A Short Childrens' Adventure

It was a fine warm April morning. Timmy and Danny the two school friends had stopped with their bikes to watch what seemed like a suspicious set of events. They could see the Range Rover that had stopped on the stone bridge. Two men, one shorter than the other, were busy unloading a large metal box. The men looked around them, as they proceeded to put the box close to the side. The shorter man, attached an aerial to the side of the bridge, while his colleague was talking on his mobile, presumably giving or receiving instructions. Both men were dressed in blue overalls. Near the bridge there was a group of men working in the fields.

“Wow,” Timmy the younger boy whispered, careful not to be heard. “What do you think they are doing Danny? Are they going to blow up the bridge?”

“You’re letting your imagination run away with you Timmy, it’s more likely to be a transmitter, and I bet they are from the Satellite Tracking Centre. The European Space Agency has established a base not far from here. They are probably bouncing a signal via a satellite to their dish at the tracking station.” Danny was a sagacious contemplative boy who wore glasses, and was interested in space flight. Being a year older than Timmy, he knew about satellites and things, whereas Timmy was a tubby little boy dreaming of spies and adventures.

The men finished their work on the bridge and after checking out their equipment they drove off heading for the neighbouring village.

“Come on, let’s go, and take a look,” Danny said, curious to see what kind of device they had left behind. The boys rode up the bridge, and Danny, seeing the flashing lights and digital read outs with MHz, and GHz and an aerial, decided that the box was indeed some sort of transmitter.

“They may be spies and they may be trying to jam the satellite signals from the Tracking Centre,” Timmy said a little concerned. He didn’t like the look of the two men. “It is close to lunchtime, we ought to go back home; we can come back after lunch, and see if the men have returned.”

The boys were back at the bridge by three in the afternoon, but by now, the box was gone. “We should have stayed,” Danny said. “Now we’ll never know what happened.” And then, just as they turned to leave somewhat disappointed, they heard the noise of a car. It was the same Range Rover that stopped once more on the bridge. This time, the men got out frantically looking around. The box had disappeared but the aerial was still there. “I told you that we should have stayed here till the job was done,” said the tall man.

“Nonsense,” said the other. “A military looking box with flashing lights is usually left alone by passers-by. There has to be a simple explanation! Let's ask those men looking our way, over by the field. They must have seen something."

“The box by itself, the hardware, has little value to ordinary individuals, unless they are interested in satellites so that leaves the possibility of foul play." The men had also seen the two school friends, and called them over but the boys had no useful information. By now, two men from the field had come over.

“Not long after you left, said one of the men, a military truck came, and two soldiers got out. they took the box and drove away.” The farm worker spoke with a foreign accent.

“That explains it,” said the shorter man. A vehicle on patrol must have come by, and seeing no one here, decided to take the box for security reasons. By now they’ll be checking on all the local military and official installations to find the owners so everything will be alright.”

“Let’s hope you are right,” said his companion who had his doubts about what the farm hand had told them, but he got on to his mobile and passed the information about a military vehicle to his superiors.

It did not take long before two police cars with lights flashing and making a lot of noise, came screeching to a halt on both sides of the bridge. After telling them all that they had seen, the boys were allowed to go home. By now, the story was breaking, and the local newspaper reporter was quick on the scene. The village had been transformed into a small media centre with plain-clothes detectives and officers from the special branch of the military police interrogating people. While it might have been difficult for the two men who had installed the box, it was pretty exciting stuff for the boys who found themselves in the middle of such an important event.
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Inspite of the thorough search, the box was not found, and finally the villagers returned to their normal activities. Three months later in July, the two friends were happy playing and riding their bikes over the country lanes and down to the river where they had not forgotten the unsolved mystery of the missing box. The waters under the bridge were now low and the boys would leave their bikes by the bank and hop across over the large stones and onto the other side watching the small fish in the puddles of water.

One afternoon, while they were playing by the river, Timmy shouted as he hit his foot on a piece of metal. It was the missing box.

“Hey Danny,” he called to his friend, “look at this!”

Danny came over. “Wow, it is the missing box! ”

“How do you think it got here?” Timmy asked his friend.

