The Adventures of Mac and Jack (A Story for Liam)

The Adventures of Mac and Jack

By: Kay Olds

Hey! Can I tell you something? My name is Mac.
I am seven years old and I am in second grade.
I have a dog, a Jack Russell Terrier, named Jack.
He follows me everywhere and he is a very loyal friend. We play in my room, pretending that we are riding in space ships, sailing the high seas, or flying in jets. We do it all! And we are not afraid of anything when we are together. We are just so cool when we play, and he always seems to know what game I am playing and knows what it is he is supposed to do. Every kid needs a dog like him. I have this really cool bike, and I was riding it on our street one day. Jack is pretty cool about not running off, so I let him go with me. We always go the same route, down one block to the first stop sign, turn left onto the next block, left again at the next stop sign, another left, then another, and half a block down, and we’re back home again. No big deal. Jack knows the route well, sometimes going ahead of me to check things out. On this particular day, he and I left the house early, but instead of going the same way as usual we went to the left, to the short end of the street, having to turn right at the stop signs. Funny the things you notice when you go in the opposite direction.
I had never noticed the deep hole off in the tall grass on the other side of the road. Nor had I noticed the really strange looking mailbox at the house two doors down from our house. Instead of being on a post like all the others, this one was built solid from the ground up, sort of looking like a rectangle. I rode by it without a second glance, but for some reason, Jack stopped to check it out. I called to him to come to me, but he was really checking out that mailbox!
“P’sst!” Jack stopped sniffing and backed up, too surprised to even bark! Cold shivers went down my spine and Jack’s hair stood on end! Freaky!
“P’sst!” Louder this time! And I thought I saw the eyes move! Nah! Couldn’t be! “My mind is playing tricks on me,” I said to Jack. He responded with an all knowing “Woof!” letting me know that he understood completely what was happening.
My blood froze when it suddenly said, “Hey kid! Can I tell you something?” That’s what I always say! This had to be a joke right? I mean my Dad was always playing jokes on me; always trying to scare me. And he usually did a good job of it.
I wasn’t feeling too brave at that moment, but my feet wouldn’t move. My heart was pounding! I was thinking, “It’s only four steps to your bike!” but they wouldn’t budge. Jack found the nerve to go over to sniff the mailbox again and that’s when I just about jumped out of my own skin! Yes!!! The mailbox talked!!! It said, “Hey kid! Your dog is tickling my toes. Can you make it stop?” Whoa!
Somehow I found the courage to call Jack over and this time he listened. In fact, he got behind me, big brave dog that HE is! Oh yeah! Brave!!!
I asked the mailbox what it wanted from me and it said that it was not a mailbox, but in fact it was a new robot. It was the new special model R7342X, designed to play with children, and it was delivered to the wrong address. The man across the street wasn’t married and had no children, so he didn’t know what it was. He just thought it was the new mailbox he had ordered, so he opened it and thought it looked so cool that he decided to keep it and set it out by the curb in front of his house.
The robot was painted in a patriotic way; the head being white, the shirt and arms white with red stripes, and the legs blue with white stars. It really did look like a mailbox, sort of like the ones around towns and cities where people mail letters, only much cooler looking than that!
As Mac began to ride away on his bike, Jack gave the mailbox one last parting sniff, but to Jack’s surprise, it took a step towards them. Jack ran beside Mac’s bike, barking to tell him of this, and when Mac turned to see what Jack was barking at, of course there was nothing to see!
They began again, but it stepped towards them and Jack lost it again. Mac pedaled faster and Jack barked louder and the mailbox moved faster. Mac realized that the mailbox was now following them and he rode that bike as though his very life depended upon it, with Jack right behind him.
