walls of our little cell. "Where...?" I ask. Jonathon shakes his head. "I'm not sure." Then he says something I never thought I would hear. "Check your poster." He turns on his little orb flashlight but hits a different button so our belongings wont just appear right now. I read to what is after the oceanic crust. "Lithosphere-a solid broken layer." I show Jonathon the picture...or example they give us. ?
Jonathan seems to be thinking. "Solid..." His face lights up (from what I can see from the flashlight that he still hasn't turned off). "But broken!" We run around o
ur little prison and he's the first to find a crack. "Over here!" To our disappointment it would only fit maybe a cat. My face falls. Jonathon brings our things into the small space and he roots around in one of his packs. Pulling out a disk that looks like merely a DVD or CD he touches all the outside of the rim and this one (not to my surprise) lights up green. He tosses it at the hole and it sets to work chipping the rock away at lightning speed. In about five minutes it has transformed the hole into that is wide enough to crawl through. My traveling companion basically 'zaps' our things back into the orb and we continue along.
A few hours later, Jonathon wanders off to do some business and I decide I should as well. You never know when your not going to be chased by monsters and fall into pits. After I am done I walk around a little. In one day we have gotten through two layers! Only by luck and the Continental Crust didn't count because we didn't really have to do anything. How am I doing now Grandfather? I grasp my poster again and study it with tears in my eyes. There is a small tear in the corner which reminds me of when grandfather fell over the couch when he tried to flop onto it. His foot hit the table and tore the tablecloth in half when he tried to get up again. I laugh softly. Still I wish he were actually here. We were supposed to do this together. Now...I have some girl-screaming boy accompanying me.
Jonathon comes back and sits down. I think of all the things he could possibly say to me right now. Why are you crying Anne? Or ?Don't be a wimp Anne. Just chill out okay? And of course the one that made me think about punching him in the face- See, you couldn't do it with out me. My Tech saved us. I could already imagine my reply. Yeah how about landing us in that little dirt prison? I felt totally safe in there. But he only grabs his orb and says, "You hungry? We can eat now. We can probably set out again tomorrow...or whatever time it is." I can't help but laugh. "Wait-" My eyes are like saucer size. "Your telling me that with all that electronics jumbo you didn't even bring something that could tell time? No watch?" The boy looks stung. After a second he replies slowly, "Noooooooooo." As I dig out some food from our bags, I helpfully inform Jonathon that 'no' has only two syllables not a million. I check my watch. "Actually, it already is tomorrow." So for an early 'breakfast' (dinner for us) we eat bagels with cheese and ham. "I feel medieval...all this weird food. What kind of stuff do you guys eat here?" I mumble as I drift into sleep. The last thing I hear is Jonathon protesting that their food is perfectly normal.