Hollow Earth

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” This quote was said by James Joyce, an Irish poet, and to me I believe the same. If you don’t make mistakes in life, how are you going to know any different?

It was a sunny Thursday afternoon and I decided to take a hike on a nearby trail. I had just got done eating a cheese sandwich made with American cheese and fresh, soft, white bread. I normally wouldn’t eat just cheese on a sandwich however I had no time to waste; I wanted to start my little adventure!  I began to walk outside. Reaching for the door handle, then my friend Dakota jumped up in the window scaring the living daylights out of me! We laughed about it soon after then I let him in on my adventure.

“I’m gonna take a hike today!” I said with a lot of excitement in my voice.

“Oh Really?” Dakota said with a surprised look on his face “I was about to ask you if you wanted to do the same thing!”.

Then I replied with speed “We don’t have to walk, how bout we take our bikes!”

“Great idea Chris!” replied Dakota.

    Soon after our agreement we walked out to the shed to get out our bikes. I reached towards the old rusty lock and jammed the key into the hole. After a little struggle with the lock it popped right open! Cobwebs stretched and ripped apart as the dry rotted door creaked open.

There in the corner sat our bikes. Dakota threw them out into the yard as I hunted for a tire pump. I found the tire pump however it was in a hard to reach area. With a leap I jumped up and reach for the tire pump, not succeeding in grabbing it. Well what goes up must come down; I came crashing down into the floor causing the loudest cracking sound possible. When I stood up I realized I was surprisingly okay! If I was okay, then what was the crack? About the time Dakota walked over to me to see If I was okay the floor of the shed gave away sending us and everything inside of the shed falling! All of the sudden we crashed to the ground. We had no idea what had just happened; however we knew our adventure had just began!

“Where are we!” yelled Dakota.

    “I have no idea!” I shouted back.

    Once the dust cleared we got a better look of the place. It kind of looked like the remanence of an old mine shaft. With great excitement and a little bit of fear we were ready to find out what this place was! In the pile of debris sat  my two seater go kart, as well as a half spilled can of gas. Dakota and I pulled it out of the pile and began to put gas in the tank. There was a little oil leaking from the motor , despite that it fired up first pull and we were off!

    We drove for an estimated three miles! It seemed as if these tunnels would never end.

When off in the distance Dakota said he saw something run across the path!

    “What was that!?” I said quickly.

    “It looked like people!” Shouted Dakota.

    Then about that time a human like creature jumped at Dakota tackling him to the ground!

However He quickly reversed it and was on top of whatever it was holding it down.

I jumped out of the go kart to investigate. To our surprise it spoke to us.

    “We mean no harm!” Shouted the creature squeamishly.

“What are you?” I asked

In reply it said “I am you!” .

    This creature had my mind in a scramble as I played out scenarios of how he could have got down here. Or what he meant by “I am you!” ? There was no way this thing was me but as I observed closely I began to notice similar traits. He was not “me” however he was one of us!