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As Luke and Nora continued walking through the frigid snow tunnel, they eventually saw a light glowing from somewhere off in the distance.
They both looked at each other in shock.
This wasn't just a tunnel that they somehow accidentally dug when they were building the igloo in their backyard.
This was actually leading them somewhere.
And so they kept walking and walking, and when they got to the end of the tunnel...
It opened up into a windy, blizzardy, freezing cold place.
They thought it was cold in their backyard, but wherever this had brought them, it was way colder than anything they had ever felt before.
They almost couldn't even believe how cold it was, because it was the harshest, coldest wind they had ever felt before.
At first, they wandered around aimlessly, not knowing where they were or where they were going.
Until eventually, they turned around and realized that they were lost.
That's right.
They couldn't find their way back to the mouth of the cave they had come out from.
Both kids were starting to panic until Luke spoke up and said Okay, we're not gonna get out of here if we just act scared.
The only way we're ever gonna get back home is if we think this through.
And as he was talking, the wind suddenly started to die down.
And then they heard a strange sound they had never heard before.
And eventually, they saw what it was.
It was penguins!
Penguins!
That's right.
There was a whole colony of penguins that were walking toward them, until they gathered around Luke and Nora as if they were welcoming them as special guests from another world.
And then the penguins all started pointing with their beaks in one direction.
Luke and Nora had never seen penguins in the wild before, so they couldn't be totally sure, but...
It looked as if they were trying to tell them to go a certain way.
And then, all of a sudden, the penguins started walking in that direction.
Now again, Luke and Nora didn't know where they were or how to get back, so what else could they do?
They decided to follow along with the penguins wherever they were going.
And so they walked and walked along with the penguins until they saw what looked like a building off in the distance.
And as they got closer, eventually they heard a voice saying, Hey, who are you?
What are you kids doing here?
Nora spoke up and said, Uh, hello?
Hello, sir?
You'll have to forgive our confusion, but where are we?
We got lost out here in the snow and we can't find our way back to our cave.
And the man just looked at them with disbelief on his face.
Wait, so you mean to tell me you're not from one of the other explorations down here?
And Luke and Nora both just said, Huh?
I don't know what you mean, sir.
We're just lost.
We got here from a cave that was connected to a hole in our backyard, and we're just trying to get back.
Do you have any idea how we can get back to our cave?
Nora said.
And the man kept standing there with a look of disbelief on his face.
Wow, I'm honestly not sure what to tell you kids, and I have no idea how you got here.
The only way any of us got here was by boat or by plane.
And it was a long ride here for all of us.
And then Luke said, Sir, can you just tell us where we are?
Why, you're at the South Pole.
You know, Antarctica.
Nora and Luke looked at each other, now even more confused than the man was.
And the man said, yeah, I'm with the U.S.-Canada exploration team.
We've been down here doing a research project for the past three months.
Hey, where did you say you're from?
Do you live down here?
Why, no, Nora said.
We live in Michigan.
Michigan, the man said.
You mean in the U.S.?
?
Okay, I'd appreciate a little honesty here.
There's no reason to start telling me lies, kids.
But Nora and Luke weren't lying.
They were just as confused as the man was.
And they could tell he wasn't going to believe them, no matter what they said.
Well, you'd better come inside and warm up.
You're going to freeze soon if you stay out here.
So the three of them went inside the building and had some soup and hot cocoa.
And the next day the man helped them arrange for a long flight all the way back home, which was basically on the other side of the world.
And about a week later, the two kids finally arrived back home in Michigan.
And their parents ran to hug them at the airport.
In the car ride on the way home, they said, OK, kids, it's time to tell us the truth.
How on earth did you get down to Antarctica?
Now, be honest.
Hey, whatever happened, you can tell us the truth.
We want to hear it.
But Luke and Nora just told them the same thing that they told everybody, because it was the truth.
They found the tunnel in the basement of their igloo, and it led them right there.
And on the ride home, Luke cracked the car window open and felt that it was pretty warm outside.
In fact, by the time they got home, it had warmed up so much that all of the snow in their backyard had completely melted.
That's right.
The deep snow, the igloo with all of its rooms, including the basement, were all completely gone.
The mom said, Now tell me again, how did you get down to Antarctica from our backyard?
And Luke and Nora didn't know what to tell her because they'd been wondering the same thing ever since they ended up down there a week earlier.
And Luke and Nora looked around and then Luke said, Mom?
Dad?
Where did our igloo go?
And their dad said, It melted, just like all the other snow around here.
But where's the basement?
Our igloo had a basement in it, said Luke.
A basement?
What?
Wait, you mean you dug a hole in the ground to make a basement for your igloo?
How is that even possible?
And it was a very good question because the kids didn't even know how they did it.
They certainly didn't remember digging a basement in their igloo or building furniture or an ice loft or a tunnel that went to the South Pole.
All they knew was they had worked really hard and that whole day was kind of a blur in their memories.
And obviously, there was a basement.
How else would they have discovered the hole that led them to the South Pole?
But of course, all they could see was their soggy and wet backyard that looked as if nothing had ever been built back there.
And the kids both scratched their heads as they tried to find something, anything that resembled the hole they went through.
But there was nothing.
And that night, after dinner, Luke and Norah both lied awake in their beds, whispering, Hey, Norah!
You don't think, Luke began, that it's gone forever, Nora finished?
No.
And then Luke smiled in the dark.
Me neither.
And then Luke walked to his bedroom window and looked out at the backyard.
Outside, it was quiet and everything looked ordinary again.
But for just a moment...
Just a flicker he could have sworn.
He felt a cold wind brush against the glass as frost appeared around the edges of the window, but only for a moment.
And that's when he saw it.
At the edge of the trees, something small and black and white stepped forward.
Luke couldn't believe his eyes.
It was a penguin!
A real one, walking out of their woods in a place where no penguins had ever lived before.
There was only one place that that penguin could have come from.
It waddled out of the shadows and stopped right in the middle of the yard.
And then it slowly tilted its head upward and looked straight at Luke.
Not past him and not around him. but at him.
Their eyes met, and in that moment, Luke didn't feel scared.
He felt invited.
He could tell from the way the penguin was walking around that it wasn't lost at all.
It looked as if it had come looking for him and his sister.
So Luke went and grabbed Nora and together they ran downstairs and burst out of the back door as they ran up to the penguin, who stood still without flinching looking at both of them.
And Nora saw that the penguin was wearing something.
It looked like an envelope hanging around its neck.
So she opened the envelope and found a note inside that said If you're reading this, then it wasn't an accident.
But that's a story for another day.
