I can dig a hole to China

“I bet you I could dig a hole to china.”
Those were the words that I woke up to today. And at what time? 5:00 in the morning. My brother Tyler had come into my room wearing his special red cape with the sparkles on the back in the shape of everyone’s favorite childhood superhero, Sampson the Silly Shovel. My brother is still in the phase where he’ll believe anything anybody tells him. So this morning at 5:00 he came into my room his small feet padding softly on my plush red carpet, breathing hard as if he had just run a mile.
“China? A hole to China?” I answered him, confused and not really comprehending what he had said in the first place.
“China! That’s right! China! Lance told me that his big sister, Cassandra, who is THE COOLEST, did it, and then he did it, and now I’M going to do it!”
“But Ty, NOBODY can dig a hole to China. That’s way too far!” I had finally started to understand what he was saying. And how sad was I, his big sister, not the coolest person ever?
“But Lance did it, and if Lance can do it then I can too!” His face started to get scrunched up like it always does when he’s about to cry.
“Tyler…I hate to tell you this, but JUST because Lance did it doesn’t mean you can too…” I said this all very carefully because you DON’T want to upset Tyler. Because when Tyler gets upset, he blows up like an opened fire hydrant.
“I don’t care what you say! I will definitely dig it, no matter what you say.”
Then, all of a sudden he ran out of the room, cape flying out behind him with a determined expression on his face.


I was so excited this morning. I knew exactly what I was going to do today, and I couldn’t wait to let everyone know! I was up at almost 3:30am, and I sat around for almost an hour and a half until 5:00 when I went into my sister Somalia’s room. I burst into the room, my eyes blinded for a second by the neon pink and orange of her room compared to the plain linen white walls of the hallway. I told her about my plan to dig a hole to China today, but all she did was scoff at me and roll her eyes. Humph. I’ll show her. She acts like she’s all smart when she’s really not. She acts like she knows absolutely everything in the world, but I’m the smarter one. I just know it. And I’m willing to prove it too…


I finally rolled out of bed at about 1:00 in the afternoon. I’m quite the late sleeper when I’m not woken up by little brothers. I wandered down the hallway which was so bare compared to my beautiful room of brightness. I got to the kitchen where Tyler was sitting at the small round kitchen table with my mom, who was wearing an amused expression on her face. I grimaced as I realized what she was probably so amused about.
“Hey mom, what’s so funny?” I said, dreading the response.
“Oh nothing, nothing. But did you know, that your brother is going dig a hole to China today?” My mother asked me this with the I know this is kind of silly but just humor your brother because he’s younger than you and has dreams, and you don’t want to crush them do you expression on her face. Or maybe it was just a pleading look. Who knows, with her, it could be anything.
“That’s right! Mom thinks I can do it, so that means you’re WRONG!” Tyler got up and screamed all of this right in my face. Mom realized enough was enough at this point.
“Ok Tyler, how about we find some shovels?” She said as a distraction.
All I did was roll my eyes and go to the freezer to get a cinnamon bun, the kind with the sticky icing, leftover from last night’s dessert.


I breathed in the musty smell of the tool shed as mom unlocked the door and let me inside. I’m not usually allowed inside, because there are a lot of dangerous tools in there like drills and hammers. It was dark and damp, and there were a ton of dark unidentifiable shapes hanging up on the walls. It was all very exciting until mom turned on the light, and I realized that it was still only the tool shed and not some mysterious building in the middle of nowhere.
“Ok Tyler, here’s your own special shovel for your hole.”
Mom handing me a plastic shovel sprinkled with little pieces of dirt, covered entirely in dust. It had a red handle with a yellow bottom, and two stripes of blue going down each side. It felt cold and plastic like in my hands. I stared longingly at the strong metal shovels hanging on the walls and out of reach. I doubted this dinky little one would be enough to get me to China, but mom wasn’t going to let me use the big shovels. They were just too dangerous.
“Awesome!” I exclaimed, imitating Somalia who uses the word quite frequently. My mother got tight lipped. She hates any kind of word that would not be used anywhere lower than in front of the Queen of England. But luckily she let me out of there without a lecture.


I sat, licking my lips as I finished off my cinnamon bun, staring out the kitchen window at the backyard. We had a swing set out there, and I stared at it reminiscing about the times when my friends and I would rush outside so that we could get the best swing, but in the end we would just end up rolling around in the dirt because nobody wanted to fight over a silly swing. Of course I wouldn’t do that now though, I’m WAY too sophisticated for it. While I was deep into my thoughts about what I should wear today (red skirt with the cute black top or Capri’s with the t-shirt that says cinnamon on it) a clod of dirt came flying out of nowhere and slammed hard against the window. Confused, I shook my head and leapt up to see what the commotion was. When I got to the window, what did I see? Tyler digging a hole. Wow, I thought to myself. Was Tyler ACTUALLY digging this thing? Does he actually think he can do it? Wow. Just wow. Deciding to just ignore him, I went to my room to figure out my dilemma of clothes for the day.


