Gershwin and the Pipes Between Adventures

Once upon a time, there was a little boy called Gershwin, and he was an adventurer. He’d been to lots of places: the desert, the jungle, the North Pole and under the water. He’d been everywhere. He’d even been to a city and stayed on a beach. He was always looking for the next adventure.

One day he was walking around the streets of his hometown when he saw a strange pipe he’d never seen before. It was green and big. He thought it was quite curious. Very soon a little rabbit jumped on top of the pipe, sniffed around and disappeared inside. Very confusing. Gershwin had never seen anything like that before, so he went to investigate.

He headed over and looked inside. He couldn’t see the rabbit, but it was very dark. He put his head a little further into the pipe and suddenly lost his balance. His legs fell over his head, just like Mario, and he was twisting, turning and falling down the pipe. He was screaming. He didn’t want to fall and didn’t know what would happen at the bottom, so he shouted for help.

All of a sudden there was a big flash. He felt a gust of wind behind him, pushing him further on. Before he knew it he could see light, and then he popped out of the pipe again. He didn’t fall and hurt himself. He just popped straight out and was standing on the grass, right near where the pipe had let him in.

He was happy to be back, but confused. He’d fallen down the pipe without actually falling anywhere: he was back where he started. He thought he’d go and find out where the next adventure would take him. But as he looked up, he noticed things weren’t quite what they used to be. In the distance were toadstools, big yellow blocks and bricks hanging in the air.

He thought he was back home, but then a toadstool started walking towards him. He’d never seen a toadstool walk. As it came closer, he realised it had eyes, a nose, a mouth and a rucksack. The little toadstool said, “Hello. I’m Toad.”

Gershwin was shocked. He’d never heard a toadstool talk before. “Hello, I’m Gershwin. I’m an adventurer.”

“Oh, me too. I’m an adventurer too,” said Toad. “I’m just looking for my friend Mario. Mario fell down one of the pipes, just like you, and I’ve no idea where he’s gone. Maybe you can come and join me on the hunt for him.”

“Oh, okay, that sounds good,” said Gershwin. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know. These tunnels lead pretty much anywhere you could possibly ask for. If you look here, there’s a little screen, and if you swipe, it’ll tell you where you can go.”

Gershwin flicked through the screen and saw all the places he’d been recently: the jungle, the desert, the submarine under the water, and the North Pole. Toad saw the North Pole and said, “There. I think that must be where Mario is. He likes the cold.” So off they went, jumping down the pipe.

Very soon they were at the North Pole again. They hunted everywhere, climbed up the icebergs and down to where the sea met the ice. Over a hill they saw loads of animals: polar bears, seals and penguins, all chatting to each other. The pipe had brought them back to the same animals from Gershwin’s earlier adventure.

Toad and Gershwin went down to talk to them. “Hello, Gershwin,” they said. “We’re so glad you came back to see us. Things have been amazing since you last left.”

“Oh, that’s great,” said Gershwin. “But can you help us? We’re looking for a friend of ours. He’s small, Italian, wears red and is called Mario.”

“Oh yes, we saw him. He went into that big green pipe over there.”

“Thank you. We’ll go chasing him down, then,” said Gershwin. He and Toad went back to the pipe, swiped through some more adventures and jumped inside. Very soon they were in a submarine.

They looked everywhere through the corridors, then went to the helm where the driver was. “Have you seen a little Italian called Mario anywhere?”

“Yes, he was here,” said the driver. “I think we dropped him off somewhere. He popped out of the hatch at the top, and then the strangest thing ever: he just jumped into this big green pipe.”

“Thanks very much. Can you let us out, please?” The driver agreed to surface. When the submarine surfaced, Gershwin and Toad headed up through the hatch, and there it was, the green pipe. They scrolled through some more adventures and dived in.

Then they were in the middle of the desert, right near a tent surrounded by camels. Every pipe led into another adventure. There was even the idea of windows in the pipes so people could look out.

They asked the man with the camels, “Have you seen a little Italian guy wearing red?”

“No, I haven’t. Ask my friend over there with the four-by-four. He might know.”