He looked back to see if the mailbox was getting too close, and he veered off the road and flipped off of his bike. Jack was right there to lick him from head to toe, (I know! Dog germs! Yuck!), and to assure him that he was there to protect him, come what may! He was trying to get up when the mailbox appeared and offered him its “hand”. As Mac took its hand, the mailbox pulled him into the hole and they went spiraling down with Jack fast behind them! They went past the roots of the grass, down past the earthworms and bugs. Just before they hit the bedrock layer, they stopped in Mole Town. This was a very dark town, as moles can’t see and don’t need light. Mac always had his flashlight handy, but when he hit that hole with his bike, the flashlight fell on the side of the road. So it was mailbox to the rescue. It had the perfect light and shined it all around so Mac and Jack could see their surroundings.
Moles were everywhere! All scurrying about, not seeming to know what they were doing or where they were going, but it seemed to be important to them. What a hustle and bustle of merry moles.
Once the moles discovered the intruders, the moles were not happy about it! How dare these creatures invade their town?!
Miles was the mayor of Mole Town and Max Mole ran quickly to inform him of the terrible intruders. Mayor Miles was not upset about it and wondered what was so terrible. “Do they eat dirt?” asked the mayor.
“Why, I’m not sure, your honor,” answered Max.
“Have they taken any dirt?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t believe they have, sir,” said Max.
The mayor thought about this for all of two seconds, then told Max that the visitors were welcome to stay, at least for awhile, anyway.
Max hurried away, eager to alert the other moles of the impending danger of unexpected guests. How could they allow intruders to stay? What would they eat? Where would they sleep? How would they work? Would they bring others? Oh, my, so many questions, and no one had any answers.
Millie Mole suggested they call a town meeting so Max ran back to inform the mayor, and at 6:00 P.M. sharp, all of the Mole Town clan arrived and
Mayor Miles called the meeting to order. He quickly explained that there were three visitors in Mole Town today, and he expected every mole to make them feel welcome.
Miss Marnie Mole said, “Well, I shall invite them to tea!”
“Yes! Yes!” said Miss Minnie Mole, “I shall bring over some of my delicious pies.”
“I will bring a batch of my fresh baked cookies,” quipped Millie Mole.
Mr. Manuel Mole added that he would make his famous Mole-wiches.
Maybe Mrs. Melba Mole could make her magnificent Melba’s Delight, a Mole Town favorite!
“Wonderful!” shouted Mayor Miles. “Thank you all for making our visitors feel so welcome here.” He felt a great sense of pride in his fellow Moles-men. But Max didn’t see it that way. He quickly tunneled down to Mitch Mole’s place. He told him and Matt Mole what he feared would happen to their town because these intruders dropped in on them. “Why, they’ll bring others with them,” he said, “and before you know it, Mole Town won’t be able to hold everyone!”
“Yeah,” said Mitch, “They’ll take all of our dirt! I’ve seen it happen all too often.”
Old man Murray Mole was propped in his chair, and he quietly said, “We have no choice. We have to get rid of them! They all agreed and without letting the mayor know about it, they called a meeting of their own.
So many moles showed up the ground began to bulge a bit. Old man Mutt Mole fell off of his little chair, creating a series of laughter and mumbling before everyone settled down and got serious.
A few of the moles didn’t see a problem with the intruders so they began the meeting by voting for them to stay. Some of the older moles, especially Major Martin, who was highly respected, said they were not certain why the intruders had come to Mole Town, so they also voted to let them stay, at least temporarily.
The younger moles, some of whom could be quite temperamental, opted to toss them out.
In the meantime, Mac and the mailbox were trying their best to find their way out of Mole Town. There wasn’t much air for them to breathe, and Jack was panting so much, he was using up more oxygen than they could spare. Mac sat beside his beloved pup and began to talk gently to reassure him that everything would be alright. Soon he calmed down and was breathing normally once again. He trusted his boy with his life.
It was obvious to the three of them that they could not leave by way of the mole tunnels, which were too small in every way, even for the beloved pup.
Jack tried to dig his way out, but he only made the problem worse. The deeper he dug, the narrower, the tunnels became.
