Jeremy had invented a mini-submarine near Shasta Lake in California. He worked in his auto repair shop. He did all this in his spare time.
Jeremy had invited his wife Linda and daughter Alicia for its maiden run.
Jeremy was strongly built and Linda was slender. Both of them were of medium height. Their daughter was ten years old.
They accepted enthusiastically.
Alicia and Linda were full of exitement. So he took them to the lake where he used to do experimental trials of his mini-submarine.
“Afshin is out on the lake.” Jeremy said. “He is coming.”
Afshin was Jeremy’s assistant.
Jeremy pointed to a spot where the water surface was suddenly broken by the rising mini-submarine.
It was bright orange in color, it moved towards the dock and stopped. Afshin climbed out of the hatch, fastened the sub with the rope that Jeremy tossed to him. After that, he jumped out.
“Everything is working fine.” he said. “Sub is ready for ride.”
“Okay! all aboard.” Jeremy grinned.
Alicia and Linda climbed down the hatch and Jeremy followed. Afshin untied the sub. Jeremy closed the hatch, took his place of controls. Alicia and Linda sat behind him.
Through the large, rounded pane in front of them, they could see.
“Here we go!” Jeremy said.
He started diesel engine and drove out into the lake. When the sub was in the middle of the lake, he cut the engine and opened several valves to let the water get into the buoyancy tank.
“Now, we’ll take on the ballast in order to go downwards.” Jeremy said. Alicia and Linda watched excitedly. The water rose above the sub slowly and surrounded the whole compartment.
Jeremy kept his attention on a small indicator showing the amount of ballast left in the tank. He pressed a button and closed the valves. He switched on the electric motor and pushed the steering rod all the way forward.
The sub started descending. Initially, all of them could see through the water surrounding them. After that they could see fishes of different varieties with smiles on their faces.
“Now look!” Jeremy said and drove in circles. By driving the sub up and down he made a figure of eight. He switched on the headlight which shone very brightly and descended to bottom.
Here octopus could also be seen.
He pressed a button to start the pump that would empty the ballast tank for the sub to rise again. Unfortunately, the motor stopped and headlight switched off.
It was all silent darkness inside.
Alicia and Linda were frozen. They did not dare to move and it was terrible to get stuck at the bottom of the lake and that too without power.
Jeremy did not panic. He switched on a flashlight.
” We’ll fix it.” he said. “It seems to be short circuit somewhere.”
He checked on the main switch which also served as circuit breaker. It was alright. So he went down under the dashboard and directed his light on wires.
“Here’s a loose connection.” Jeremy said.
“Afshin! Give me a srew driver and a pair of pliers.” he added.
” Sure! sir.” Afshin said.
As Jeremy fixed the wire, they felt a slight impact. Alicia and Linda stared at each other uneasily.
He kept on working, then stood up to the switch on the main breaker. The headlight was on and electric motor started functioning.
Alicia and Linda had a sigh of relief.
“We will get some fresh air now.” Jeremy said.
He came back to his controls and brought the sub up.
“Yeh!” Alicia and Linda cried in unison.
Both of them thanked Jeremy and Afshin for such a wonderful trip of sub.
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