Outstanding Story - A Holiday In Mars

“A Holiday In Mars” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Kelly Fong, Chung Hua Middle School, K.B, Brunei Darussalam.

A Holiday in Mars

When my parents said that I was going to Mars for a holiday, I totally freaked out and hid inside my room, slamming the door. But after I had thought it over, I decided to give it a shot as I was very lucky to be going there. I packed everything I needed:, some clothes, a journal, a camera, toiletries and some games to play with the Martians. “I hope they like monopoly,” I muttered to myself.

When I arrived on Mars, I thanked the astronaut and lugged my travel bags and headed over to the spherical metallic house with four Martians who seemed to be waiting for someone., I was hoping they were my host family. It took me a while to understand intercept what they were saying, but it turned out that it was almost the same as English:; only the first syllable of each word is added to the end so “Hello” is “Llohe”. They welcomed me with open arms and invited me to their floating home.

Moving around was really hard and I ended up swimming in the air. The Martians’ house seemed small but it was enormous in the interior. The father of the Martians showed me to my room which was very detailed and hi-tech with planets dangling from the ceiling. He told me that his name was Johnny and that his son, Adrian had designed my room. After I had settled down, Adrian introduced me to his younger sister Julianne and we went exploring. Mars was filled with oddly shaped rocks and plants. Adrian told me about the different types of plants that could be found there. My favourite one was the “Sotto Ovio” which was purple in colour and shot puffs of smoke that could turn rocks into jewels.

We were going to continue our journey when Adrian’s mother, Sylvia called us in for lunch. As I entered their house, my feet touched the ground again as the Martians had planted a gravity chip in their house to enable me to move about easily. Sylvia had set out some tubes that suspiciously looked like toothpaste. Adrian explained, “All the food is stored in tubes because they would float around all over the place if they weren’t. Reluctantly, I unscrewed the cap and squeezed the content into my mouth. My mouth filled with delicious chicken curry. I squeezed the tube once again to find that the course had changed to stir-fry vegetables. The food tubes were all filled with 3-course meals that tasted marvellous.

After our fantastic lunch, Julianne took us to her favourite cove. It was filled with glowing rocks of various colours and there was a beautiful glistering lake in the middle. She told me that it was one of the few places that already had gravity when they first discovered it. She picked up a rock and threw it in the lake. The rock skipped across the lake and formed beautiful colours on it. As it landed on the lake, a note was played and soon a delightful melody filled the room. Julianne told me that she had named it ‘The Skipping Lake’ and that she would come here for fun when she was free.

Apparently, she didn’t tell her brother about it her discovery and they started bickering.

Time flew by and soon it was time for bed. The Martians had a curfew at 10 pm and I took it with them. After all this adventuring, I felt exhausteding and dozed off just as I had lain down on the bed. I dreamt of all the things we had done that day and about the Martians’ appearances. I had always thought that they were green monsters with short legs and a giant head, but it was far from that. Martians were deathly pale with pointed ears on their faces, but the rest of their body would change colour based on their mood and feelings. Apart from that, they were almost the same as humans.

The next day, I woke up early and wanted to get something to drink, so I went to the kitchen, well tried to. I had got lost in the hallways and I couldn’t find my way out of the Martians’ “labyrinth”. So I sat there waiting for one of them to wake up and direct me to the kitchen. A few minutes later, Adrian found me and brought me there. He took out a mug and filled it was some green substance called ‘Nerosia Nectar’. Why doesn’t this drink float around like food does? I thought. He seemed to read my mind and explained, “This is a special mug which keeps anything inside from floating around.” I eagerly took a sip of the drink but it turneds out it was similar to water, only with a hint of fruity taste.

As we were the only ones up, Adrian took me to the game room to play. I was half expecting some video games and paintball guns, but there were some giant Frisbees there instead. Adrian placed one on the floor and hopped on. Immediately the disc soared into the sky as he did a handstand and willed it to circle around my head. I stared at the awesome hover board and tried to join him, but I kept on losing my balance and falling on my coccyx. Adrian gave me some tips on air surfing and soon I could hang ten in the air too.

While we were having a one-on-one race with each other, Johnny barged in and smirked when he saw what we were doing. “Having fun I see? Show her your signature trick, boy. I bet she’ll like it,.” hHe said with excitement. Adrian zoomed around in the air so quickly I couldn’t see clearly. When he was done, there was his signature on flames floating in mid-air. “Martians can control fire,” he told me as flames danced on his palms.

We were in Julianne’s room playing Uno when I asked about the inventor of the Martians’ technology and buildings. It was my fifth day on Mars and I couldn’t help wondering about the amazing inventions there. Julianne mutteredsaid, “Mr Grumblehead did. He’s the best with fire so his works are the most brilliant and detailed but I can’t say the same for his attitude.” “Sis, don’t be rude. Beckenford is only like that because you always play pranks on him and scare the wits out of him,” Adrian countered. “Well you can’t help it if he’s a scaredy-cat,.” Julianne spat.

A week had passed by in a flash and it was time to return to my beloved planet Earth. Julianne said it’dll probably take two weeks to send an email from Mars to Earth and back so we agreed to email “fortweekly”. I wanted to make a special symbol to symbolize our friendship so I decided to use the District 12 hand salute from “The Hunger Games” as it is a sign of peace and thanks. The space shuttle had arrived and just as I was loading my bags onto the rocket, Julianne ran up to me and placed something in my hand. “Remember me,” she whispered. “Always,” I replied. I gave her a bear hug and ruffled her hair. “Goodbye, everyone! Thanks for having me!” I exclaimed as the rocket lifted off into space. I stared at what she had put into my hand:; the jewels we made together strung into a dazzling necklace, a few photos of our discoveries and lastly a handwritten book about all our adventures in English, which must have taken her a lot of time.

I have to go now as I think we are landing on Earth soon. I can’t wait to tell everyone about my experiences. I hope I still remember how to speak English. I have got used to speaking Martian now as it’s actually a really cool language.