Chapter 3 & 4

If you need to start from the beginning here are chapters 1 & 2

Martin the Martian

A pale faced, sunken eyed, tall, skinny boy, wearing baggy shorts and a faded Billabong t-shirt, was looking absolutely alarmed at the sight of Rose screaming.

“Rose, shut up!” said Cai sternly. “This is Martin.”

Rose stopped screaming.

“You know him?” Rose said, amazed, pointing at the boy.

“Please Rose, let him explain, you have to believe everything he say’s.” Cai pleaded.

Rose, dumbfounded, let out a sigh and she motioned with her hand as if to say ‘Very well, then.’

Cai smiled, and looked at the boy, who seemed to have been taken aback by all of this fuss, but anyway, he started talking in a shy, sad, and lonely voice.

“My name is Martin, and I am ten, Cai has said that you are Rose, and you are eleven?” He asked.

Rose had an intake of breath, and then nodded.

“You may think that I am lying about what I am about to say, but that is understandable, and I assure you that I am not lying, however much you may think so. I am an alien, who takes human form, and you are in my space ship, disguised as a human house, which crash-landed here ten years ago, three months after I was born, and I must get back to Charon, Pluto’s moon, and my home.

I have been trying to make this rocket fit to live in, and repair the thrusters ever since I was three, I need your help to get me back to Charon, back to my family, and you are the only people who come to this house, the only human’s who know me, and the only people I trust.”

Martin looked very scared, as if Rose and Cai were about to shout out

‘NO WAY ARE WE HELPING YOU!’

But they did not.

All that happened after that, well, Rose had adopted an

I-don’t-like-the-sound-of-that-and-I-can’t-believe-what-I-just-heard look,

And Cai was fiddling with his belt (he had already heard this information and was not surprised in the least.) and seemed expressionless.

All of a sudden, Rose said in a soft, whispered voice “We will help you Martin.”

Cai was startled; he had expected Rose to say, “Sorry Martin, but it would inter-fere with our school work.”

Seeing the look on Cai’s face, Rose said, “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be away from home for so long without any friends.”

Martin smiled, and for the first time since Rose had been here, he realised she was quite pretty; she had long strawberry-blonde hair, brilliant green eyes, long black eye-lashes, she was quite tall, and she had snowy white skin, that reminded him of an alien-tale about an ali-princess.

“So, um, how about we start tomorrow by cleaning up this dirty house?”

Martin said shyly.

“Great idea, we can get to know each other more!” Cai said cheerfully

“Yeah, well, um, er, see you tomorrow then, Martin!” said Rose kindly,

And then the two siblings walked home happily, awaiting the coming day.

The Clean up.

Rose and Cai slept peacefully that night, knowing that they had a friend, yes, the first friend they had had since moving to Maple street, which was three years ago, and the thought that they would no longer care about Billy and his friends bullying them, because they both knew now that they were not going to be so lonely.

And who knows, maybe having an alien friend could be awesome!

So, anyway, the two went to Martin’s house to clean up, as they said they would.

The night they met Martin, they told their Mother they had met a new friend, and were going to his house tomorrow, after school was finished, to find some old stuff for the school fair, which was coming up.

“What’s a fair?” Martin asked curiously.

“Oh you’d love it Martin!” said Rose excitedly. “There’s food, and games and toys, and rides-Hey! How about you come with us, were are going alone, as Mother has a dinner party, we could say you are a pen pal from-hmmmm, how about Queensland! Everyone would be so jealous, because Queensland is on the mainland, and Tasmania is where most people in our class have pen pals, and it’s where we live isn’t it?” Rose stopped for a breath, and Cai whispered to Martin, “Girls talk too much, don’t they?”

Martin laughed.

“Thanks for all these old fair things, Martin!” Rose said after she caught her breath.

“You are very welcome, think of it as an early reward for taking me to the fair.” Said Martin cheerfully.

After that, the siblings visited Martin every night, each time bringing him different luxury foods.

One night, Martin was nibbling on a triple choc-chip muffin, When Cai said “Excited about the fair tomorrow night, Martin?”

“Very, we never have fair’s on Charon.” Said Martin eagerly.

“We will want to be sure we get some fairy-floss too.” Cai said, and he saw the puzzled look on Martin’s face, he added “Oh, it’s a really nice food that looks like a cloud, but it tastes like candy, and you can get it in blue, pink or yellow.”

“Neat! I’ll get blue!” Martin exclaimed excitedly.

They finished cleaning out the room that Martin chose to be his bedroom, and Martin even said that, once the house was fully cleaned and fit to live in, they could both choose a room of their very own, as the house had five bathrooms, three kitchens, two drawing rooms, two sitting rooms, and five small bedrooms. (each bedroom had one bed, one set of draws, and a

Walk-in wardrobe)

After that, Cai and Rose walked home, and rested for the following day.