I dug and dug and dug. I had been digging for what seemed like hours now. I didn’t know what time it was, but I didn’t really care anyway. All I cared about right now was digging my hole to China. By now though it was getting dark. I knew that I would have to go inside soon. And what do you know? Mom comes out, right on cue.
“Tyler sweetie,” she coaxed, “why don’t you come in for dinner and continue digging another time?”
“But moooom, I want to finish today!”
“I know honey, but China’s a long way away and we can’t have you digging up the entire backyard anyway.”
I sighed, staring at my freshly dug hole, longing to continue.
“Ok, I’ll be in in a minute.”
Mom then left me, satisfied, to go back to cooking her steak inside. Finally, after awhile, I went inside and ate my steak. I didn’t go back to my hole after that. The next day it just hadn’t seemed as fun and as exciting as it had before. But little did I know that I’d ever think about it again.

20 years later

I lounged around in my newly rented apartment. For the past few years I had been living at home while I got up on my feet after college. I loved my apartment now though. I had only rented it last week, so it only had the essentials. There was the plain white refrigerator, the cheap two seater couch, a tiny TV, some bare cupboards with hardly any food in them yet, except maybe some Lucky Charms cereal or microwave dinners. I was just about to watch Seinfeld, my favorite show, when the phone rang. It was 11:30pm. Who would be calling now? I wondered.
Jumping around, the music of the club I had just come from still beating in my head, I burst into my apartment happily. Still bouncing up and down I threw my coat off and hopped onto the flowery couch my mom and dad had gotten for me when I had first moved in 8 years ago. Not exactly my taste, but it does what it’s supposed to. Once I had been lying down for a good couple of minutes, I finally noticed the neon green light on my answering machine was blinking, indicating that I had a new message. I leaned over and pressed the listen button, expecting it to be one of my many friends. I am just so popular. But no, it was just my little brother, Tyler. Don’t get me wrong, I love the little guy. But I knew it wasn’t going to be an invitation to some exciting party or anything. I sighed, but decided to listen to the message anyway.
“Hey Somalia, how are you?” His voice sounded quiet and nervous. A bit in shock if you ask me. “I know I don’t usually call, and well, we don’t usually talk much either, but um, I…I just have really exciting news, and I wanted to share it with you. I just got a call from a man named Stanton Metrone, and he asked me if I would like to be part of an exciting project. He said that he had looked at my resume and everything, and I seemed like the perfect man for the job.” He was starting to talk faster now. I wondered what on earth the job could be. “He said that the job would be digging a hole. A hole to…a hole to…well, a hole to China, really. He said that according to new evidence that they’ve found there might be something that can cure AIDS in the pathway from Miami to China. So I’m flying out there tomorrow, and, well, I’m not going to have much of a chance to talk then, so I just wanted to talk to you before I go. Just one last bit of family talk I guess. Well, call me back when you have the chance. Bye.”
After the message finished playing I just kind of stared at the machine for a bit. I really couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be possible, could it? A hole to China? Nobody can really do that, right? I then remembered that fateful day 20 years ago when Tyler, only eight years old at the time (I was 16) had burst into my room oh so early in the morning just to tell me that he was going to dig a hole to China. I had told him that he was stupid to believe that he could do it, and that it was impossible. I wondered if he remembered. If he found this as weird as I did, that 20 years afterward, his childhood activity of one day, would come true…
I had finally gotten to sleep thinking about the project that I was going to embark on in the morning, when the phone rang. I jumped quickly out of my metal framed bed and walked quickly out of my room feet slapping against hard, cold wood floor. I picked up the phone, and a shaky voice on the other side answered.
“Hello?” It said.
“Um, hi, who is this?” I answered back nervously.
“It’s Somalia. I’m just calling you back. I got your message. Congratulations.”
“Well, thanks. I’m really excited about it.”
“Yeah, well, who wouldn’t be, you know?” She gave a shaky little laugh. It sounded kind of forced, as if she had to do it.
“I know what you mean.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, thanks for calling, Somalia. It was nice to hear from you.”
“Yeah…you too…”
“Well, bye then…”
“No, wait! Tyler!” She screamed it so abruptly that I jumped about a mile.
“What’s up?” I answered, concerned.
“Do you…do you remember that time almost 20 years ago today, when you wanted to dig a hole to China?”
I paused for a moment, going back deep in my memories. Then it came to me.
“Wow, I didn’t think of that,” It was hard to find words now. This was just too weird. “That’s pretty cool, huh? I’m actually going to be able to do it now.”
“Yeah, I just wanted to see if you remembered, that’s all.”
“Ok, well, I have to go now, it’s getting pretty late.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
I hung up the phone, still thinking about the fact that I was actually going to start doing this tomorrow. I went back to my bedroom and collapsed back onto my bed and fell asleep instantly, exhausted.

