Nineteen Sixty

After dinner, Polly saw a black-and-white photograph on the wall. It showed two men in cloth caps. Behind them was a strange machine.

The men were Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. The date was January 23, 1960. The machine was called the Trieste. On that day, the two men went to the bottom of the deepest place on Earth.

Polly perched on a chair and looked at the photo. The Trieste had a small steel ball at the bottom. The walls of the ball were very thick.

Above the ball was a big tank. The tank was full of gasoline. Gasoline floats on seawater. This helped the machine float.

To go down, they let out some gasoline. To come back up, they dropped iron weights. That was the whole system. No engine. Just simple chemistry.

The trip down took almost five hours. On the way, one window cracked. The men heard a loud sound. They thought about going back. They did not.

At the bottom, the Trieste landed on soft pale mud. Walsh thought he saw a small fish there. Some scientists still wonder if it was a fish. They stayed only twenty minutes.

Then they began the long trip back up.

Fifty-two years passed before anyone went that deep again. In 2012, the film director James Cameron made the dive alone.

After Cameron came Victor Vescovo. He made the dive many times. Sometimes he brought other people.

Polly looked at the picture for a long time. The deepest place on Earth. Visited once, then left alone for half a century.

From the kitchen next door came the sound of washing dishes. The mess lamp was warm. The photograph hung on its nail, quietly, in the warm light.