One day Tiger was going for a walk. While Tiger was walking he passed by Zebra’s place. Tiger wanted to say hello to Zebra and he knocked on her door. But there was no answer. He left a note on the door saying that he had stopped by. Then Tiger left and continued on his walk. After a while, Zebra came home and saw the note Tiger had put on her door.
Zebra used her phone to call Tiger and he answered. She said she had just seen his note. Tiger told her he had stopped by earlier but she wasn’t home. Zebra told Tiger that she had been working on a project. Tiger asked what it was, and Zebra said she would show him. She asked Tiger to come meet her at her place. Tiger said he could be there soon.
After a short while, Tiger came over and Zebra let him in. He asked her was her project was, and Zebra showed Tiger a drawing in her notebook. It was a drawing of a big machine. Tiger asked what it was, and Zebra said it was a tunnel digging machine. Tiger said that sounded wonderful. And Zebra told him that she had built it in the forest and was ready to try using it.
She asked Tiger if he wanted to come along, and he said yes. They got ready and then they left. Zebra took Tiger to a place in the forest. When they arrived at the place, Tiger could see a big machine. It looked like a big truck with lots of shovels on the front. Zebra opened the door to the tunnel digging machine and she went in.
Tiger followed her and sat in a seat next to her, then shut the door. Zebra pushed a bunch of buttons, and the machine turned on. Tiger looked out the window and could see the shovels starting to move very fast. Then Zebra pulled a handle and the machine turned and pointed down to the ground.
It started digging a tunnel directly down. Soon the machine had dug a deep tunnel very far down. Tiger asked Zebra how far she was going to dig. And Zebra said she wanted to see if she could dig all the way to the other side of the world. Tiger said that would be incredible. The machine kept digging, but after a while they heard a strange sound.
Zebra turned off the machine, and they listened carefully. Then they looked out the window and could see water was beginning to surround the machine. The digging machine must have turned somewhere and poked a hole into the ocean. Zebra pushed some buttons and the tunnel digging machine started moving backwards.
The digging machine went backwards all the way until it came out of the ground where Zebra and Tiger started. Zebra moved the machine a little distance away from the hole in the ground, and then she and Tiger stepped out. They looked down into the hole the machine had dug, which was now filled with water.
They could see some fish swimming in it. They wondered where the water was coming from. Zebra took out some equipment and handed it to Tiger. It was an air tank with a hose that allowed them to breathe underwater. They put on the equipment and jumped into the big hole filled with water.
They swam deep down into the tunnel, and finally it led them to an opening through a cave in the ocean. They swam up to the top of the ocean and saw a beach nearby. They swam to the beach and got out. Then they saw the forest behind the beach and they knew where they were.
They went back to the spot in the forest where the tunnel digging machine was next to the hole in the ground. Zebra didn’t want anybody to fall into the hole filled with water, so she put a big sign next to it. Then the sun was setting and it was time to go back. Zebra told Tiger that she would return the next day to try and dig another tunnel. Tiger said he would be happy to join her again.
Zebra said that would be nice. Then Tiger said goodbye and left. He went home and made some dinner. After dinner Tiger drew a picture of him and Zebra swimming through the deep tunnel in the ground. He wondered if the next day they would reach the other side of the world. Tiger got ready for bed, and he laid down and closed his eyes. He started to dream, and went to sleep, slowly slowly slowly.