For awhile, the mailbox did its best to dig new tunnels, but this only made the tunnels collapse on top of it. What in the world were they going to do?
Feeling frightened for the first time, Mac shook his head sadly and said, “We’re never getting out of here, are we?” He thought of his Mom and Dad and all of the people in his life he loved so much. He knew they would look for him and Jack, but they would never think to look in the ground! “Yes,” he thought sadly, “We are doomed. No one will ever find us here!”
The mailbox had an idea. If it could get all of the moles to come together, maybe they could help to dig them out. At the very least, maybe they could find a way to send some air down to Mac and Jack. Mailbox sounded an alarm, very shrill and very loud, and it made moles come rushing from every direction.
Pies fell to the floor! Cookies flew into the air and broke as they hit the floor. Mole-wiches were smashed in a mole stampede. And you don’t even want to know what happened to Mrs. Melba’s delight!
Mayor Miles was yelling for everyone to come to order at once, but no one was listening. All they could think about was to follow the alarm. It must be something very important.
As the moles rushed towards the alarm, the tunnels began to collapse and it pushed the dirt upwards. At first it seemed that Mac and the mailbox and Jack would all be buried alive. Mailbox used every tool on its body to try to save them, but the weight of the dirt was crushing its body and it could not move its arms. Surely this would be the end of all of them, and no one would ever find them or know what happened. How sad.
But then more moles showed up. Old man Murray, Max, Matt and Mitch ran through the last of the tunnels and were able to reach Mac, Mailbox and Jack seconds before it collapsed. They began to push so hard that they were shoving the intruders upwards and out of their town.
Mac was the first to reach the top and he reached in and pulled Jack to safety. With both of them gone, Mailbox had more room to move so it was able to turn itself towards the top and with the help of four strong moles, it was able to get to the edge of the hole. Mac and Jack gave it a hand, but you know what? Just as they were about to get mailbox out of the hole, the ground below them gave way and they were once again plunging into a dark bottomless pit! They couldn’t see a thing, but Mac thought he heard something. He screamed for the others to be quiet. From somewhere in the darkness he could hear a familiar voice. Soft and soothing and so familiar to him, he felt like help was near.
He listened as the voice gently urged him to get up.
“Mailbox? Is that you?” asked Mac.
His Mom laughed and said, “Liam! Who are you calling a mailbox?!” Mac looked around and saw the beautiful walls of his bedroom and his Mother was smiling down at him. His little dog, Molly, jumped up on the bed and began licking his face.
“What the….?!” Asked Liam, trying to figure out what had just happened. He looked up at Molly and asked “Where is mailbox?” But Molly just happily licked his face and had no clue what he was talking about. Slowly he sat up in bed and realized that He, Liam McCloy, was safe in his own bed. He had been dreaming. His trip to Mole Town was all a dream. He wasn’t Mac McCloy! There was no mailbox; no robot model R7342X. No hole on the side of the road. Only home and his regular neighborhood on his regular street, in his wonderful regular town!
He quickly got out of bed, got dressed for school, ate his breakfast, and brushed his teeth. He grabbed his school bag and headed out the door, giving Molly a great big loving hug. She gave him a great big slurp to the face!
As they were driving off, his Mom asked him if he had a good night’s sleep. He was about to answer, when they passed by the neighbor’s house, and there by the side of the road, stood a brand new mailbox. And it looked like the one in his dream. Weird! It couldn’t be! He looked again, and thought it looked exactly like the one in the dream. He looked at it again, and just as they turned onto the next road to the left, the mailbox turned its head slightly and he could have sworn he saw it wink at him! He took a deep breath, closed his eyes tightly saying, “It’s only a dream. It’s only a dream!” As he opened his eyes and looked again, the side panel of the mailbox was blinking and began to flash, “R-7-3-4-2-X” and once again, the mailbox winked at him as the car went out of sight!
“Yeah! It was all a dream!” thought Liam.Oooorrrr WAS it????!!!!!