It was a bright April morning, the sun was just christening over the horizon. Alfred wrenched himself out of bed for a long day of...nothing. It was Easter weekend and he was bored out of his mind. However, when he felt the sun on his face there was an unusual sense of opportunity and curiosity that struck him.
After eating breakfast he snuck into his neighbor, Ziegfred’s, backyard. It was a massive dump with all sorts of cool things scattered about the place.
“I want to build something, something REALLY cool.” He thought to himself.
Alfred began to rummage through all of the junk. Suddenly, something caught his attention; there was a large oil barrel sitting in the corner of the junk pile, an idea sparked in his mind.
“What if I built a submarine, I mean, I’ve always been afraid of the ocean but it’s worth a shot.” Alfred said to himself.
Alfred and his parents had gone sailing together when he was 5, a storm seemingly came out of nowhere; He was the only one that survived.
“Hey, what are you doing in my dump!” Ziegfred shouted from across the junk pile.
“Ummm, I was just looking around?” Replied Alfred nervously. “I found this cool looking oil tank, I thought it would make a really cool submarine.”
“First of all, this is no place for a kid to be lurking around. And do you have any idea what it would take to build a submarine; you’d need to get it certified, there would be hundreds of systems in place just to get the thing to move.” Ziegfred replied.
Alfred didn’t seem deterred by Ziegfred’s reply.
“Doesn’t matter how difficult it is. My mother once told me: ‘you’ll never have success if you don’t try.’
Ziegfred agreed that they could try but his doubts were high, they began construction immediately.
After 1 month they had begun to bond over the project and a friendship was growing. Every day was beautiful and sunny as they worked on the submarine.
“How long d’you reckon it’ll take to finish the sub?” Asked Alfred.
“I’d imagine we could finish the main systems in the sub within the sub in the next year but getting it seaworthy could take much longer.”
As Ziegfred had assumed it only took around 10 months to finish the main systems of the sub. However, Alfred had this thought in the back of his head.
“I haven’t been in the sea since I was 5. What am I going to do when it’s finished, I can’t tell Ziegfred I’m afraid of the ocean after coming this far.” He thought to himself.
He continued, though the fear remained prominent. As they drew closer to winter, the weather became worse and worse. Some days the weather was so bad to the point where every inch of the submarine had a thick coat of ice strangling its black shell.
Winter blew over in a few months, it was looking like there may only be 2-4 months of construction needed before it was seaworthy. They just had to finish installing the emergency drainage pump and gearbox for the engine, then it would be ready to set sail.
Alfred was 14 now, when they began construction he was only 12. At this point it was almost guaranteed that their hard work was going to pay off.
As predicted… it was a full 2 years after Alfred snuck into Ziegfred’s backyard. What used to be an old oil barrel was now a beautiful submarine, her shiny black hull was beaming in the sunlight, ready to tackle the seas!
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