“I have wondered for a long time about the box. I think that the farm workers took the box and hid it. Seeing all the police activity they were frightened and dumped it in the river. There was no military vehicle, and there were no spies.”

“But the police checked the river!”

“Yes they did, but the workers dumped it afterwards. The temporary workers were foreign and they went back home after the season was over!”

A Short Childrens' Story

The fourth form were going to the Welsh mountains on a field trip. They were going to an area of Snowdonia that included disused gold mines and ruins of an old castle. The kids were hurrying to get the best seats on the coach, and pairing off with their friends for the journey. Ben had his eye on Mona, and  spoke to her hesitantly.

 “Can I sit next to you Mona?

“Sorry Ben, Mike asked me to keep the seat for him.” Mike was every girl’s favourite, tall and handsome and the captain of the football team. Ben took the seat behind  and resigned himself to the two, talking and laughing.

"We're  going to look for gold!" He heard Mike say. "We'll leave the others behind."

“You really think that there's  gold there?” Mona didn't sound convinced.

“My dad says,  people still go there hoping to find the odd nugget. Who knows? I feel lucky today.

When they got to the hills, Mr. Jenkins their teacher, led them up to the top, explaining the history of the castle ruins and the mines. Most children were kept busy with so much to see and explore. Meanwhile, Mike and Mona had slipped away, gone to explore the caves on their own.

“Let's try this one. The entrance is well hidden,  no one will see us.”

"I don't know if it's such a good idea," Mona said, having second thoughts about going into such a dark place. She thought of the creepy crawlies that might be hiding inside. "Maybe we should join the others. This place is weird. We won’t find anything worth having other than empty cans."

"Nah, let's just go behind the boulders and see what it's like. I'm a big boy, I can look after you." It wasn't only the gold that interested him. She went along reluctantly and they slowly advanced till the passage became narrower.

"That's far enough," Mona said and as she spoke, she heard  a slow rambling noise which frightened her. "Please, let's get out of here before it’s too late," she pleaded.

Mike had started inspecting the surface of the walls with his torch. The idea of finding a shiny peace of rock excited him and he took no notice of Mona.

“You’re not listening to me, I’ll never talk to you again after this. Please God that we come out of it unharmed.”The noise and rumbling that she'd heard before had moved closer and the passage became very dark.

"All right, all right, I made a mistake you don’t have to go on about it,” There was now little light from the entrance, and he turned to go back. The rumbling became louder. To their horror, they saw the rocks falling and the entrance closed up. In their effort to get out, Mona tripped and hurt her foot. More stones came tumbling down till there was hardly any light coming in.

“Oh my God, we'll be buried alive," Mona cried, unable to walk fast. She hung on to Mike, gripping his arm for support. "We’ve got to get out before the rest of the tunnel collapses but I can’t go any faster," she cried.

"Calm down, we’ll be all right. Here, take my torch. Mr. Jenkins will soon come looking for us." Mike tried to reassure Mona.

“Well, if you think so, but how will he know where to look? We crept away from the others remember?” Mr. Jenkins had already missed them. The rest of the group had assembled as expected but Mike and Mona weren't  there.

“Where could they be, has anyone seen them?” Mr. Jenkins  asked.

"Please sir," Ben said, "I saw them earlier. They went into a mine entrance behind some rocks. I didn't want to say anything, not to get Mona into any trouble." The group descended to where Ben had seen them. Now, the entrance was closed. There was no time to lose. The whole group got to work shifting  stones. Their hands were bleeding.

When a gap was finally opened Ben saw the torch light that Mona was pointing towards the exit. He slid  through. Mike and Mona were overwhelmed with joy.

"Oh Ben, I’m so happy to see you! for a while I thought I’d never see any one again,” Mona cried with joy, as she embraced him and kissed him. Ben was now beside himself; here was the girl of his dreams with her hands around him! He savoured the moment.

“I couldn't let anything happen to you Mona,” Ben felt ten foot tall as he also glanced at Mike who had shrunk in stature. The three of them crawled out, happy to be with the others.

Mona changed seats for the return trip; Ben was now her new hero!