I’m in the earth moving business. I’ve got trucks with trailers and trucks that tip. I’ve got diggers and bulldozers. I’ve got dump trucks and loaders. But I’ve got a bit of a problem. I don’t have much earth to move.
On Saturday morning I got out my digger. I drove it around the side of our house and into the driveway. Wow! There was a big pile of dirt. It was in the middle of Mrs Mannaby’s driveway.
I had a funny feeling about that big pile of dirt. I felt that Mrs Mannaby might not want it in the middle of her driveway.
I had to hurry. I ran and banged on Mike’s door. “Bring your machines. We’ve got dirt at Mrs Mannaby’s.”
In next to no time, Mike and I were bulldozing roads. We were digging. We were dumping. We were trucking loads from one side of the big pile of dirt to the other.
Then Mrs Mannaby came out. I was right. She didn’t want dirt in her driveway. “That useless tip truck driver!” she yelled. “I told him to tip it in the garden!”
She said to Mike and me, “Does this driveway look like a garden to you?”
“No,” Mike said.
“Not at all,” I said.
She got out her phone and rang the driver.
She talked on the phone and kicked the dirt. She said, “I want the dirt in my garden. I don’t want it in my driveway.” She stopped and listened. Then she yelled, “But you have to come and fix it! It’s going to rain! There’ll be a terrible mess.”
She got off the phone and said to Mike and me, “He’s not coming.” Wow! We could play in the dirt forever. But then she said, “What’ll I do? I can’t move all this dirt before the rain starts. If it gets wet there’ll be mud, mud and more mud.”
That sounded good to me and Mike. But we could tell she was upset. “We’ll move it for you,” I said. After all, we were in the earth moving business.
It was a big offer. But she went on being upset. “You won’t be able to do it before the rain starts.”
“We’ll get help,” I said. We ran down the road.
“Come and help move Mrs Mannaby’s dirt pile,” I told Cassie.
“Come and help move Mrs Mannaby’s dirt pile,” Mike told Jason.
“No,” said Jason.
“Cassie’s coming,” I said. Jason went and got a shovel and a wheelbarrow. Mum came to help. Dad came to help. Two people from down the road came to help.
Mrs Mannaby smiled again. “We might get it done before the rain comes,” she said.
Mike and I hitched our machines together. We hitched the tip truck to the articulated truck. Then we hitched on the trailer. Then we hitched the dump truck to the trailer.
We filled up each truck. We used the digger and the bulldozer. People kept getting in our way.
“Watch out, you two,” said Dad.
“Out of my way,” said Jason.
Well! It was our idea in the first place.
“We have to change our equipment,” I said to Mike. “We have to move with the times.”
“Like how?” he asked. He doesn’t always have too many ideas.
“Get your skateboard,” I said. I got mine. I got rope. I got the washing basket. I put a big plastic bag inside it. I tied it onto the two skateboards. I made a handle.
“Cool!” said Mike. “It’s a basket cart.”
“No,” I said. “It’s an earth transporter.” See what I mean about Mike? He doesn’t always have too many ideas.
The dirt pile was getting smaller. We filled our earth transporter with dirt. We pulled it down the drive. We tipped the dirt onto the garden.
Jason tipped his wheelbarrow full of dirt out beside us. He laughed at our earth transporter. Cassie came with her bucket full of dirt. “What a great invention!” she said.
“I wish I’d thought of that.” She gave me a hug.
Jason looked sick.
Mrs Mannaby said, “Wonderful! Wonderful! We might get done before the rain comes.”
Dad said, “My son the inventor!” He patted my head.
Mum said, “I hope you wash that basket when you’ve finished with it.” Sometimes my mother just can’t see the big picture.
We worked. We dug the dirt. We filled the earth transporter. We pulled it. We tipped it. We got tired but we kept going.
The sky got darker. Some fat drops of rain fell. The dirt pile got smaller. The sky got darker still. We dug faster. We ran faster. We tipped faster. The sky got darker still. The dirt pile got smaller. Our shovels scraped on the driveway. More fat drops of rain fell.
“We’ve nearly finished,” said Mrs Mannaby.
Mike and I tipped our last load. The rain came down. It fell hard and fast.
“That’s okay,” said Mrs Mannaby. “It’ll wash the driveway clean.” She gave us hot drinks and apple cake.
Mike and I took our machinery home. “I wish we had a dirt pile of our own,” I said.
The next fine day, Mrs Mannaby knocked on our door. “Come with me,” she said.
She walked to the garden behind her house. “See that corner?” she said.
I saw it. It had good dirt in it. It would be the best place to use my earth moving machinery. “That’s for you and Mike,” she said. “I don’t need all this garden. I don’t need all this dirt.” She patted my head.
I gave her a huge hug. Then I ran and banged on Mike’s door. “Bring your machines. We’ve got dirt at Mrs Mannaby’s!”
‘The Earth Moving Business’ was first published by Random House New Zealand in Another 30 New Zealand Stories for Children in October 2002.