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Leigh Neuage (July 6 1983 - August 16 2003) --

  Latest story >>>The Magic Mansion (http://neuage.org/MM/ Maggie and Mabel's Magic Mansion will take them wherever they wish to go. The house used for this story is a model made by my father-in-law after visiting our house in Round Lake, New York and upon return to Australia he built this model based on his memory of our house. The page for this house is at http://neuage.org/house/ As of October 2015 there are three chapters and an introduction to these adventures.

 

HOW I    YOUR MOM

 

remember quite clearly. Like it was yesterday. I tell my children, exactly the way it happened. I don't add and I don't subtract from the story.

I was 7 years old when I first started digging, It was going to be a small hole. I started ^'digging on a saturday.

11 day. By nighttime I was quite deep into the hole. My brother, Robert, , had to use a long rope just to help me out,

My dad asked me why I was digging such a big hole in the backyard. I told him that I was thinking of visiting China_*

I grew up in New York, Upstate New York, that is_* Most people think New York is allone big city. I lived in the country on a farm_*

On the other side of the world to New York is China. I figured if I dug a long enough hole through the center of the rth I would end up some day on the, other side of the world, ewhere in China.

The next day, after I had started digging my hole, was day. I couldn't dig on that day. My father was a minister, he didn't think we should work on sundayo I had to wait until monday. Soon enough, monday came along.

Lucky for me, it was summer holidays. Even luckier for

e, was the fact that there were no chores for me to

Usually in the summer I helped my brothers and father in the garden. To me, a 7 year olds^. the garden was half as big as the whole wide world_* I knew it didn't go to China though, brother said it didn't, he was older than me, he dlould know. The vegetables in the garden weren't to be picked yet, and there weren't any weeds, we got rid of them all the week before. There was nothing left for me to do but to dig.

My mom gave me a couple of sandwiches, an apple and cookies.

All day I dug. Deeper and deeper I went. I couldn't even see the sky anymore. I couldn't hear the birds overhead. All at was overhead was the top of my hole, which I couldn't see any longer anyway. I was hungry, so I sat down to have my lunch. I heard a noise next to where I wa s, digging .

Soon in the middle of my tunnel I saw a hole, a hole leading right into my tunnel. Out of the hole a rabbit popped his head.

"Goodday sir, " said the rabbit n "Where might you be headed?"

"I am headed for China," I said,. "My name is Terry and am from New York - Upstate New York that is, everyone thinks .anyone from New York is from New York City. I'm not, I'm from the country4" I looked at the rabbit, it was almost as large

as I was. I was the tallest kid in my class at school, but this rabbit was as tall as me, if not taller. It was looking at my lunch, I offered it a cookie.

"Tha,nkyou," said the rabbit, as it ate my cookie in one bite, then started staring at the rest of my lunch( .

*Oh no you don't," I said as I snatched my bag of food out he rabbits large paws.

don't know where you come from, but I've come all the way from the top of this hole, I've come from Upstate New York, and that is along, ways away. This is my lunch, and it is all I have to eat, until I get to China_* Besides, I might even like the food in China.

The large rabbit stared at me. It looked at me like I was from the moon* It told me that it was a. he, and that he was better known as the Easter Runny. He said that Easter wasn't for another 8 months and that he was having a sleep a few months, and that I had woken him up. He told_. me

How I met your mom

chocolate. I was confused, I thought it was my father who had dressed up in an Easter Bunny outfit last Easter m and had left

b;a: ket of chocolate and eggs_** The aster Bunny led me through the hole that he had come through. There were hundreds and hundreds of rabbits in a huge cave like room. They were all wrapping taster Eggs_* This surprised me, because I thought that only Father Christmas had helpers_*

While I was looking with amazement, at all the rabbits, the taster Bunny ate my lunch a I grabbed a few' ^Easter Eggs and went back to my hole and began to dig some more. I dug for a long time.

Just as I was going to sit\down for a rest, something landed in the hole next to me_* It was a two-way radio. I picked it up_* My mother was on the other end. She asked how

I was doing, and that it was dark up on the surface of the earth.

old her that I was getting cold, tired, and hungry, and that I wasn't in China yet. My mother dropped my sleeping bag into the hole, then some food, and some warm clothing. She also sent down my toothbrush, a wet wash cloth and a bar of soap. took a long time for it ante get to me. I was well past

the middle of the earth. I spoke to my father . He said I should lay down and get some sleep and continue digging in the morning. He figured I'd get to China sometime the next day.

.

That would be tuesday. My father wanted me back by friday so could help in the garden.

I told my parents and my brother about the EasterBunny, my parents didn't believe me, but my brother did. I lay down and went to sleep.

I don't know how long I slept. When I awoke I made some breakfast. My mom had sent down a box of coral, a container of milk, and some fruit. I was anxious to continue my trip,

How I met your mom

After a lot of digging, I broke through the surface. It was good to see the sun again. I was surprised how far away China was. I was even more surprised when I stood up on the land. I had expected to see millions of Chinesse people riding around on bikes. Instead, I saw a highway with cars

on it. I didn't see any Chinesse people at all. The people looked very much like the people in Upstate New York. I was

in all open field_t but; I could see the highway. I stood up and

started to walk around to find where I could get soma Chinese food.

Suddenly, I saw something bigger than me hop over to where I was standing. At first I thought that it was the Easter Bunny, probably, looking for my lunch. It was the strangest animal that I had ever seen. Nothing like the animals in Upstate New York. I asked it, if it was a giant rabbit and was this China.

The funny looking animal looked at me and laughed some more. Soon it hoped away. A few moments later I turned

around, and in back of me there was a whole lot of really

strange looking animals staring at me. I asked them if this

was China? They all laughed and laughed, and began to roll around on the ground - laughing more_° I didn't know what was so funny₀ so I went right up to the strangest looking animal of them all, and asked whether this was China or not,

and to tell me what kind of animal it was.

The strange looking creature looked up at me_l and in between laughs said, 'I'm sorry sir, I'm a platypus and this is not China_t this is Australia, that my friend, is a kangaroo,

that is a wallaby, that is a wombat, a koala, a numbat, and that little one is a Yellow-bellied=' Sheath-railed Bat. I think you are lost, sir."

Indeed I was. I thought of jumping right back into the

up in China. It is so diffioult to' keep track of where one is at, when they are in the middle of the earth.

I looked up, a young girl, my age, was looking at me. She was the first human that I had met since leaving Upstate New York. She and I became friends. She showed me wound Australia. I learned about all the strange animals that lived

in Australia. I showed her the hole I had dug. She promised

to come and visit me when she grew up. She d idn't think

her parents would let her visit, all the way to Upstate New

York until then.

25 years later_. she did just that.. She             Embed into the

. loo a that I had dug and slid all the way          ough, and came to visit me in New York.

. W, had. a long talk. -We                  have two boys and raise

theni in Australia. We. went back                                  the hole and stopped to .visit the Easter Bunny-along the way.

. I could see the way the tunnel had turned. If it had

one streight, I would have gone to China.       didn't, and

I'm glad that it didn't, because if it had, I would never
iihaVeimet your mom and had two wonderful Ohildren with her.

Someday VIA .going to take my children out to the bush

and show tW1041where the hole to New' York is and we'll all

,   .     .

de down it 6nd visit my mom and dad and my children's grandmother and grandfather in Upstate NewYork₉ and we'll see my brother, and my children's Uncle Robert, who by the way, doesn't live in Upstate New York, but lives in New York City.