Near the top of the mountain, the driver stopped and pulled open the giant doors. Ms. Clarke led the children out. Ashif, dressed in his snowsuit and mukluks, jumped out of the bus and landed firmly on the ice like an astronaut on the moon.

“Over here, people,” Ms. Clarke called, hugging a stack of notebooks to her chest.

Ashif stood apart from the cluster of kids and gazed up at the mountain. He felt tiny, as if he wasn’t even an inch tall.

“Okay! Here’s your assignment.” Ms. Clarke passed out a notebook to everyone. “I want you to imagine that you are scientists here to understand and explore this glacier. Your job is to record what you see and report back.” She then waved them away. “Okay, off you go. But stay where I can see you, people.”

The children scattered across the ice, some in pairs, others in groups, a few, like Ashif, on their own. Small, colourful dots scurrying across a giant field of white.

Ashif trekked across the ice sheet, slowly and carefully, not because he was afraid. He was in awe. All he could see was snow and ice, the entire earth was pure white. He twirled around for a full view, then again. And again. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, his arms stretched out, round and round, until he fell to his knees, laughing and dizzy.

He lay down on the glacier. Pressed his ear to it. He listened, like a doctor, for a heartbeat. He heard the sound of water gushing below him. An ocean! He lifted himself off the ice. Absolute silence and stillness. He dropped his head down again—gushing water. He couldn’t believe it. Underneath the silence of the ice, there was another world. He was overcome by the thought. He scanned the surface of the ice for a crack and when he found one, he crawled over on his belly.

He cupped his hands around his face and peered in. In the thin blue light, he could see caves of ice carved into beautiful and strange shapes. Light bounced off their glassy walls and refracted into thousands of rainbows. Below him, a green pool like a mirror. He threw off a mitten and stretched his arm down, grazed his fingers over his watery self. This made him laugh so much, he cried.

“Time to go, Ashif.”

He gazed up from the ice to see Ms. Clarke with a halo of sunshine around her.

He stood up reluctantly. “But we only just got here.”

“We’ve been here for over an hour.”

“Really?” It had felt like minutes.

“What were you doing?” Ms. Clarke asked.

“Listening to the ice!” he told her excitedly.

“That’s so lovely. What did it tell you?”

“So many things.” He went on to tell her about the magical world underneath.

“That’s beautiful, Ashif. No one’s reported that before,” she said, her smile as warm as the sun. “Make sure you put it in your journal, okay?”