2 years later

“We’re getting pretty far on this hole, aren’t we?” I asked my right hand man, Stanton Metrone, who had given me the job just two years earlier.
“Definitely, in fact the men are due to finish any second. Soon enough we’ll be able to travel through.”
“Oh, wow, I can’t believe it. This is so exciting! I can NOT believe that after only two years we’ll be able to travel from Miami to China…in a hole.”
“Thrilling, isn’t it?” He said, distracted. All of a sudden the walkie talkie on his belt loop beeped. “Hello? Really? All right! We’ll go down now!” He placed it carefully back on his belt loop and turned around slowly to face me. “We’re going down. Now.” That was all he said; nothing else. But nothing else was needed to be said for me to understand anyway.
“Seriously?” I said.
“Seriously.”
We were both extremely nervous but at the same time so excited that it was crazy. For the past two years while the men were working on the hole as we supervised, we were also building a special car that could travel through the hole safely and had all kinds of rescue devices on it just in case the hole collapsed or something else terrible like that. We slowly lowered the waiting car, silver with streaks of yellow on it into the hole. We slipped in. It was like we were in a dream, it was so unreal.
“You ready?” Stanton said.
“I was born ready,” I replied so cheesily that it was not thought possible. But it fit the moment perfectly.
I turned the key in the ignition and with a burst of speed, we started to move. Once we had driven for what seemed like an hour, Stanton told me to push on the brake. I listened immediately.
“Why are we stopping?” I asked.
“This is the spot where they think the cure might be.” He said, a silly grin starting to spread on his face.
Nothing else needed to be said, once again. We got out of the car, oxygen tanks in place so that we could breathe, and began to search. All of a sudden I came across a rock. But it didn’t look like a normal rock. I called Stanton over, nearly out of breath.
“I think I found it,” I whispered to him.
“No way, this is amazing. Do you realize that you could be holding the solution to one of the most deadly diseases in the world? This is crazy. Just crazy.”
“I know,” I began to turn the rock over and over in my hands. I was shaking like crazy. It seemed to be giving off a blue glow. Now that the information was starting to sink in, I also noticed that it was shaking, like something was tying to get out.
“We should get this to the lab immediately,” Stanton said all of a sudden.
“You’re right, let’s go,” I said, and hopped into the car with Stanton right behind me.
When we got back to the lab we placed the rock on the smooth white table. This was all happening so quickly that it was hard to believe.
“What do you think we should do with it?” I asked Stanton.
“I think the only thing that we can do is pry it open and see what comes out,” he said.
“Sounds like a plan.” I then walked to the cabinet and pulled out a hammer. “Here goes nothing, I said, and banged it down on the rock.
All of a sudden thousands, maybe even millions of bubbles flew out of the rock in every direction imaginable! It was as if it was a miracle!
“Grab the test tubes! Grab the test tubes!” Stan shouted, as he jumped for joy.
I sprinted over to another cabinet and snatched some test tubes and tossed some over to Stanton. The next few hours were spent jumping high, bending low, and snatching as many bubbles as we could. They shined brightly in the light from the windows, and seemed to sparkle as if with happiness. It was a mass of excitement and bubbles. Finally, the last one had been caught, and we collapsed on the floor with tons and tons of test tubes surrounding us. We grinned widely at each other, and then called the mayor. He had wanted to be alerted of our findings as soon as possible, so that if we did find a cure, they could test it, and start handing it out right away.

5 months later

“Thank you all for coming here today to celebrate this amazing find. I don’t want to make this speech too long, but it was just a miracle that has happened. I would like to congratulate Tyler Smingle and Stanton Metrone on their find for a cure for AIDS. AIDS has been threatening the world for long enough, and it’s about time we’ve been able to cure it. On behalf of this country, and the entire world, I, Fred Frannet I, president of the United States of America, award these two medals of Honor to two amazing men.”


I sat in the front row watching my little brother get his medal of honor from the President of the United States. Yes, that’s right, the President. Thirty years old, and he’s already got this amazing accomplishment under his belt. And here I am, 38, and not even married yet, sitting here, watching it all happen. I didn’t even know it happened until I saw it on the news. We don’t talk at all any more. It’s sad. It really is. But I’m jealous, you know? I wish it could have been me up on that stage with the president. Maybe if I hadn’t laughed at him when he was eight, it could have been me. But no, I’m here, just watching. I should be nicer to him. I really should be. Maybe I’ll try…Haha, yeah right, not until they build a bridge to the moon.