They went over to the driver. “Have you seen a little Italian guy? His name’s Mario. He wears red, he’s very small and he jumps around a lot. He hits his head on things and drops mushrooms.”

“Oh yes, I’ve seen him. He asked me to take him to the other side of the desert. I wasn’t sure why, but we went near some water and there was a big green pipe. It was very funny. He just jumped in, and I never saw him again.”

“Can you take me and my friend Toad to that pipe?”

“Yes, jump on the four-by-four and we’ll go.” Then Toad asked, “Can I drive?” The man said yes. They jumped on and Toad grabbed the handlebars. The four-by-four raced off and jumped over the hills. Somehow Toad managed to make the whole four-by-four flip in the air. It went round and round twice.

Very soon Toad got them to the pipe. They jumped off, said goodbye, and the four-by-four drove into the distance. Before they left, Gershwin checked his pockets. His mobile phone was still there. He hadn’t lost it this time.

They hopped straight into the pipe, then realised they hadn’t picked where to go next. They were hanging inside it and couldn’t get out. They tried to climb, but there were no ladders, and they scrambled against the inside of the pipe. They hovered for a long, long time until Gershwin shouted, “Where will we go?”

Just as he said that, windows appeared all the way round the inside of the pipe. Gershwin could look through them and see all his adventures: the North Pole, the jungle, the sand, the submarine and the beach. So many places.

Then he saw Mario through one of the windows. “Toad, look! I found Mario!”

“Oh yes. Let’s go, let’s go!” They headed towards the window, tapped on it and opened it, but still couldn’t get through. It was very confusing. Then Gershwin remembered his backpack. He opened it and pulled out a big length of rope, special climbing gloves and a little harness to attach to Toad.

He attached Toad to him, put on the gloves and threw the rope through the window. It caught on something, and Gershwin pulled and pulled himself and Toad through the opening. They popped out onto the floor in a clatter.

“What are you doing?” they heard. “I’m just here in my spaceship, and here you are bothering me, climbing in through the window.”

“Mario, it’s me,” said Toad.

“Oh, hello, Toad. How are you doing? Mamma mia, it’s good to see you,” said Mario.

“I came looking for you, and Gershwin helped me. I don’t really know where we are, though.”

“Me neither. I’ve been travelling these lands for ages, and now I’m in space. I think I’m stuck in somebody else’s adventure.”

“Yes,” said Gershwin. “I think you’re stuck in my adventure. These are all the places I’ve been. In fact, let’s land the spaceship right there.”

Mario pointed the spaceship towards the planet Gershwin indicated. They shot off at high speed, did a little flip and landed. Up pulled Five Alarm, a big monster truck that looked like a fire engine.

“Hey, Gershwin,” said Five Alarm. “How are you doing? What are you doing back here in Monster Truck Land?”

“We were flying our spaceship. My friend Mario got a bit lost in my adventures, so I thought this was the best way to get him home.”

“Oh yes. You want me to take you to the portal?”

“Yes, please. That would be great.” Mario, Gershwin and Toad jumped into the back of Five Alarm, and he shot off at high speed. He went through loops and over jumps, then finally made a little jump and flew through a portal into Gershwin’s bedroom.

Gershwin took the Nintendo Switch from his drawer, turned it on and showed Mario the game. It was a game of Mario, but Mario was missing. “I think you need to get back in here. Then you’ll be back in your own adventure,” said Gershwin. There was a question about whether only people with cards could pass through the portal, but it was all right: Five Alarm had already brought them into the bedroom.

Gershwin pressed a lot of buttons on the Nintendo Switch. He couldn’t really see what he was pressing because the lights were off. Before he knew it, a big green pipe appeared beside the Switch.

Mario and Toad jumped in, and Gershwin saw them appear on the screen. They turned and waved. Mario jumped up, hit a question-mark block, ate a big mushroom, grew big and disappeared.

Gershwin thought, “Well, that was an interesting adventure. I’ll have to remember how to get into these pipes in the future and try more of them. But right now I’m tired, and I need to go to sleep.” He did just that: crawled into bed, closed his eyes and fell asleep, looking forward to his next adventure. The end.