During the 1850's my pet seal Andre and I were gazing out the window wondering about the great ocean. As we looked, I wondered if it would be possible if we could live in the ocean? Then we went straight to my workshop in the cellar and started designing some blue prints. I had to take much time and effort to do this because it had to last a lifetime and I didn't want to do it all for nothing. It was a tremendous secret and I didn't breathe a word to anyone in the house. It was like a Dr. Jeklyn and Mr. Hyde sort of thing. My folks were getting really curious because I would be in there half the day and they were beginning to think I was going crazy because I'd started isolating myself in our cellar. So I decided to put it off in the evenings, but every night after my parents would fall asleep I crept down into the cellar to work. I had a lot of patience and after about 9 months I was nearly half done.

Two years went by and thank god I was finally finished with my invention, a little submarine for just a few people. It was perfect and I was proud of myself. That night I couldn't sleep because I was so excited to see if it really worked. I thought of taking my girlfriends because they wanted to escape the hatred in our world and the war that was going to take place. The next morning I invited them over for tea and chatted until I had the guts to tell them what I had been up to. They were surprised and they really wanted to get away so we all started making plans and buying all the food and supplies we girls would need in our submarine.

Finally we were ready to take off and, along with Andre, we headed into the great ocean. My friend Kim was a little scared and she asked me, "Are you sure this thing works? No leaks or anything that we should be aware of?" I looked at her and just sighed because she is the type that likes to panic very easily.

The other three girls were: Sophie, the humorous one; Gail, the brave one; and Lolly, the good harpooner.

Nearly one hour had passed and we were all laughing away and trying not to show our fear when Lolly said, "I have some regrets about not bringing a man just in case something dreadful happens while we're out here." "Don't be foolish!" Gail raised her voice from across the room, "We can do this. We all have talent." Poor Kim started to cry, and as her lip hung down, she said miserably, "We shouldn't argue like this anymore. Something bad might happen while we make this incredible journey." Kim was also the superstitious type and believed that if a black cat crossed your path, you would have bad luck most of your life. Well no cats lived in the ocean, but she made up a lot of things just to scare us. We didn't bother to listen, though, and acted like nothing would happen.

Later that night we stopped by a coral reef and waited there until morning. It was so beautiful to look into the ocean without having to pop back up for air. We were all sleepy but the ocean amazed us so much we decided to stay up a little later and just gossip about anything that came up. It was funny because Gail, Sophie and Lolly were telling a lot of funny stories about stuff that happened to them. We also talked about the most embarrassing things that happened to us in public. Then we all crashed for the night.

In the morning we started up the engine and took off for the Japanese Sea because we wanted to see the ocean in a different place.

Later that day we felt a strong jerk. We were all surprised and thought that one of the girls was just playing around, but when Sophie looked out our large front window, she yelled, "There is a giant squid out there on the submarine!" We all looked out and started to panic and shout. Then we all looked at Lolly. Since she was the good harpooner, we went up to the deck to battle the squid. We were never so scared before in our lives! Lolly jumped out of the submarine with Gail and the rest of us behind her and we all fought this horrible beast that was holding onto our submarine. Lolly yelled, Throw me another harpoon! Quick, before this thing gets us!" Kim tumbled down into the submarine and threw the harpoon up to Sophie, then to me, and Gail threw it over to Lolly.

I remember being so freaked out that I hollered at the girls to hurry back down inside. Kim yelled, "Are you crazy? That thing will gobble us up!!" "Don't worry. I've thought of something better," I told them. So they followed me down. Then we shut the hatch tight and went to the front of the boat where the squid was located, and I told them about the electric shock system I put in while I was making the submarine. Sure enough when we pushed the button the squid let go and we dived into the deep sea. The others asked me how I had come up with this idea? I told them I thought that it might come in handy sometime and that next time we would be even better prepared for any other surprise like the squid.

A few days later we came upon some war ships and we got so frightened we cruised out of the place. We were also getting short on food so we went to Hawaii where we gathered lots of fruit to store in the submarine. After we'd gathered our fruit we heard people from this island talking in a weird language. Then they started running after us with spears and other weapons, and we all ran down to the boat and paddled toward the submarine. They swam after us really fast and we started to get into the sub. But Kim panicked and hollered at us to close the door. We told her to shut up and help us fight the creatures. We couldn't keep them off the boat, so we had to shock them like we did to the squid. That did it, and they all jumped into the water. It was pretty funny to see them do that.

As we traveled home to Alaska we came across more warships. We blew up some of them, good or bad, because we didn't like the feeling of them being around us. Along the way we let Andre go for a swim because he'd been in the submarine for too long. Sometimes he'd really be stinky if he didn't go swimming. Most of us liked Andre and we played with him a lot. Only Gail didn't like him.

When we got back to Alaska we traveled up the Yukon River. But the water was a little too shallow for us to go through, so we went back down the river and returned home. We were finally back after a long trip all over the oceans of the world where we saw a lot of different types of fish and other forms of sea life. It was the last big adventure trip of my whole life and the thing I most remember is the battle we had with the giant squid....

Lois Moore