Despite the crashing surf and volleyball nets, the boy continued digging. He dug using plastic tools, many of which were chipping and faded from hours in the sun. Grains of sand had lodged themselves under the boy’s nails, making his fingertips a grimy brown, but he paid no mind. He eventually hit water, which made the edges of the hole crumble inwards. He panicked for five seconds, and immediately began digging out what had crumbled in. He dug, and dug, until the hole was six feet across. He then decided to dig from inside the hole. He flung handfuls of wet, heavy sand over his shoulder into the ocean behind him. Before he could notice, the hole was up to his waist. Sand had caved in from the edges once again, and he felt as if he was sinking; sinking into his man-made lake.
“No,” he thought, “I can’t be sinking. There’s nothing to sink into.” But just as the thought crossed his mind, the boy was sucked through the hole. He tried resisting the pull, but it was too strong and too sudden. He flew downwards in a slim tunnel, past layers of different coloured earth; past fossils and bones of animals that one roamed the earth. He looked down, and saw nothing; only black. He began to worry, but somehow, part of him still wanted to continue down this slide, not wanting to claw his way back up to the real world. So he continued to fall into the unknown, when the tunnel abruptly widened.
All of a sudden, he hit a soft, damp patch of leaves, or what he thought to be leaves. “Gosh,” he said out loud, as he gathered himself, and stood up. He was in a small cove; a small animal’s dwelling, but as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, and he looked further, the cave seemed to go farther than he originally thought. It smelled dull and damp; like the morning after an autumn rain. He felt around the ceiling until he felt a weakness, and pushed. The ceiling, which appeared to be made of old newspapers, was thrown upwards. Above him, there was a desert. He hoisted himself up, and stood on what he thought was solid ground for the first time in what seemed like ages. He looked as far as his eyes could reach: thousands upon thousands of miles of dead dirt; there was no life that he could see. The heat was nearly unbearable, he began sweating after only a few minutes.
He looked up to see a sun, but it was not like the sun he was used to. It was twenty times the size of the one on earth, and took up nearly the entire sky, which the remainder of it was a murky orange. He turned on his heel, to jump back into the cool dampness of the hole, but realized it was closing. He dove in at the last minute. When he brushed off the sand and recovered from the overwhelming heat, he looked up to see a small, hunched over old man. The man had a scruffy beard reaching down to his chest, while his matted gray hair reached down the staircase of his back.
“My boy, what are you doing here?” the old man asked. The boy was still in shock of seeing the old man that he didn’t respond immediately. Only a creak came out of his mouth. The old man saw that the boy was still shocked, and laid a emaciated hand on the boy’s arm.
“It’s alright, lad. I was just like you when fell down here: mind blown clear out.”
“You… aren’t from here?” the boy asked timidly, and adjusted his T-shirt hem.
“Oh no, dear boy!” The man exclaimed, “I’m from earth.”
“Well, I’m from earth, too! You mean this isn’t earth?” The boy asked, eyes widening.
“Of course not. From what I’ve gathered, this is the land of eternal sunshine. Never seen a drop o’ rain the long time I’ve been here.” The old man said, looking up, past the boy’s head at the hole in the ceiling. “I live down here because it’s too awful and hot up there.”
“Does anything live here?”
“Ah,” the man sighed, and led the boy towards a hallway hollowed out of the soil. He led the boy to what looked like a skylight. A hole in the ceiling had been dug out, and old, shredded clothing had been tied over top. Mud had been smeared on the edges of the skylight to hold the clothing in place.
The old man looked down sadly at his garden. “I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never leave this dark place. In a way, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with the stresses of real life, but, for obvious reasons, I want to go home.”
The old man laughed sadly. “Does it look like I can go home?” He looked around. “My wife is probably dead and gone, my children probably don’t even remember me, I’m too old to do anything but die here.” The man straightened when he realized that the boy’s eyes had started to water, quickly picking up his tone. “But that doesn’t mean you have to!”
“I'm sure we can find a way out of here."
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