THE SAND PROBLEM

By R.B.

It was 10:30 p.m. on a chilly night, and there was a sand problem at Grandview Elementary School. The problem was that the sand in the schoolyard was rumbling, and it was sucking items down into the ground. Rob, Daisy and Conner were members of a group that solved problems at night. So, they went to see what was happening.

“Okay, we’re here,” said Rob. “I got the stuff we need.”

“Let’s go see the problem,” said Conner.

Daisy asked where the sand was, and Rob looked around to find it. “It’s... right there,” he said.

“Soooo how are we going to do this?” asked Conner.

Daisy went to pick up an item that was lying on the ground. “Oops—it disappeared,” she said.

“Where did it go?” asked Conner.

“It got sucked into the sand,” said Daisy.

Conner pointed to a sewer hole on the other side of the playground.

“How do we get over there?” asked Rob. “We only have three planks of wood.”

“I think we should put a plank down to see how long it takes for it to sink,” said Conner.

The others agreed with the plan, so Conner put a plank down and started to count: “One, two, three, four, five...” At six, the plank disappeared. “Soooo, that’s not what I was expecting,” said Conner.

Now they only had two.

“How are we gonna move all this equipment to the sewer?” asked Rob.

“Can’t we just throw the stuff?” said Daisy. “Test our luck?”

“Hmmm. We should try it once. Let’s use the camera,” said Conner.

Whooosh—they threw the camera over. The plan didn’t work.

“I’m just going to put one plank down and carry absolutely everything,” said Rob.

“Go for it!” said Daisy and Conner. The new plan was a great success. “Yay, I did it!” shouted Rob. “Whoooo!”

Daisy and Conner gave out a clap and went to get the other plank. Rob had already climbed down into the sewer. “Heeelllllloooooo,” he called from underground.

Daisy and Conner followed his voice into the sewer. Right away, they all saw the problem. An evil fat rat was sitting a ways down the sewer, holding a button that turned sand into quicksand when he pushed it. All around the rat were buckets and buckets of stolen items that had been sucked down through the sand.

The rat had not seen them yet. He was laughing. “Rattataheeheeeheee... I have all I need to make the whole world into quicksand!” he said.

Rob whispered to the others: “We should grab him and throw him down the sewer pipe.”

“Okay,” said Conner.

They all ran at the rat, shouting, “Arrrr dar dar dar!”

Rob grabbed the rat by one arm and Conner grabbed the other. Daisy pushed him down. They were all shouting together as they captured the rat: “Whee... whooo... yay... yay... whoooo!”

They grabbed the button and turned it off. The sand problem was solved! Whoooooo!